Quasimodo Geniti, the 1st Sunday after Easter + John 20:19-31 + April 8, 2018

Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The first part of today’s gospel lesson occurred on the evening of the day Christ was raised from the dead. The disciples had heard the report of Mary and the other women who had found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. The doors are locked because they feared the same Jews who had arrested and crucified their Lord. Perhaps they reasoned that as word of Jesus’ resurrection got out, the Jews would come for them next. They also had fears within themselves. Each of them had, after all, fled from Jesus in the Gethsemane garden. Peter had even drew his sword and cut off a man’s ear. He later followed Jesus to the High Priest’s home where he publicly denied Christ three times. It was in the midst of their fear and guilt that the resurrected Christ suddenly appeared in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” He goes on to show them His hands and His feet, where the nails had fastened Him to His cross. He shows them His side where the spear had pierced His corpse so that blood and water gushed out, proving that He had really died. He has the markings of a corpse. Yet He stands before them very much alive, just as the women had told them. Not only was He alive, but His words showed Him to be gracious and forgiving. That simple phrase, “peace be with you,” showed the conscience-stricken disciples what kind of Messiah they had; gentle, humble, and desiring to forgive their sins against Him.

After showing them His hands and side He says to them again, “peace be with you.” But He immediately adds, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” As Jesus was God the Father’s representative to mankind, so the disciples were to be Christ’s representatives to the world. St. John wrote in John 1:18, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Jesus revealed God the Father, whom no one has ever seen. Now these men are ordained so that they may reveal Jesus, whom the world will not see, to the world. They are, by any standards, completely inadequate. They had fled from Him in His moment of need. One of them had publically denied Him. None of them had understood His words that predicted His death and resurrection. They were not sufficient of themselves for this holy office. No man is. So Jesus makes them sufficient for His calling. “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” He gives them His Holy Spirit and makes them sufficient for their holy office of being ones sent specifically by Christ to speak the gospel of Christ. That is what “apostle” means, “sent one.” He sends them, He gives them the Holy Spirit so that they may go forth as His representatives and speak on His behalf.

What are they to speak on Christ’s behalf? He says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” He ordains them to preach the gospel to the whole world. They are to go forth with the message that in Christ there is perfect remission for every sin committed. They are sent with the same message that Christ spoke to them when He appeared in their midst in that room. “Peace be with you.” Peace with God on account of Christ’s atoning death. By His suffering and death He satisfied the wrath of God against sinners. Isaiah had foretold, “The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Christ earned peace with God for all men upon the cross by dying for the sins of all men. The apostles, as Christ’s representatives, are sent to proclaim that suffering and that death for the sins of the world, so that all who believe in Christ and trust in His sufferings and death for their sake might receive all the benefits that Christ’s earned for them on the cross. All who believe this gospel are justified by faith and receive the forgiveness of all their sins. Because their sins are forgiven by faith in Christ, they have peace with God. There is no wrath for those who believe, no condemnation, no judgment because by faith God declares them righteous. They are thus proclaimers of the same peace which Christ preached to them that first Easter.

In this God shows that He wants to forgive men their sins. But He wants them first to repent of their sins and if they will not repent, then those sins are to be retained. The gospel is not the message that God has forgiven all men at the cross, regardless of whether they believe it or not. The Lord God does not declare the entire world righteous at the resurrection of Jesus. He atones for the sins of the whole world and He is risen from the grave so that He might justify when whenever we believe the gospel of the perfect life and innocent, bitter sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. He wants the gospel to be preached by the apostles and believed by the men who hear it, so that by believing they can be saved. John says it so simply. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God’ (John 3:16, 18). He wants all men everywhere to repent of their sins. He wants them to confess their sins to God, to be sorry for them so that they want to be rid of them and be better people. He does not forgive the sinner who imagines he has no sin, nor does He justify the sinner who refuses to admit His sin and flee to Christ for refuge against the wrath he deserves. This is why He tells His apostles to retain sins, so that sinners might see the severity of their sins and truly repent.

This office was given to the apostles and it continues in the church throughout the ages. It has continued even unto this day and will continue until the Last Day. Nothing that the Lord ordains will end before its proper time. This ministry given to the apostles continues through the Office of the Holy Ministry, or what we today call the pastoral office. God still calls men just as He did on the evening of His resurrection. He still calls sinful men who are entirely insufficient in themselves because of their sins. But He gives them His Holy Spirit so that they might still forgive the sins of those who are penitent and retain the sins of the impenitent when that becomes necessary. This is why I stand before you. I do not stand here and preach, forgive sins, retain sins, baptize, and administer the Lord’s Supper by my own authority. I stand here “in the stead and by the command” of Christ Jesus our Lord. I am no more sufficient of myself than the apostles were. Yet like them, I have been called and ordained by Christ, not directly but by Him through His Church. This is the reason I stand before you weekly, hear your confession and say, “As a called and ordained servant of the Word I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” This is the reason Luther teaches us in the Small Catechism that when we once we confess our sins we “receive absolution, or forgiveness, from the confessor, as from God Himself, and in no wise doubt, but firmly believe, that our sins are thereby forgiven before God in heaven.” You have no reason to doubt in your heart or dispute with yourself as to where you stand with God when you confess your sins. You have His Word, spoken from His representative, so that each time you hear your pastor’s absolution you hear Christ saying to you what He said to the paralytic in Matthew 9:2, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” “Peace be with you.”

It’s after all this that John tells us, “Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.” Not only wasn’t Thomas there, but when He hears the words of the other disciples, Thomas will have none of it. He saw Lazarus come forth from His tomb when Jesus called his name. He heard Jesus tell them that He would die and then rise on the third day. But unless He sees the nail markings and puts his finger into them, unless he puts his hand into Jesus’ riven side, He will not believe it. So a week later, Thomas is with the other ten and Jesus appears again. And so that Thomas think that He is beyond the of Christ’s mercy, Jesus says again, “peace be with you.” To unbelieving Thomas He says, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And that does it. It is necessary that Thomas be an eyewitness to the resurrection so that he may be counted among the apostles and be a representative of Christ. He believes with the heart and confesses with his lips a pure confession of who Christ is: “My Lord and my God.”

All these things happened in this way so that we might not be as Thomas was, recalcitrant and unbelieving when we heard the Lord’s representatives speak His Word. The ten proclaimed to Him Christ’s resurrection and He would not believe without seeing it. But even doubting, unbelieving Thomas can be forgiven, and was forgiven by Christ, even as all the other doubting and unbelieving disciples had been forgiven. Jesus wants us to believe the gospel of His atoning death and resurrection, not because we see Christ or experience a feeling. He wants us to hear the Word of His representatives. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” The apostle John wrote His testimony of Jesus with that intent. “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” It is by faith in Christ whom you have not seen that you are truly blessed with the forgiveness of all your sins and everlasting life. It is by faith in Christ whom you have not seen that you are able to confess with Thomas, “My Lord and my God.” It is by faith in Christ crucified and resurrected that you receive the peace that Christ earns for you on Calvary’s cross.

May that same peace of God, which passes all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.