Sermon manuscript:
On the evening of Easter Jesus appeared to his disciples. He
said to them, “Peace to you.” We have a hard time grasping what Jesus
says to us here. It is almost standard operating procedure for us to not think
very highly of something when it does not seem to be needed. We don’t
appreciate health until we are sick. We don’t appreciate good weather until
we’ve had weeks of gray skies. So it is also with peace.
There’s another problem with peace: we use the word too
much. The same thing happens with the word “love.” Using words a lot seems to
degrade the meaning of them. We want world peace. We want peace for our times.
The hippies had a peace sign. So what is peace? Is it being cool? Is it the
advance of modern civilization? Is it non-violence?
Peace is a grand word, again, like the word “love.” Both of
these words loom large in God’s plan. Heaven is a place of peace and love.
Practically all the blessings that we use have the word “peace” in them. “Grace,
mercy, and peace to you…” “The peace of God that surpasses all
understanding…” “The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you
peace.” All these blessings are actually quotations from Scripture. It is
God’s will that you should have peace. That’s why he does what he does—so that
his people may be blessed with peace. So peace is grand and heavenly.
At the same time peace is simple. Babies understand peace.
When babies are hurt or frightened they cry in a certain way. It is a very sad
thing when babies cry like that. We want to comfort them. And we are very
thankful and joyful when that baby is blessed by peace. Mom picks him up and
familiarity floods the baby’s senses. He knows the smell, he knows the feel, he
hears the sound, he knows he’s safe. Peace is simple. At the same time it is
profound.
Jesus says, “Peace to you.” Peace is bestowed upon the
disciples by the Jesus whom they know. He shows them his hands, his feet, and
his side. This is the same Jesus who hung on the cross and died. Now he is
there, they know him, and he is giving them peace.
As far as how they felt, this was a great change and a great
blessing. Prior to this they had no peace. Not only were they severely
disturbed by what had happened to Jesus, whom they had thought was the Christ,
but they were concerned for their own skin. The doors were locked for fear of
the Jews. The peace that Jesus brought them was not unlike the peace that a
mother gives her baby.
At the same time, Jesus’s peace is powerful. A person might
wonder, how long is this peace going to last? Forever and ever. Do you see his
hands and he feet? He died for your sin. He was raised for your justification.
The apostle Paul says, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Things have changed.
God is no longer angry at us for our sins, having punished
our sins in the Lord Jesus. Death has lost its sting. It is not the expression
of terror and wrath that it otherwise would be as God’s punishment for our sin.
This is because we are no longer under the Law. If we were under the Law, then
it would howl and cry out for our punishment. If we were put on trial, and the
things that we have done were brought up for judgment, then we would prefer
that the mountains fall on us rather than face the shame. And we haven’t even
said anything about the punishment that justice should demand. According to the
Law there is only peace where the Law has been fulfilled. If the Law has not been
fulfilled there is only wrath and punishment.
Along these lines let us notice again Jesus’s words and his
actions. He says “Peace to you.” He doesn’t say “Wrath to you” or “Woe
to you.” If the Law and our actions were
the deciding factor, then there would be no way for him to say “Peace to you.”
He’d have to say, “Woe to you.” Honesty and truthfulness would demand it. But
Jesus honestly and truthfully says, “Peace to you.” That is an
authoritative word. He can say it, and he means it.
Then Jesus shows them the wounds of his crucifixion. Perhaps
this is partly done so that they know that it is indeed Jesus. But there is
more to it than that I think. Those wounds were created by God’s wrath for sin.
As Paul says, “Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us.” Although he
himself was sinless, he became sin, taking upon himself all of our sin—down to
every single misdeed and every hidden, shameful thing. Then he was punished in
our place.
It is almost as if he became the lightning rod and all of
God’s wrath and punishment came crashing down upon him at the cross so that the
impossible happened: God died. God died, so that we might live. Or, to use the
language we are considering today, so that we may live in God’s peace.
John says that the disciples rejoiced when they saw the
Lord. Indeed. They knew that Jesus loved them. If they had any doubt about that
they had Jesus’s own words: “Peace to you.” This is also how you not
only should face the prospect of
seeing our Lord Jesus Christ, but it is how you must face that prospect. To do otherwise would be to call Jesus a
liar when he says, “Peace to you.” He’s not lying. He really means it.
He has the authority to say it. The wounds on his hands and his feet and his
side are the proof that he’s paid for it.
Here let me say something about things I’ve preached and
taught. I’m sure you’re well aware of it. I often and forcefully speak about
the grandeur and awesomeness of God. I speak about how terrible it is to fall
into the hands of the living God. I speak about how heaven is where God lives,
and all our attention is going to be devoted to him. It is neither safe nor
right to pretend that anybody can get away with ignoring God. I see this as a
very common and fatally false opinion in our times and so I use every weapon I
can to fight against it.
While this is all true, and I have no intention of taking
any of it back, you must also believe what Jesus says to you today. Jesus’s
words are at the heart of everything. It is the reason why the Father sent his
Son. It is the reason why Jesus did all he did. It is the reason why Jesus does
all that he does as he rules his kingdom from the right hand of God the Father.
Jesus’s peace be unto you. Do not face the prospect of meeting God with dread.
Do not face the prospect of meeting Jesus with dread. He is your friend. He
loves you. He wants to be with you and he wants you to be with him. That is why
he has reconciled you to God.
But, but, but what about my sins? I’m not ignoring your
sins. I know some of you are some real hard-boiled sinners. I don’t care how
hard-boiled you are, you are not stronger than Jesus. All sins have been atoned
for, including all of your sins. It doesn’t matter how stinky or disgusting
those sins might be. Jesus suffered and died for them.
The severity of this task is what made him stagger. He sweat
blood when he prayed in the Garden. He couldn’t carry his own cross all the way
to Golgotha. He was stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he attained
the victory.
So I don’t intend to ignore your sin. That’s the old Adam’s
way of dealing with sin. He buries it in the land of forgetfulness and hopes
that it will never again rise to the surface. Your sins made Jesus suffer.
God’s wrath was poured out upon him instead of upon you. But Jesus did this
willingly and gladly.
It’s like how the old hymn goes: “A Lamb goes uncomplaining
forth, the guilt of sinners bearing. And, laden with the sins of earth, none
else the burden sharing; Goes patient on, grows weak and faint, to slaughter
led without complaint, That spotless life to offer, He bears the stripes, the
wound, the lies, the mockery and yet replies, ‘All this I gladly suffer.’”
So when Jesus says, “Peace to you,” you must know
that he speaks the truth. Apply it to yourself. He wants you to apply it to yourself.
That’s why he has brought you here to hear this Word in this Christian
congregation. He wants you to believe it. He wants you to look forward to
seeing him, face to face, and for you to have joy, just like these disciples
had joy.
So with this first part of
Jesus’s interaction with the disciples we have a cheerful and merry application
of Easter, delivered to the disciples with the words, “Peace to you.”
Now let’s say a little bit about
what he does after that. He repeats the words, “Peace to you.” Then he
says, “As the Father has sent me, so also I’m sending you.” After this he
breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whenever you forgive
people’s sins, they are forgiven. Whenever you do not forgive them, they are
not forgiven.” Here we have the work of the Christian Church very simply
laid out for us. What are we to be about? Just as we have received the peace of
Jesus, so also we are to pass that peace along to others.
There is one description of what
the Christian Church is like that I think sums it up quite nicely: We are like
beggars who tell other beggars where they can get good bread. Even the apostles
were sinners. But God revealed to them that in Jesus there is peace. This is
the very same thing that we speak to others.
Jesus tells the apostles that
the sins they forgive are forgiven. The sins they do not forgive are not
forgiven. This is the same thing that Jesus speaks of elsewhere when Peter
makes the good confession that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus says, “To you are
given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be
bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
All Christians, that is, all who
make the same confession that Peter made—that Jesus is the Christ—have the
keys. This is an authority that Christians have. They can authoritatively
forgive, and it is truly God’s forgiveness. They can authoritatively bind sins,
and those sins are bound. It is as Jesus says in another place, “He who
hears you, hears me.”
And so all people better prick
up their ears when Christians are speaking to them. The way that God generally
deals with us is by speaking to us through his Christians. So if you are told
to repent, and what is said is in accord with God’s Word, then you best repent.
And if the pronouncement of forgiveness is spoken to you, then blessed are you
when you believe it—you are truly forgiven.
This is the way that God wants
to deal with us. He wants to deal with us sinners through other sinners who
have been forgiven. He wants us to be baptized. He wants us to eat and drink
his body and blood. If he wanted to deal with us in some other way, then surely
he could. In fact, this is one of the reasons why people refuse to believe in
Christ. They don’t want to believe in his humble ceremonies that deliver
salvation with simple water and ordinary bread and wine. They don’t want to
believe that God speaks through the sinful man, woman, or child who speaks
authoritatively according to his Word. They want God to speak from heaven with
thunder and lightning, then they would believe in him, so they think.
Well, it’s not really up to us
to decide the way that God should want to do things. We are much better off
simply believing what he has revealed. We should believe him, even when he
speaks through lowly beggars.
In this regard we can finish up
with the example of Thomas. Thomas didn’t want to believe the testimony his
fellow apostles gave him. He proudly declared that he would never believe
unless he smashed his fingers into Jesus’s wounds and shoved his hand into
Jesus’s side. Jesus could have left him be with his unbelief. Don’t play games
with God. Don’t put the Lord your God to the test. But Jesus did have mercy on
him. He appeared a week later, and with the utmost gentleness urged Thomas not
to disbelieve, but to believe. “Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet
believed,” Jesus says. Blessed are you, therefore, when you believe.
Remember, though, that we shall
not have to continue to believe without seeing forever. Now we believe without
seeing, but one day we will be in basically the same position as Thomas was. We
will see Jesus with our own eyes. He is your friend. He wants to be with you
and he wants you to be with him. I wonder if we might then say, “My Lord,
and my God!”
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