The Second Sunday of Easter

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[John 20:19-23] On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”

Then They Were Glad

Uncertainty creates great anxiety, or fear as the disciples experienced. Not knowing what will be next – nor when next will come, how long? Knowing you face something, but not knowing how it will turn out, good or bad. Uncertainty. It makes for fear and stress. Worry.

Ten of the now eleven disciples [Luke 24:9] were gathered indoors on the evening of that first Easter, uncertain about what was about to happen to them, uncertain about the news they heard that morning, and full of fear. The doors were locked.

What was coming next? Jesus, the Son of God, was crucified and killed at the hands of their kinsmen, their community, and the religious power-holders – and the civil authority, that Roman governor, handed Him over to nails and spear knowing He broke no law.

If this could happen to the innocent Son of God, what would happen to them? How many saw them with Him? “You are not also one of His disciples, are you?” they had asked Peter. Perhaps they were all being searched for?

And what about the news that morning, that Jesus is alive again? Peter and John saw the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene reported that she saw the Lord alive [John 20:18]. But was this true or a wishful hope, or an idle tale as some of the eleven thought? [Luke 24:11] Among the disciples there was both belief and doubt – certainly within each of them. [Matthew 28:17]

Earlier on, when they still walked with Jesus, He spoke of His coming cross, and they expressed their willingness to go and die with Him [Matthew 26:35] – and to be rejected with Him, and mocked with Him, surely. But it’s easy to say. Now that they really faced the possibility in real life, they are perhaps more fearful than they thought they would be.

Uncertainty. And if that morning’s report is true and He is risen, that creates another layer of uncertainty. What’s next? And what will it mean for them when they face Him? Will they have to face Him?

Only one of these disciples, John, had stayed with Jesus (and with His mother) on Good Friday. The others fled and left Him during His last and most critical hours. One denied Him, three times. They did not act with bravery or with courage when things got real the night He was betrayed and the day He died.

What shame will they face if they face Him? Jesus had said, “Everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven” [Matthew 10:32-33]. They failed that test! And now He’s alive.

What is coming when we face Him as people who have fallen short? Fallen short of love for Him, short of strong faith in Him in the face of trouble? Or uncertainty? Uncertainty about how the Lord is going to feel about me makes me, then, much more uncertain and fearful about everything else.

So, the disciples hide behind locked doors, afraid.

But then Jesus came! The doors were locked. But He came and stood among them! And the first word out of His mouth? “Peace.” “Peace be with you.” All those things they had done wrong and all they failed to do went unmentioned. Forgiven. “Peace be with you.”

This peace was all found in the wounds of Jesus. “When He had said this” – Peace be with you – “He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” Risen and living, He had the scars, the marks – the reminders – which put in their minds what He had done for them on that cross.

Coupled with those words of Jesus, these were the signs – not of their guilt – but of the peace He made for them by His atoning sacrifice for their sins. This living one was the lamb slain, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” as they had been told from the beginning [John 1:29] – And the Passover Lamb who will make death pass over them.

At the sight of those marks in His hands and side, taken together with His word of peace, they were then glad to see the Lord and their fear melted away. They saw it with their eyes that night. And then Jesus will say to Thomas, and to you and me, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” [John 20:24-31]. Blessed are you.

In this life, for us – since His ascension – Jesus does not show His wounds to our eyes but only to our ears. Faith is by hearing. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” [2 Corinthians 5:7]. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” [Hebrews 11:1].

The avenue for the Holy Spirit’s miracle of faith in Christ in our hearts is through our ears, not our eyes. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” [Romans 10:17].

And John himself said this about the writing of his Gospel, “…these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” [John 20:30-31]. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God, the Scriptures. And that faith does come.

And that word of peace from Jesus is proclaimed. The living, risen Jesus was sent to His disciples in that room that evening to proclaim peace to them. And then Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.” “And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.’” [John 20:21-23]

Jesus’ word of peace is for your ears, here and now, in the words of Absolution. After we confess our sins, we then hear, in our ears, the Lord’s same word of peace, but in the mouth of those sent by Him to serve, “As a called and ordained servant of Christ, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Peace be with you. Blessed are those who believe.

“By believing you have life in His name” and certainty in your life. “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” [Romans 8:32]

God’s love seen in the wounds of Jesus, for you, gives certainty in all things. If He has cared for you in eternal things, how will He not also care for you in earthly things? He made this earthly life too and cares about you in it.

You don’t always know what’s next. But you do know God’s love for you in Jesus Christ. So, not fear, but Peace be with you – and be glad. Amen.