Easter 2 John 20:19-31 Jesus is the Key
Acts 5:12-32, Revelation 1:4-18 John 20:19-31
It was late afternoon, just before sundown, on that first Easter Sunday. The disciples were all together in one place because they were afraid for their lives. Those who had killed Jesus would surely come for them now that the rumors of His resurrection were beginning to circulate. They are gathered together apart from the world, in the world but not of the world with the doors shut and locked in fear for their lives.
We too have things that make us afraid. They tend to keep us locked in, locked up, and locked away. Sometimes it is fear of violence, suffering, disease, or death. Other times we dread persecution, punishment, or being made the butt of peoples’ jokes. Other times we are hesitant to face those we have wronged because we worry that they will not accept our apology. Apprehension of these things can cause us to live in loneliness and isolation. Fear always limits us. It locks us into ourselves, binds us up in our own little rooms and worst of all fear locks us away from one another.
Fear makes life a prison house; a fortress against the forces that threaten you, both real and imagined. Your fortress may be your car, your pets, your power over your spouse or a bedroom where you try and sleep as much as possible. Your place of refuge can be in your work, in a bottle of alcohol or in drugs. Your little room is wherever you go to hide from others, from the world, from your family and community, or even from God. Your fear is that God will not watch over you or that God is holding something against you.
On that Easter day, our Lord’s disciples were locked in their own little room and their fear is caused by unbelief. Their failure to trust in God above all things has them contained in a small room. They remember the words that Jesus had told them earlier when He told them He would be raised from the dead, but they have not yet grasped the implications of what Christ has accomplished. That kind of fear is what happens when we trust in the things of this world, and our own abilities, rather than to fully rely on God’s promises.
Much to their surprise, into their little fortress of fear enters the gentle, Shepherd still bearing His wounds. Jesus with His heel bruised, comes humbly, quietly. He doesn't kick down the doors. The One who left the tomb without needing to roll away the stone has no need to break down locked doors. The stone was only rolled away for our benefit, so that we could look in and see He was not among the dead.
Now the Good Shepherd comes to His sheep where they are. No locked doors or iron bars can stand in His way or prevent the love of God incarnate from entering into the locked room. Nothing can impede the now risen Lord from being with those He loves. Saint Paul tells us in Romans, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35&39 ESV)
Our Lord stands among His disciples in His flesh. Jesus had been there all along, really present but not seen. Now He permits His disciples to see Him as He is, raised from the dead in His immortal body with immortal blood running through His eternal veins. The One who died and lives forever is really present for His disciples in a new supernatural way. His Body is real and yet He can move through solid objects as a spirit would. The disciples’ fears are now compounded, however because they are standing in the glorious presence of the Lord and Savior.
The first words Jesus speaks to them are words of absolution. "Peace be with you." His words give what they say--Peace. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." His peace comes in the midst of turmoil and unrest. "I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
What comfort Jesus' words of peace must have brought to the disciples! They had all failed Him in His hour of glory. Peter had denied Him three times. The disciples had abandoned Him. None of them had believed that on this day, the first day of the week, He would rise from the dead.
None of them had trusted Jesus with their lives when He was taken prisoner. Their hearts had been filled with fear and the fear remained when the women came with the good new of His resurrection. Yet Jesus does not belittle them for their unbelief or scold them for the lack of faith. Instead, He comes to them to offer them forgiveness and peace of mind.
His peace is real peace, as real as His wounds, the nail marks on His hands and the scar of the spear that pierced His side. From these rich wounds comes the peace that Jesus speaks. "The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed." Pay attention to those wounds, for by those wounds you are healed from your sin and your soul is restored to life. Look upon those wounds when your life is in turmoil, when you are threatened and filled with fear, locked up in your room, and despairing of your life. Enter into His presence with prayer and thanksgiving. Look upon His wounds in faith.
His wounds from which His cleansing blood flowed upon the wood of the cross are your peace. Those wounds mark Jesus as the crucified One, the One whose body was nailed to the cross. He was no imposter, but the genuine flesh and blood Jesus, newly risen from the dead. Jesus is recognized by His wounds, the marks of the cross. His words and His wounds turn the disciples’ fear to joy and gladness. "They were glad when they saw the Lord." Jesus was with them; there was nothing for the disciples to fear. His wounds swallow up fear and promote healing. His disciples realize that nothing can be done to them that hasn't already been done to Jesus, and because He has risen from the dead, they too will one day rise.
A second time Jesus speaks His word of peace. "Peace be with you." With His first word of peace Jesus absolves His disciples and removes their fear. Their absolution gives them power to overcome their fear and courage to go forth in His Name.
With His second word of peace, He sends them to absolve others and remove their fears. "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." As Jesus was sent by the Father, to speak on His behalf, so now Jesus sends His disciples to speak on His behalf, to give out the gifts He won by dying on the cross for a dying and condemned world that rejected Him. You, as His disciples are to forgive those who have offended you. You are to seek forgiveness from those you have offended so that they may share the love of Christ with you.
Jesus breathes on His disciples and speaks the words that deliver the Holy Spirit. "Receive the Holy Spirit." "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and the entire heavenly host was made by the breath of his mouth." With His breath, God breathed an immortal soul into Adam His breath and His words create and renew. With His breath, Jesus breathes the life of the resurrection and gives life to His church.
Jesus breathes His words and Spirit into all of His disciples so that the forgiveness of sins might be heard in His church. "Anyone whose sins you forgive are forgiven; anyone whose sins you retain are retained.” As Luther tells us, “This is as certain and true as if Christ our dear Lord were dealing with us Himself.” Forgiveness comes in the way of His incarnation - with His words and wounds, His breath and Spirit, through His Church by His ministers.
Salvation comes through the water and words of Baptism and through His immortal body and blood in His supper. Jesus leaves no doubt as to where the gifts of Easter are being given out. They are here is this room and Jesus lets His presence be known through the word and sacraments. Here you can see and hear the gifts of Jesus perfect life; His suffering and death on the cross, and His resurrection are delivered surely and certainly to the ears of the hearer.
Here is where the Key of forgiveness first unlocks you from bondage to sins. Jesus is that Key that unlocks your heart and frees you from your fears, from bondage and from sin. The key to unlock others from their prison is now given to you by Jesus, the Crucified and Risen One, the One who died and rose for you and for all. It was His to win by dying, and it is His to give to those He sends forth.
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)
So as you leave this sanctuary today, remember the words of our risen and glorified Jesus “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”
In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.