2nd Sunday of Easter; John 20:19-31

Christ is risen!

            We call him “Doubting Thomas.”  I don’t know why he has forever been branded with that nickname while the other disciples remained unlabeled.  Certainly there’s no question that he doubted, even refused to believe the testimony of his brother disciples; but, after all, Peter denied Jesus but we don’t call him “Denying Peter.”  Judas betrayed our Lord but we rarely call him, “Betraying Judas.”  But poor Thomas is still lying in his grave, awaiting the resurrection with the label “Doubting Thomas.” 

            But maybe he deserves it, maybe the moniker “Doubting Thomas” is even charitable.  After Jesus had appeared to the other ten disciples in that locked room, Thomas didn’t respond to their testimony by saying, “Now I highly doubt that.  That seems to be a bit preposterous,” leaving room for a glimmer of hope.  No, he boldly proclaims, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”  “I will never believe,” Thomas says.  He really couldn’t put it in stronger language than that.  “I will never believe unless I see the physical evidence, tangible proof.  I demand to see the wounds of the cross, and what’s more I want to stick my fingers into them.”  

            So, what was Thomas’ problem?  It was Thomas who had previously said, when Jesus was about to go back to back to the dangerous place of Bethany to raise Lazarus, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”  Thomas saw the nails driven through Jesus’ hands and feet, He saw the body of His Lord hanging on the tree, he beheld the cross stained with the blood of Jesus, he heard the testimony of the women, probably even saw the empty tomb.  He heard from Jesus Himself that it was absolutely necessary that the Son of Man be handed over into the hands of sinful men but on the third day rise.  So what was Thomas’ problem?  His problem is that he’s exactly like us.

            He’s known as Doubting Thomas; but perhaps we should call him Unbelieving Thomas.  But either way, for his doubting, for his unbelieving, for his hard-headedness, for his dyed-in-the-wool skepticism, we ought to give God eternal thanks because in Thomas we see ourselves.  In Thomas we see our error of insisting that our own experiences are what matter when measuring God’s love.  In Thomas we see how our Lord deals with our sinful unbelief, our insisting on seeing a tangible sign to prove God’s mercy instead of trusting in the comforting Word of the Lord.  In Thomas we see our faith that, at times, is a bruised reed and fainting wick.  For Doubting Thomas and for us seeing is believing.  We trust our eyes instead of our ears. 

            Like Thomas we count these things to be real: a body giving up the spirit, a dead Jesus on the cross, a freshly enclosed tomb.  We count as real our stresses in life, our frustrations at work, our dwindling bank accounts, our own hurts, sufferings, and pains.  These are the things we see and the temptation is to think that God’s holding out on us, doesn’t really love us, or He isn’t really a God of mercy.  For this we should repent.  Repent for coming up with our own litmus test to measure if God really loves you.  Repent for our self-centeredness.  Repent for not trusting what God has spoken to us when He promises that He loves us even unto death – trusting our eyes and ignoring what we hear from our Lord.

With our Lord, believing isn’t seeing.  We live by faith, not by sight – hearing the Words of Jesus and trusting in His Word of promise, not testing them against what we see and experience.  Faith is believing exactly the opposite of what we see.

That’s why we ought to give thanks for Thomas – he’s exactly like us – trusting his eyes, his experience, his senses over – and - above the testimony of Jesus that He would rise again after three days. 

Yet when Christ appears in that locked room the second time, He goes to Thomas and doesn’t chastise him for his doubt, Jesus doesn’t take him by the shirt and give him an angry shake for his skepticism, He doesn’t slap Thomas on the face for his unbelief.  The Lord simply reveals to Thomas His nail-pierced hands, shows him the handiwork left by the spear-wielding soldier.  Jesus goes to Thomas and the first words out of His mouth are words of absolution.  “‘Peace be with you.’  Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side.  Do not disbelieve, but believe.’”

And Thomas, moving his fingers over the Lord’s redeeming scars, believes.  He sees with the eyes of faith who Jesus really is.  His disbelief turns to faith.  His tongue which once spewed forth doubt in His Lord’s promise of death and resurrection now makes the great confession of John’s Gospel, “My Lord and my God.”

This is the way of the Lord, the way of grace and mercy.  He doesn’t leave Thomas crawling about blindly in his unbelief, but reaches out with those scarred hands and pulls Him in close to see Him by faith.  And so it is for you.

He takes your doubts and your fears and your shame and your bitterness and Jesus makes them His own.  And He takes His faith and His hope and His life and His joy and His glory and He makes them your own.  He doesn’t remove your outward troubles; He gives you something better: peace.   His peace.  The peace that flows from His cross and empty tomb to you.  He may leave in place your stresses, your frustrations, your diseases, your pains, your hurts, but He won’t leave your heart empty of His peace.  For that’s what He’s all about: giving to you the peace that surpasses all understanding, the kind of peace that knows that no matter how unfaithful you’ve been, God will never be unfaithful to you.  The kind of peace that knows that no matter how great your sin, Christ’s love and forgiveness is always greater.  The kind of peace that knows that no matter how bad this world may get at times, any suffering here isn’t worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed on the Last Day.  That’s the kind of peace Christ gives: peace of heart when surrounded by ten thousand enemies. 

As real as your doubts, hurts, frustrations, and fears seem to be, faith looks to Christ, beholds His wounds and says, “But the love, mercy, and peace of God is more real.  The blood that was shed on the cross for me is the greater reality.  The resurrection of Jesus for me is as tangible as it gets as His raised body and blood are placed on my tongue.  Those nail - pierced hands and punctured side of my Lord is for me so that His peace is given to me.  No matter what.”  

In Thomas we see ourselves.  We see our own unbelief, our own skepticism, our own putting the Lord to the test.  But in Thomas we see a doubter turned believer through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  We see a man blinded by His own unbelief to a man gifted with the faith to see Jesus as His Lord and God.  So it is for you.  Christ comes to you, not willing to take you by the shirt and shake you in anger, but to come into your midst and speaks a word of forgiveness and peace.  And He has, in your baptisms and through the words of the absolution.  He brings you peace through the proclamation of the Gospel and through His body and blood given and shed for you.  All gifts which flow from the cross.  So that the label that is placed on you isn’t doubter or unbeliever, but baptized, forgiven, and redeemed child of God.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

The Resurrection of Our Lord; Matthew 28:1-10

Christ is Risen!  

            Death is a fool.  The most gullible dope there ever was.  He stared at Jesus, giddy as could be that he would be able to devour the Son of God.  Though he knew that it would be the death of him, he couldn’t help himself but to sink his teeth in deep and swallow our Lord.  But Jesus was his end.

Let’s step back for a moment.  Death’s tyranny started not long after God had completed His creation.  With one bite of forbidden fruit, God’s creation in which He made to be perfect, without disease, pain, hurt, suffering, or death, became mortal; subject to death’s cold sting – victims that he will pick off sooner or later.  But, today, we Christians rejoice.  The alleluias that were silenced throughout Lent are sung loud and proud.  Because death met his match when he faced off with the God-Man Jesus Christ.  In the battle between death and life, death lost in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  And Jesus’ victory over sin, death, and the grave is your victory. 

            Jesus lives and death is dead.

The Son of God, who was mocked, beaten, and crucified; God hung on the tree of the cross dead as dead could be, yet burst forth from the tomb on the third day, not even death could hold him.  Death did his worse, he couldn’t help himself, not only did he take a bite out of our Lord, but in his excitement to consume Christ, he swallowed him whole and choked.  Death bit off more than he could chew when he swallowed Jesus.  Like Jonah and the great fish, our Lord has went down into the belly of the earth but came up from the depths of death to be spit back out onto the earth alive… Just as He said. 

And Jesus did it for you.  He journeyed to the cross for you.  He bore the pain and suffering for you.  He gave Himself into death for you.  And He was raised again for you.  Jesus died but Jesus lives.  Sin and death have been defeated.  Death turned into a temporary state. 

            And because Jesus lives, death can no longer has a claim on you.  He’s been defeated, defanged, declawed, his rough growl turned to a whimper.  Death has lost his sting, the enemy lies in defeat. For Jesus died and rose for you!  Christ has made this our triumphant day! 

The resurrection of Jesus saves you from everything that Adam’s bite ushered in.  Death been made into a pathetic joke.  The grave is no longer a “final resting place” but a bedroom where we and our loved ones rest for a time.  Their souls are today with the Lord, but their bodies sleep in their earthen bedroom to be awakened to new life.  Death has been undone!  He’s been defeated.  He can snarl and scowl all it wants but his teeth have been removed.  Jesus lives and death is dead.

            That’s the good news of Easter: that because Jesus lives, death’s dark grave has been made a temporary resting place, just like Jesus’ tomb that was occupied and then empty.  For those who are in Christ, death no longer has dominion.  He lost.  So, you’ll have your Easter day too.

            The same Jesus who was crucified, died, and raised, will return on the last day and call you from your tomb.  Like Jesus, those who have died in the faith and rest in their earthen bedrooms will wake up, rise from the ground, and be spit back out of the belly of the earth.  Death has lost his grip. 

            Jesus lives and death is dead.  He doesn’t have the final say.  That belongs to our risen Lord who will call you out of the grave.  When it will also be said of you, “He is risen, indeed!”  “She is risen, indeed.” 

That’s what He’s done for you.  He’s won for you forgiveness and eternal life.  Believe it, it’s yours, it’s for you.  Jesus thought you worth it to suffer, to die, and to rise again.  This, the day of resurrection, is our triumphant day, when God gives to us that which we don’t deserve or expect.  But since He loves you with a love that sends Jesus into and out of death for you, He gives His salvation to you.  He defeats death for you.  He opens heaven’s gates wide open for you.  What joy.  Jesus lives and death is dead.  A most blessed Eastertide to all of you.  Amen.

Christ is Risen!

Good Friday

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

            The Lord created the earth, the heavens, and everything in them in six days.  Sunday through Friday, God spoke into existence all that there is: land, sky, flying things, creeping things, swimming things, but on the sixth day of creation, He creates man from the dust of the earth and takes woman from his side.  And after God had finished creating the sky, the earth, the heavens; after He had finished His creation of man on the sixth day – Friday – He relented from creating.  It is finished, the work of creating complete, so God rested on the seventh Day – on Saturday.

            But the perfect creation that God had created out of nothing, with a Word from His mouth, fell.  Sin entered the world and with sin brings with it death and hell.  All of creation is effected, not one person is born without the curse of sin, not one person is conceived deserving anything from God but His wrath and displeasure, death and everlasting hell.  So it is for you. 

God created the earth, the heavens, and all that fills them in six days and rested on the seventh.  But it only took one moment, one bite of forbidden fruit, one act of sinfulness to tarnish God’s perfect creation with sin and death.

But God is merciful.  He doesn’t give what is deserve, instead gives His Son for you.  We gather here to observe the Passion of our Lord.  The thing for which He was born to do; to suffer and to die on the cross for your salvation.  His bloody death is intensely before our eyes for us to behold.  There, we see the cost for our sins; the sins that we so flippantly commit, the sins we’ve planned, the sins that are the evil we don’t want to do but keep on doing.  We just sang in Paul Gerhardt’s beautiful hymn, “I caused your grief and sighing, By evils multiplying.  As countless as the sands.  I Caused the woes unnumbered with which your soul is cumbered.  Your sorrows raised by wicked hands.”  It’s true.  We look down at our hands and they’re red with the blood of Jesus.  My sin is what pinned Jesus to the cross.

            Yet, this day isn’t about feeling guilt for Jesus’ sake.  He doesn’t go to the cross so that you would feel shame.  Jesus didn’t allow Himself to be nailed to the cross that we would look at His lifeless body and think, “What have I done!”

Jesus’ cross isn’t about feeling guilt over what our sins cost; rather, it’s about your forgiveness, your salvation being complete, it is finished.  On the sixth day, Friday, God created man, so too, on the sixth day, Friday, God redeemed man.  On the seventh day, Saturday, God rested from His labor of creation, so too, on the seventh day, Saturday, the Lord, rests from His labors of redemption in the tomb. 

We call it Good Friday because from the cross all good things flow.  He’s there on the cross for you.  He’s there for your salvation, for your redemption.  He’s there to set right that what went so wrong in the garden.  He’s there for you.

Today the Creator redeems His creation.  He gives His life up on the cross.  He was buried.  He rested in the tomb from His labor of redeeming you.  But He didn’t stay there.  We wait and we watch, for on the first day, Sunday, the dawning of a new week, our Lord will be raised to new life, just as He said.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Maundy Thursday; Exodus 24:3-11

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

People say that there’s no such thing as heaven on earth.  They’re partially right.  We live in a fallen world, with all its pains and heartaches, troubles and trials and so it will be until Christ returns.  There’s no such thing as a utopia here on earth, there will never be lasting peace; and no matter how many vintage Coke commercials you see, the world will never sing in harmony. 

            We’re idealists; we would like to think that for one moment in time the world would stop its fighting, stop the warring, stop the madness and live in peace and harmony; live like it was heaven on earth.  But there’s one problem with that idealistic thought: we’re sinners and sinners don’t get along all the time.  Not even in our homes amongst our loved ones, our family, and friends is there peace all the time.  Even our own dining room tables often resemble the opposite of our idealistic nothing of heaven on earth.  So if there can’t even be lasting peace within our homes, how can we expect there to be peace and unity throughout the world?  And even if we could subdue our sinful natures for a time, there’s the devil stirring up disharmony.   We’re sinners, on our own there’s nothing but discord. 

But even though there will never be an earthly utopia until the New Heaven and New Earth, there is such a thing as heaven on earth, but it has nothing to do with sinful people ceasing to be sinful people.  It has nothing to do with us and everything to do with God.

In our text for this evening, Moses took half of the blood of the sacrifice and splashed it on the altar of God and then threw the other half on the people.  “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord ahs made with you in accordance with all these words.”  A covenant God made with the people.  Not a two-way street where the people keep their end and God will keep his end.  A covenant that God made with His people where He takes the burden and fulfills both ends of the deal.  There was no participation of the people, God simply makes them His people and He their God. 

And as the people were standing there covered in the blood of the sacrifice, Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of the elders went up the mountain and saw the radiance of God.  Though their feet remain firmly on terra firma – solid ground – “they saw the God of Israel.  There was under His feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.  And He did not lay His hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.” 

There you have it.  Heaven on earth, but it didn’t come about by Moses, Aaron, or any other person, by because God was there.  These men don’t just see God from a distance, like a fly on the wall or peeking out from under a bed, but the Lord of Heaven and earth, in this heavenly scene, eats with them.  An act of intimacy.  An act of love. 

Heaven is wherever Jesus is for His people.  At the advent of Christ, He proclaims, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  It’s at hand because Jesus brings with Him heaven.  When Moses, Aaron, and the other men of Israel see this heavenly scene it’s not the sapphire pavement, or the majesty of it all that makes it heaven.  It’s heaven because Jesus is there, even eating with them. 

We’re sinners who, of our own, can’t even begin to create a heavenly utopia on earth.  But we don’t have to.  Like the people of Israel, we’re covered in the blood of the sacrificed Lamb of God, which has made our robes soiled with sin white as snow.  We have heaven on earth as Jesus Himself comes to us, here on the altar, under bread and wine and shares a supper with us where He is both host and meal.  At the altar we kneel as Moses, Nadab, and Abihu stood as God came into their presence.

Heaven is wherever Jesus is for you and, though we may not see pavement of sapphire, or glory and majesty like Moses beheld, the Lord’s Supper is heaven on earth for Jesus is there forgiving your sins.  The blood that was shed on the cross He gives you to drink.  The body that was crucified and raised from the dead, He gives you to eat.

The spotless Lamb of God has been sacrificed on the altar of the cross for you once for all.  And His body and His blood, He gives to you in a meal in which He is both host and entrée.  The benefits of forgiveness and eternal life which He won for you on the cross, are brought to you here and now and placed on your tongue.  For in the Supper, your hand and your mouth are the sapphire pavement which He desires to walks.

People say that there’s no such thing as heaven on earth.  In a sense, they’re right; sinful man will never be able to create it.  But tonight heaven dips down to you and for you.  The crucified and risen Jesus comes to you this night for you.  The blood of Jesus that He sheds on the cross and places into our mouths is your salvation.  The Lamb goes to the altar of the cross for you.  Your sins are covered and paid for in His blood in which He has bathed you in and gives and sheds for you. 

 Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.