Sunday After Easter (2026)

Good morning, I admit there is always the temptation to spend some time talking about myself and hope that I would be in some way endeering. But sermons are about the proclamation of God’s word and I want to keep that sacred especially a week after the celebration of Easter.

But if you would like to meet and hear a little of my story I would be glad after service to shake your hand and get to know you.

Today is the Sunday after Easter. The church calendar invites us to take certain times of year and let our Christian walks be led by the season. At advent we practice quite holiness and waiting for the arrival of Christ in the manger, During Lend we practice repentance calling to mind our sins as we await The celebration of good Friday and Easter Sunday.

During Easter we look to the resurrection in a special way remembering the everlasting life we inherit in Christ.

This weeks reading reminds us that not only are we in the season of Easter, but we need to let easter get into us. Thomas lived in the time of the resurrection and yet the resurrection needed to get into Thomas.

John 20:24–31 “But Thomas (called “Twin”), one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.

All traditions have their heros. In the Lutheran tradition you might talk about Luther, Melancthon, or eve Walther. In my tradition the men are no less great, they just have different last names, Cramner, Stott and JC Ryle.

JC Ryle in his sermon in this text uses this as an opportunity to warn his congregation against missing the Sunday gathering. Jesus had appeared to his disciples the Sunday before, he had commissioned them, he breathed on them, it is safe to say he gave them a blessing. Yet Thomas was not there for it. He misses the blessing

We also have to wake up on Sundays and decide if we are going to spend our Sundays with the faithful. And I am sure if we took a poll as a group we could think of some good reasons to gather among them Ryle’s warning not to miss the blessing. Can I add that we gather because we are God’s covenant people. God’s people gather. They gathered at the mountain to get the ten commandments, they gathered at the river to take the Holy land, they gather at pentecost to receive the Holy Spirit. And they gathered in the upper room. We gather here this morning.

So the other disciples were telling him, “We’ve seen the Lord!”

The first act of evangelism after Jesus resurrection by his disciples was evangelism to the church. Thomas needed to be told of the resurrection. Some times our brethren inside of the walls need the resurrection message as much as out brethren outside the walls.

Hear me out, the church needs to be missional, we need to proclaim the gospel to all nations. At the same time we need to look for the hurting among us. Those for whom life seems to have dealt a tough hand, and to them we must proclaim, the Lord is Risen, and hope they respond…he is risen indeed.

Resurrection evangelism needs to happen inside and out side the church.

But he said to them, “If I don’t see the mark of the nails in his hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

What of the doubter? There is a few ways I have seen doubt dealt with in the church…rebuke, marginalization, shunning. What does Holy scripture say…Jude 1:22 Have Mercy on those who doubt.

A Lutheran story often told to comfort those with doubts about the creeds involves Martin Luther and a "downcast woman" who felt she could not be saved because she couldn't believe. Luther, rather than demanding intellectual certainty, directed her back to the baptismal promise and the creed, asking, "Do you believe, dear woman, that it is true what you pray in your Creed?" When she affirmed she did, he told her, "Well, dear woman, then go forth in the name of God! You believe more and better than I!"

What is Saint John would be know as a place where those of us who felt constant pleasure of God’s presence could be be a comfort to those with doubts. And we together could bind up their wounds.

Doubt as the weight room of faith

A week later his disciples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

Again we get an encounter with the resurrected Lord, on a Sunday at the gathering. There they encounter the resurrected Lord again and he give them the blessing of peace.

Quick excursis on peace. Jesus offers them the peace or eirene. Which is often connected to the peace of SHaloam. Jesus words are given to us in Greek eirene , but is connected to the hebrew meaning shloam. Shalom in is the peace of God that is more than just the absence of war. It is the absense of the chaos of sin. It is a restoration of the peace of the Garden of Eden where man and God enjoyed a perfect relationship. The death and resurrection of Jesus means that we can have that saving effect on our lives. So the resurrected Jesus offers us Shalom.

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be faithless, but believe.” Thomas responded to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Thomas got what he wanted and not. Then he Got what he needed. Thomas claimed that he wanted to touch the wounds of Christ to believe he was alive. I think its helpful to remember that what the disciples truley expected was a restoration of Israel, that Jesus would be a glorified political king in the vein of David and Soloman, and the disciples thought they would get cool jobs.

Thomas is shown true glory, Jesus the victor over all, not because he is given political authority, but he has authority over something much more grave…he has authority over the grave. He was dead and and is now alive, conquering death not by avoiding it for eternity, but by going through it.

Thomas gets a taste of Jesus true Glory and then confesses my Lord and my God. Jesus reign over his people as Lord and he reigns over creation as God. And we are invited to share in that same confession.

Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

If we are to be saved we must make the same confession as Thomas.

Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

We where not there in the upper room. We are reading what the author is writing, and to us the audience he reminds us that we believe without seeing we have a special blessing. A blessing not had by Thomas. Remember JC Ryle that there is a blessing that awaits us as we come to the gathering as people of the resurrected Jesus. The Gospel writer is talking to us

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Let me come back to this in a moment…

Now I want to give us our main applications from the text.

Of course I talked at length at the importance of being with the body on Sundays, to encounter Jesus in his word and to have his blessing bestowed on you. This also means the ministry of visitation is especially important as we consider that we have members of the family who are unable to join us on Sundays. In the act of visitation we bring that blessing from this place to them.

Second application, our saviours glories are most proclaimed in his wounds and his resurrection, not his control of people. Its Jesus on the Cross who winds the victory, not his business acumen, not his political power, but his death and his resurrection. That is the Jesus that will bring about the confession of “my Lord and my God.”

Famous Poem based on this scene from a man who experienced the horrors of World War I

If, when the doors are shut, Thou drawest near, Only reveal those hands, that side of Thine; We know to-day what wounds are, have no fear, Show us Thy Scars, we know the countersign.

The other gods were strong; but Thou wast weak; They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne; But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.

There are those who may want to look to the powerful for inspiration, to cozy up to the great. But ours is the saviour who wins through his scars.

Final application, the priority of faith. Lutherans are the faith alone people. Luthers Reformation have us 3 slogans that soon became five. We are saved by faith along, which give us access to Grace along, as revealed in by Scripture alone. Later on we remembered all this is accomplished in Christ alone, all for God’s Glory alone.

Faith which is given by God in our baptism is the means by which we are saved at the cross and inherit the forever life of the resurrection.

What faith should we hold. Well we see that faith in a couple of ways in this text. We see the confession of Thomas, my Lord and My God. Faith that Jesus is your authority, and that he is the God of the universe.

Again we are told these things are written down “...so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Saving faith confesses that Jesus is Messiah, the Chosen one of God, That he is the Son of God, that is eternally of God, capable of all the things of God, and in this faith we would have life in his name.

We talked about having peace, but now what does it mean to have life, zoe. That is everlasting life.

Dear friends, it is always a duty and a joy to remind us of this truth. We do not deserve everlasting life as offered to us in Jesus. In fact we deserve the opposite, everlasting death. If we are to experience any part of everlasting life, it will be because Jesus has taken our sin on the cross and offered us his everlasting life in return. The resurrection for which Thomas now believes is the seal that what was accomplished on the cross will lead us to a life that never ends. If you have never put your faith in Jesus, let today be the day. Say to Jesus along with Thomas. My Lord and my God.