Easter 5 – 29 April 2018 – Year B

Grace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 15^thChapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 1-8:

 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷ If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

Just a few days ago we saw the memory Australia’s own ‘Crocodile Hunter’; the late Steve Irwin, venerated in the form of a star bearing his name embedded into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Whilst there are endless stories of Steve’s achievements in his short action-packed life, one of the most profound memories I have of him is a quote about human connection. “My dad taught me from my youngest childhood memories through these connections with Aboriginal and tribal people that you must always protect people's sacred status, regardless of the past”.To me these words are not just relevant to Australia and it’s history, but fundamental to effective intercultural connection worldwide.

Today is a day to talk about connections. Our Gospel reading focuses on connection – our connection with Jesus Christ.  Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” Just as a branch must receive its life from the vine so we must receive our life from Jesus.

Now you would think this would be simple enough to do.  Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I in you.” This should be simple, but it often isn’t.

Perhaps the problem we have with this command lies in that word abide.  Abide is one of those words that does not conform to our busy modern lives.  It sort of sounds impressive – like it is some sort of special spiritual activity. It sounds like it might be tough to do. After all, it is something that has to happen if we are to remain connected to Jesus.

The fact is that in its’ New testament Greek context, abide,is a passive verb that simply means, “To remain; to live with; or just stay with”. To abideis to be present in a passive or submissive way.  It is as if Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit has given faith to you and put you right where you need to be.  Submit to that and accept it.”  One would think that would not be too hard to do.

In actual practice, it is something very hard to do.  Our sinful pride always wants recognition and is always trying to take credit for contributing at least a little bit to its own salvation.  Therefore, our sinful nature is not satisfied to just let Jesus do all the work.  Our sinful nature just doesn’t want us to believe that Jesus’ perfect life and His suffering and death on a cross are enough.  Even though Jesus shouted, “It is finished,” just before He died, our sinful nature refuses to believe it.  Our sinful nature wants us to believe that Jesus has done His part and now we must add our little effort into the mix.

This is really the foundation of confusion, hatred and the carnage of war and terrorism. Worldwide, humans have worshipped a god of their own making; a god that requires action in return for salvation; a god that is entirely intolerant of the ‘Sacred Status” of others and leads them to violence. This is not new; God’s people were seriously challenged by the worshippers of the false god Baal in Old Testament times; God used the prophet Elijah to eradicate them as recorded in 1 Kings. Still to this very day Christianity is strongly opposed by some who follow false gods of organised religious bodies and those secular people who pursue power and wealth. Sadly, also there any many who claim to be of the Christian Faith who reject the free grace of Jesus in favour of laws set down to earn their own salvation.

 When we try to do our part to save ourselves, we are like autumn leaves.  In the autumn, each leaf grows a membrane that cuts off the supply of nutrients from the plant.  In a little while, it dies, the chlorophyll dissipates so that they lose their green colour, and then they fall from the tree.

When we put forth an effort to save ourselves from our own sin, we only cut ourselves off from the life-giving nutrition that comes from Jesus Christ.  We put up a membrane of idolatry that cuts us off from the source of our salvation.  We cut ourselves off from Christ.  Jesus Himself tells us what happens to branches that cut themselves off from Him. He said, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit [the Father] takes away.  If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”  This is a very terrifying prospect – to be dried, gathered, and thrown into the fire of hell because we do not abide in Christ.

From today’s Gospel, we learn that it is very good, as far as our salvation is concerned, to be in Christ in peaceful faith.  That being the case, we could well question how is it that we come into Christ in the first place?  If every effort we put forward only serves to drive us away from Christ, how do we end up in Christ?  This is where the Holy Spirit comes into the picture.

When the emanant 16^thCentury Theologian Dr Martin Luther talked about the work of the Holy Spirit, he said, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, and sanctified me in the one, true faith.”  The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write, ^{[Romans 8:7]}“The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.”  He also wrote, ^{[1 Corinthians 2:14]}“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”And again, he said, ^{[1 Corinthians 12:3]}“Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.”  From these verses we learn that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to place us into Christ Jesus so that we may abide in Him.

All of us are born like dead branches lying on the ground.  The Father who is the caretaker of the vineyard sends the Holy Spirit to graft us into the Jesus Christ, the true vine.  It is the Holy Spirit who brings us to life in Jesus Christ.

How is this done? For many of us, this happened at baptism. Again, the Apostle Paul said, ^{[Romans 6:3-4]}“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Through baptism, God makes us His own with water and the Word of God.  The Holy Spirit works in that word to join us to Christ.

Through baptism Christ’s suffering and crucifixion become our suffering and crucifixion. When God looks at us, He sees the work of Jesus Christ’s suffering and crucifixion and applies it to our account. Just as the vinedresser cuts the vine in order to graft in a branch so also Jesus was cut so that we might become part of Him.  We begin life as a branch of the vine of sin and death, but God cut us away from that vine and grafted us into the vine of life – Jesus Christ.  God the Father is the vinedresser.  He is the one who sent His only begotten son into the world, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ^{[John 3:16]}  He is the one who gives us the Holy Spiritto be with [us] forever. ^{[John 14:16]}It is God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who work together to save us and to give us faith in that salvation.  God is the one who grafts us into the vine through faith.  He is the one who nourishes us with His forgiveness, life, and salvation.  He is the one who produces the fruit in and through us.

From time to time someone will tell me that they are not good enough to go to church.  They will tell me that they will try to improve their lives and then they will come to church.  That would be like a branch trying to produce a grape in order to earn a place on the vine.

Instead, the fruits of the Spirit begin at the vine – Jesus Christ.  Just as the vine is cut so that the branch can be grafted in place, so also Jesus Christ was cut so that we could be adopted into His family. Just as the vine must build up the branch with nourishment, so also Jesus Christ builds us up with His Word and the Body and Blood of the Sacrament.  Just as the nourishment of the vine eventually produces fruit from the branch, so also, the forgiveness and salvation that flow from Jesus Christ produce fruit in us.  Jesus said, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” Remain in Christ and see what He will do.  Amen.

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Easter 4 – 22 April 2018 – Year B

 Grace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 10^thChapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 11 – 18:

¹¹ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³ He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. ¹⁴ I am the good shepherd.  I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ And I have other sheep that are not of this fold.  I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷ For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

When Jesus uses word pictures like parables, metaphors, or other figures of speech, He could be perceived by some as someone who is eccentric. In the parable of the sower, the sower throws seed everywhere, not just on the good soil.  In the parable of the unforgiving servant, the king forgives a debt of 10,000 talentswhich is just an unimaginable amount of money.  In the parable of the vineyard, the owner pays everyone the same wage regardless of how long they worked.  In the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, the Land Owner sent His own Sonto collect the rent from tenants who had alreadykilled His servants.  These are just a few of the seemingly eccentric characters who represent God in Jesus’ parables.

Today, we heard Jesus describe Himself as the Good Shepherd. We are so used to hearing about Jesus as the Good shepherd that we don’t truly examine what The Good Shepherd Jesus said about Himself or about us.  When we listen more closely we discover that Good Shepherd Jesus is a very unconventional shepherd.

The New Testament Greek has more than one word that translates as ‘good’ in English.  One word is Agathos,and this means competent, professional, skilled, and so forth.  The other word is Kalos, and this word means noble, heroic, excellent, and so forth.  When Jesus refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd, He means that He is (Kalos), the excellent, noble, and heroic shepherd.  He is not merely competent, professional, or skilled.  Talk of a shepherd who was excellent, noble, and heroic would seem a bit eccentric to the average person in first century Israel.

Shepherds in first century Israel were not raising flocks full of beloved pets.  They exploited the sheep.  They used the sheep primarily for wool, mutton, and sacrifices.  The reason they watched over the sheep was not because they loved the sheep, but because sheep were the source of their income.  They had families that needed food, clothing, and shelter.  The sheep were the source of those things.  When a predator began stalking the flock, the shepherd was NOT really concerned for the sheep directly.  He was concerned because the predator was taking food off his children’s table and the clothes off their backs.  That predator was affecting his income which was affecting his family’s standard of living. When a shepherd was good or competent, his sheep were healthy so that they produced plenty of wool or so that they gained plenty of weight when it was time to sell them to the butcher. It’s the same for beef and sheep farmers today, yet, how many of us meat eaters have felt sorry for the stock when they see a truck loaded with live stock headed for the abattoirs?

Shepherds have always defended their flocks from predators, but they don’t do it because they love the sheep.  They kill or drive off the predators because they want to provide for their families.  A shepherd might get killed by a predator, but it is an accident, and he does not go down without a fight.  He most certainly DOES NOTwillingly lay down his life for the sheep.

In the Gospel reading we heard Jesus describe Himself as the Good Shepherd … that is the noble, heroic shepherd; the ‘kalos’ sheherd.  He said,^{(John 10:11)}“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus described Himself as the shepherd who loves his sheep by willingly surrendering His life for them.  This sets The Good Shepherd Jesus apart from all other shepherds.

Denominational and religious theology generally falls into one of two categories, one is Law based and the other is Gospel based.  The ‘Legalist’ are those who teach self-salvation (good in an ‘Agathos’ or self-serving way) … you must do something in order to earn all or part of your own salvation.  There are a wide variety of activities in these denominations and religions … meditations, quests, self-punishment, fasting, right thinking, right talking, self-improvement, moral character, and on and on and on, but they all boil down to yousaving yourself.  For those who cling to the Gospel, the true religion, Christianity, practiced in accordance with Holy Bible in its’ unmodified format, experience the joy and love of the only religion where God takes on human flesh and then declares that Hewill surrender Hislife in order to save His creation. These are the people who strive to be good in the ‘kalos’loving, caring and noble way.

Furthermore, the shepherd who is merely a competent shepherd cares for his sheep because of what he can get from the sheep … food and clothing, but The Good Shepherd Jesus does not need anything from the sheep.  He defends the sheep with His lifesimply because He loves the sheep.

It is good that Good Shepherd Jesus who loves His sheep and surrendered His life for them.  For we are the sheep that He speaks of in His figure of speech, and we have powerful enemies.

We just heard Good Shepherd Jesus speak of the wolf.  The fact is that even if the shepherd trains up his sheep and feeds them muscle building supplements, the sheep is not going to be able to take on the wolf.  If the sheep has to defend itself, the wolf will have an easy lunch.  The wolves that come after us are sin, death, and the devil.

Sin, death, and the devil are allies.  Death is the result of our sin; ^{(Romans 6:23)}“for the wages of sin is death”. That is one of the many sad facts of death.  It is our sin that opened the door to let death into our world.  Every time we make ourselves more important than God … anytime our feelings are more important than God’s Word … anytime we exploit our neighbour instead of loving them … anytime we refuse to forgive … anytime we listen to gossip … anytime we murder with thoughts of hate … anytime we want our way instead of God’s way … anytime we rationalise our sin … these are ways that we open the door to this world and allow death and the devil to rule in our lives. It is as the Apostle Paul told the church in Rome: ^{(Romans 5:12)}“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” — Death is one thing that we have in common with everyone. Everyone dies.

The Good Shepherd Jesus said,^{(John 10:12–13)}“He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.” With these words, He illustrates the value of incorrect religious doctrine.  If you must earn your own salvation, when death comes, you are on your own.  If the religion has an afterlife, then it teaches that you are judged by your own merit and worthiness … who you areandwhat you have done.  We are weak helpless human sinners; how could we not fail in this life if left to our own devices.

The Good Shepherd Jesus, on the other hand, fought with sin, death, and the devil, and He did it in a most unusual way.  First of all, the Heroic Good Shepherd Jesus became one of the sheep.  That is what Christmas is all about.  The Son of God took on human flesh … The Good Shepherd Jesus in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes.  Who ever heard of a shepherd becoming one of the sheep in order to save the sheep?  Never the less, The Good Shepherd Jesus became one of us in order to battle sin, death, and the devil.

When the time came for The Good Shepherd Jesus to battle death, He willingly surrendered!  He suffered and died on a cross.  As He hung on the cross, The Good Shepherd Jesus endured the eternal punishment that our sins deserved.  Instead of leaving us to face the wolf of death by ourselves, He faced death for us. He faced the death of this world and the eternal death of hell.  The Good Shepherd Jesus faced all this so that we can be sheep in His eternal flock.

The Good Shepherd Jesus has a special message for us in the Gospel we just heard.  He said,^{(John 10:16)}“I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” Since Jesus told these words to the Jews who were listening to Him at the time, these words inform them that Jesus has sheep that are not part of the Jewish flock.  That means that we gentiles are also sheep in His flock. The entire flock of The Good Shepherd Jesus is the Holy Christian church that has both Jews and Gentiles in it. This means that The Good Shepherd Jesus laid down His life for all people in all times and in all places. Jesus is the Good Shepherd for everyone. He laid down His life for us.

The Good Shepherd Jesus proclaimed that He will lay down His life for the sheep.  In the Gospel we just heard, He said this many times.  As we work through the Gospel, we hear Him say even more.  He said,^{(John 10:17–18)}“I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” With these words The Good Shepherd Jesus promised not only to lay His life down for the sheep, but He also promised to take it up again.  It means we know He defeated our sin with His death because death could not hold Him.  He rose from the dead.  He said, “I lay down my life that I may take it up again,”and He kept His promise.  The Good Shepherd Jesus rose from the dead and the disciples saw the holes of the nails in His hands and feet.

The resurrection of The Good Shepherd Jesus is the promise for our last days on this earth.  The day will come when the wolf of death will eat you and me, but we will not stay dead. Instead, The Good Shepherd Jesus will come on the Last Day and bring us all back to life.  On that day ^{(2 Peter 3:10)}“the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved”. Then there will be^{(2 Peter 3:13)}“new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells”. All of us who believe will come together as one flock.  We will share in the joy of eternal bliss.  We will share in all the blessings that Good Shepherd Jesus earned for us when He laid down His life for us.  Then we will live forever with Him where there will be one flock and one shepherd. Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Easter 3– 15 April 2018 – Year B

Grace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 24^thChapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 36 – 48

³⁶ As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” ³⁷ But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. ³⁸ And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹ See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” ⁴⁰ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. ⁴¹ And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” ⁴² They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³ and he took it and ate before them. 

⁴⁴ Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, ⁴⁶ and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, ⁴⁷ and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things.

The appearances of Christ after His resurrection are so full of meaning.  Not only is the obvious teaching that Jesus rose from the dead, but there are many other teachings concerning the life of the Church.  Last week, we learned that Jesus rose from the dead, and also learned that in addition, Jesus established the office of the Holy Ministry and gave it the authority to forgive sins.  Today’s Gospel once again shows us that Jesus rose from the dead, and it also teaches us how to interpret the Bible and what the church is supposed to proclaim.

Today’s reading from the Gospel account of Luke once again has Jesus showing Himself to the disciples.  Once again, Jesus invited the disciples to examine the wounds of the crucifixion. ^{(Luke 24:38–39)}He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” Jesus very much wants the disciples to realise that He is no mere spirit.  They are not just seeing things.  He is the real flesh and blood Jesus risen from the dead.

Then, when they still seemed to struggle with idea that Jesus was a real flesh and blood person, He asked them,^{(Luke 24:41–43)}“Have you anything here to eat?”⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³and he took it and ate before them”. Jesus really wants them to understand that He is truly risen from the dead in His own flesh and blood body.

After Jesus demonstrated His resurrection, He taught the disciples a very important principle for the proper understanding of the Bible.  ⁴⁴Then he said to them, ^{(Luke 24:44)}“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”Here Jesus instructs the disciples and usthat the correct way to understand the Bible is to find Jesus in every passage.  The Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms is what we call the Old Testament.  Jesus basically showed the disciples that the entire Old Testament is about Him.

Jesus then gave the disciples the precise meaning of the Scriptures.  He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, ⁴⁶and said to them,^{(Luke 24:45–47)}“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, ⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”When Jesus says, “Thus it is written,”He is saying that this is what the Bible says. Since Jesus is the Christ, He Himself has accomplished the suffering and the rising from the dead.  He also proclaimed repentance and the forgiveness of sins until He ascended into heaven.  In today’s Gospel, He passed that proclamation on to His disciples.  Each generation has passed that mission on to the next.  This is the mission statement that Jesus gave to the church … proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins in the name of Christ.  This is an ongoing mission that will last until the Lord returns on the Last Day. Christ’s instructions guarantee that when the Apostles write the books of the New Testament, those books will proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins in the name of Christ.  This means that the New Testament will also be about Jesus since He is the source of forgiveness.

What does it mean to proclaim repentance?  As the prominent 16^thcentury theologian Philipp Melanchthon so aptly wrote “Repentance consists of two parts.  One part is contrition, that is, terrors striking the conscience through the knowledge of sin.  The other part is faith, which is born of the Gospel [Romans 10:17] or the Absolution and believes that for Christ’s sake, sins are forgiven.” So step one in the proclamation of repentance is the proclamation of sin in such a way that the punishment we deserve for our sin strikes terror in us.  The second step in the proclamation of repentance is to point us to Christ and His work to save us from that terrifying punishment.

What does it mean to proclaim forgiveness?  Even though we are guilty and deserve punishment here on earth and forever in hell, God, for Christ’s sake, declares us righteous.  The proclamation of forgiveness begins with the proclamation of Jesus earningforgiveness for us on the cross.  It also includes the proclamation of the Holy Spirit deliveringforgiveness to us by Word and Sacrament. It includes the proclamation of the Holy Spirit working faithin us so that we receive the benefits of forgiveness.  It includes describing the benefits of salvation and eternal life that come with forgiveness.

Peter gives an excellent example of the proclamation of repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Acts 3: 13 - 20.  The Holy Spirit had just worked through Peter in order to heal a lame man.  After Peter healed the lame man, he went into the temple area.  The man who had been lame went with Peter.  The man who had been lame was now hopping, and skipping, and jumping for joy as he went up to the temple.  This drew the attention of the crowds.  

As the crowd gathered, Peter began proclaiming the terror of sin: ^{(Acts 3:13–15)}“The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. ¹⁴But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, ¹⁵and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses”. Peter flat out told the crowd that they were guilty of crucifying Jesus who was not only innocent, but is also the Son of God.

Now listen to his proclamation of the second part of repentance along with the proclamation of forgiveness:^{(Acts 3:19–21)} “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, ²⁰that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, ²¹whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago”. See how Peter points the crowd to Jesus.  He describes forgiveness with the words,“that your sins may be blotted out.” Blotting out sins is another way of talking about forgiveness.

The interesting thing about Peter’s sermon is that not everyone who heard his sermon participated in the actual conspiracy to kill Jesus.  In fact, when you study Peter’s other sermons, you discover that he regularly accused his hearers of killing Jesus even if they weren’t even in Jerusalem on Good Friday.  After a while you begin to realise that when Peter accuses people of killing Jesus, he is not just talking about the people who conspired to crucify Jesus on Good Friday, but he is talking about all our sin that caused God’s wrath to pour out on Jesus as He hung on the cross.  If Peter were here today, he would accuse usof killing the Lord of Life.  How?  With our sins.

With what sins have we crucified the Lord of Life.  Have we listened to gossip without checking the facts?  Do we stubbornly defend our own opinion rather than stubbornly defending the teachings of God that we find in His Word? Are we arrogant enough to believe that we don’t need to join our fellow Christians in Bible study?  Who is number one in our life, us or God?  Jesus said the church should proclaim repentance and that repentance should terrify us by revealing the punishment we have earned with our sin.  The proclamation of repentance should be frightening.  Do we really understand that if God were 100% fair, we would go to hell?  If not, we have not fully repented.

Thank the Lord that He is not fair.  Instead, Jesus did the most unfair thing possible.  Even though He was perfectly innocent, He exchanged His holy righteousness for our sin.  He earned forgiveness for us with His innocent suffering and death on the cross and the shedding of His holy, precious blood. ^{(2 Corinthians 5:21)}“For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”. The great exchange that Jesus made with us as He died on the cross is the most unfair thing that has ever happened.  It is also the source of the forgiveness of our sins.

Although the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins begins in terror, the end result is the greatest comfort … the comfort that our sins are forgiven … the comfort that eternal life is already ours.  This is the comfort that the Apostle John gives in the beginning of the epistle ^{(1 John 3:1)}: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are”. 

Christ has instructed His church to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sin in His name.  Our order of service in worship should proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sin in His name.  Our preaching and teaching should proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sin in His name.  Our responses and singing should proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sin in His name.  Anything that says nothing about repentance and the forgiveness of sin in the name of Christ does not belong in our service.

Christ has risen.  He teaches His church to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sin in the name of Christ.  The proclamation of repentance produces honest terror with the law and then points us to Christ.  The proclamation of the forgiveness of sins gives the greatest comfort for it assures us that our sins are forgiven for the sake of Christ on the cross.  That forgiveness assures us that we are a child of God and will live with Him in eternal joy.  Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Easter 2 – 8 April 2018 – Year B

Grace to you from God our father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 20^thChapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 19 – 31:

¹⁹ 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.” ²⁰ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. ²¹ Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” ²² And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

²⁴ Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵ So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “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.” 

²⁶ Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷ 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.” ²⁸ Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

³⁰ Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹ but these are written so that you maybelieve that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believingyou may have life in his name.

Well, it is annual “Pick on Thomas Day” in the church.  Every year, we celebrate Easter and then, the following week, we pick on Thomas.  He was late to Sunday service and so he missed Jesus.  He uttered that ultimatum: “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.”  Then, the next Sunday, Jesus showed up and said, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas believed and they all lived happily ever after … well, not quite.

     The scepticism of ALLthe disciples is one of things that contributes to the credibility of the Easter accounts in the Gospels.  Before Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples none of them believed.  Luke the Evangelist records: ^{[Luke 24:9–11]}“Returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰ Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, ¹¹ but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them”.  Notice that it states that the apostles … all of them… thought the witness of the women was an idle tale.  This is not the way stories usually went at that time.

     There are people who insist that the account of the Resurrection is made up, but the entire style of the account of the resurrection does not match the style of other religious literature of the time.  If the disciples were making these stories up out of their own imaginations, we would expect the story to go something like this:

     We would expect to hear about the loyal disciples who immediately understood Jesus when He told them about His upcoming death and resurrection.  We would expect these same disciples to demonstrate intense loyalty to Jesus as they attended to Him during the false trial, the suffering, and the crucifixion.  Then we would expect them to remove the body from the cross with the utmost of dignity and respect as they carefully prepared to wait for the resurrection. We would expect them to pray psalms and sing hymns as they held vigil until Jesus returned to life.  Then they would have rejoiced and worshipped Jesus as they learned at His feet until He ascended into heaven.  That is the kind of story you would expect if the disciples were making this story up from their own imaginations.

     What actually happened was that Jesus told the disciples that He would suffer, die, and rise from the dead and the disciples didn’t get it.  Instead they quarrelled over who among them was the greatest. When it finally became clear that Jesus was going to allow Himself to be arrested and taken in for trial, the disciples ran like foxes from a hound.  When witnesses began telling the disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead, the disciples thought that the witnesses were hallucinating or something. The disciples didn’t just doubt, they flat-out rejected the idea that Jesus rose from the dead.  The accounts pretty much portray the disciples as unbelieving cowards.  That was not the way to start a new religion in that day and age.

     The truth of the matter is that while Jesus lay in the tomb, the disciples were unbelievers. They were pagans.  They were lost in unbelief and sin.  They weren’t just doubting.  They were unbelieving.

     Unbelief is the way that all people begin this life.  The rite of baptism says: The Word of God … teaches that we are all conceived and born sinful and are under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as His own.  We would be lost forever unless delivered from sin, death, and everlasting condemnation.  The psalmist tells us: ^{[Psalm 51:5]}“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me”.  Of mankind’s own doing in Eden’s paradise we were condemned, but the Father of all mercy and grace sent His Son Jesus Christ, who atoned for the sin of the whole world that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

     This is the reason it is so important to hear the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel.  Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”  Here are the disciples hiding behind locked doors … afraid … disheartened … unbelieving.  Never the less, Jesus came to them with peace.  He was gentle.  He was patient.  He showed them his hands and his side. He gently and carefully restored their faith in Him.  Now they knew.  Not only did Jesus die on the cross, but He also rose from the dead.  He encouraged the disciples to examine His wounds and verify that it really was Him.

     We hear Jesus give peace three times in today’s Gospel.  That is Jesus’ main mission, earning and giving peace.  Long ago, the enemy seduced humanity into hostility toward God.  We don’t have peace with Him.  We are His enemies.  But Jesus Christ, the Son of God entered into our humanity and lived a perfect life under the law.  He willingly allowed His enemies to nail Him to a cross.  While He hung on that cross, He endured the punishment that we, the enemies of God, deserved.  Then He died and rose from the dead.  In this way, He earned forgiveness for all people.  He earned peace with God and He offered that peace to the disciples and He still offers that peace to us to this very day and beyond.

     In fact, it is in the very Gospel that we just read that we hear how Jesus transmits His peace to us.  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”  This is nothing other than Jesus installing these men as apostles. The very word apostle comes from a Greek word that means to send. Jesus said that He is God the Father’s apostle, the one sent from the Father.  Now He is commissioning these disciples to be His apostles, ones who are sent directly by Him.  These apostles will take the very peace that Jesus has given to them and proclaim it to the world.

     Do you realise how bizarre this is?  These are the men who often quarrelled about who is the greatest among them.  These are the men who abandoned Jesus at His greatest need.  These are the men who thought the stories of the resurrection were idle tales.  These are the men who drew a total blank every time Jesus told them He was going to suffer, die, and rise from the dead.  I mean: Wow; as disciples of Jesus, they are not really at the top of the class!

     Never the less, they are the one whom Jesus sent.  They are the ones the Apostle Paul wrote about to the church in Ephesus: ^{[Ephesians 2:19–20]}“You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone”.  The Apostle Paul states that these men are the foundation of the household of God.  Paul is talking about men who were cowardly unbelievers until Jesus showed Himself to them. Now Jesus is sending them.  Now they are Jesus’ Apostles.

     There is only one way that a group of pessimists like this can carry out the mission of Jesus.  God has to do the work.  It has to be God working through these men that makes them the sent ones.  They are like God’s people of old who often came to the battle ready to fight only to discover that God had already won the battle.  They thought they were coming as soldiers, but they only ended up being witnesses to the victory God won for them.

     Jesus gave them a special authority.  He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”  He gave these men the authority to administer the very forgiveness of sins that Jesus earned on the cross … the very forgiveness of sins that gives us peace with God.

     We read about the work God did through these apostles in the first reading from Acts 5:  “When they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. ⁴¹ Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name. ⁴² And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus”. On Easter morning, they were cowardly unbelievers.  Later, they rejoiced at the suffering they received in the name of Jesus.  Only God can work a change like that.

     The apostles have long since died, but they still teach us for we have their teachings in written form in the New Testament.  Their writings still tell us that Jesus saved us from sin with His perfect life and His sacrificial death.  Their writings still tell us that we have God’s promise of resurrection because Jesus did not remain in the tomb, but rose to immortal life and ascended into heaven. Their writings continue the work that Jesus gave to them when He called them to be His sent ones, His apostles.

     The apostles have died, but the office of the holy ministry continues.  Jesus still sends His men to proclaim His peace to the world. The Holy Spirit worked through the Apostles to establish congregations of believers in many places.  As the Holy Spirit established these congregations, He also established the Office of the Holy Ministry as the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write: ^{[Ephesians 4:11–12]}“[Christ] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”.

     Once again, today’s Gospel demonstrates the overwhelming generosity of God’s mercy. Jesus showed Himself to a group of unbelieving cowards.  He gave God’s peace to them.  He commissioned them to be His Apostles … His sent ones.  He breathed the Holy Spirit into them.  He gave them the authority to administer the very forgiveness that He earned for them and all people on the cross.  These men deserved none of this, but they received it all by God’s grace as a gift.

     God continues to work in grace and mercy today.  At birth, every one of us is a selfish, enemy of God.  Never the less, the Father of all mercy and grace has sent His Son Jesus Christ, who atoned for the sin of the whole world that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  Jesus gives His peace to us.  The Holy Spirit still works in us by the power of the very Word that Jesus sent His apostles to proclaim in the water and Word at our Holy Baptism. When we stand in God’s presence and earnestly confess our sins and we hear the words of the absolution pronounced,we are in fact hearing the words of Jesus as written in ^{Matt 9:2} “Take heart, your sins are forgiven”. In all of these ways and more, Jesus still comes to us and says, “Peace be with you.”  Amen

The peace and love of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen