Fear and Peace

Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, our Resurrected Lord. Amen.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

I had to go school. I had to get to class, even after campus opened 2 hours late after an ice storm. There I left, driving over to campus for my Hebrews class. I turned onto the on ramp, this on ramp had an embankment off to the side. I hit an icy spot and started to slide. I was watching the embankment coming closer and closer. Instant fear hit me. Questions were going through my head, I could not get control of the car for a few seconds but then I hit a patch of dry pavement was able to get the car under control. Got safely onto the interstate when I see headlights coming my direction as I watch the other car slip and slide to a stop on the side of the freeway. Fear was in the young woman’s eyes.

We’ve all been in that spot in life. The spot that we’ve been the most afraid. That moment in life when your heart races, your hands are clammy, and your face loses its color. That moment in life that you know nothing but fear itself.

Fear is very much real. We all have things that we are afraid of whether it be heights, snakes, spiders, or public speaking. It’s that intense fear that inhibits your life that causes the problem. When I was in college I wrote a paper on phobias. There are many people that have true phobias. Phobias such as arachnophobia, agoraphobia, Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, Hypsiphobia, Gephyrophobia, just to name a few.

I remember another time, I couldn’t stand to look, my hands clutched the seat in front of me and I closed my eyes and all I wanted to do was get off that bridge. I was on the SKY BRIDGE in Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL. That was another point that true fear hit me like a ton of bricks. Good thing I live in flat country!

When it comes to our text, the disciples were very much afraid. They had what you might call judeophobia, for our text says they were hiding amidst the locked doors of the upper room for fear of the Jews. They were afraid that the Jews were going to kill them, the exact same way that they killed Jesus. This was even after the women had reported Jesus alive and the Emmaus road disciples, but they didn’t believe it.

True fear gripped at their hearts. They were held up, they couldn’t get out. I know when it comes to high bridges, I will do everything in my power to avoid them. But maybe I have to face those fears in order to overcome them.

How could the disciples face their fears? Their friend and teacher is dead. Not only are they afraid, they are also saddened.

Think to your own fears. Fears that are real, fears that are true. What are you fearful of? Yes I say, I don’t like heights and will never jump out of a plane or bungee jump, I’ll run from snakes and spiders, but what am I truly afraid of. My deep fears are those that my children will lose the faith. I fear that I won’t be able to provide adequately for my family. I fear that the work I do for the Kingdom will not produce fruit that will last. Sometimes I am afraid that God isn’t even in my life. I’m afraid of being alone. I’m afraid of being in large groups. What are you fears? Afraid of what others might say or do? Afraid of being alone? Afraid of the future? Afraid of death or the process of dying. Afraid that God isn’t around or has left you?

That’s what the disciples are feeling in that upper room. They are deeply afraid. Every knock at the door and they jump, thinking the Jews have found them, only to find it to be another one of the women, or the Emmaus Road disciples coming to tell them news that they find so hard to believe.

You know if I was one of those disciples and I was told by some woman that was once possessed by seven demons that Jesus is alive again, I might think she was crazy. It’s just one of those things. Jesus was dead, they had witnessed his arrest, some even saw his crucifixion, they all heard how gruesome it was. They were hiding, they could not go on in life anymore. Where were they going to turn? All they had was each other.

Where in your life have you been there? Have you been there in the doctor’s office when he comes in bearing your test results? What about every time the phone startles you awake in the middle of the night? You sit by the hospital bed and the breathing only weakens, and the person you love struggles to breath. Your heart skips a beat as the headlights are coming right in your direction. You see your life savings sinking like the Titanic. Gripping fear is real in all of our lives…

Something happened that Sunday night in the lives of the disciples. With the doors still locked, Jesus bursts forth into their lives again and says, “Peace be with you!” He showed them his hands and his side to show that he was the Risen Lord. The disciples believed. The disciples fear was relinquished. Jesus was with them again. He truly was living amongst them. What great joy must have filled the room! Their teacher was alive again!

The disciples lived with a fear that was lifted. They had the comfort to know that Jesus was truly alive. But what about us. What does that mean for you and for me? What does that peace mean for you?

That peace for the disciples in that upper room on that first Easter is granted to you and to me. Peace is real my dear family of God. For Christ even says to you as he said to the Apostle John in Revelation: “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

Jesus is indeed alive. You have nothing to fear, not even death itself. Jesus Christ is the first and the last…he is the beginning and the end…he is the alpha and omega. Jesus Christ has always been and always will be. Jesus Christ is the living one! He walked back into the lives of the disciples to show that he conquered death. He walked back into their lives to show that what he said was true. Jesus walked back into their lives to grant them peace.

There are days and times when we seek peace. We’ve shared them. The late night phone calls, the death bed vigils, the sinking financial outlook. We struggle for peace, but Christ is there. Christ is always there.

As I think back to the Holy Week of our Lord, I wonder what Jesus thought while he was praying in the garden, when he knew that he was about to betrayed. Jesus in his human form must have felt fear. He felt the tension at least. But yet he went willingly to the cross for you and for me. Jesus Christ died and behold he lives forevermore. He says to John, I died, and behold I am alive forevermore.” Jesus is alive forevermore. He lives! He Lives! Who once was dead! He’s risen, He’s risen, Christ Jesus, the Lord; He opened death’s prison, the_incarnate, true Word. Break forth, hosts of heaven, in jubilant song And earth, sea, and mountain their praises prolong.

Jesus Christ won peace to you all when he opened death’s prison. He certainly does have the keys to death and Hades.

Jesus Christ even has the keys to forgiveness. He gave those keys to the disciples on that first Easter, which he ultimately gives to you the church and in many times he uses the pastoral office to be the mouth of God to speak those words of life to you. He uses pastors such as myself to speak the words of peace to you. He uses my mouth to say, “I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” These are words of peace. These words provide you with peace. We hear these words at the beginning of most every worship service after we have our common confession of sin, but you can also here these words personally after a private confession that will provide so much peace and comfort and life.

The confession and absolution is not the only place where we receive peace. You receive peace in your baptism. You receive peace as you witness a baptism. Even with Baptism, we look to our own baptisms and see the peace that we can rest with knowing that we are baptized. Baptism provides life and life eternal.

The Lord provides peace in so many ways. He provides peace when you come to the table of the Lord and receive His Body and His Blood, a peace that one cannot live without. It’s a peace that is so amazing that we should receive it as often as possible. Many would say every time we come into the Lord’s House to worship him since it is one of the central points of the worship service.

The Lord provides us with peace even when we are amongst our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. They are there to help hold us up when we struggle. They are there to comfort us when we need comfort.

Really the Lord is peace in our lives, even though there are times that we still will feel fear while we remain on this earth. We still will experience fear, but rest assured that Christ is your peace, he has overcome every fear, every pain, every terror, everything that we encounter that disturbs our lives.

Ultimately Jesus Christ is going to come back, he is coming back to grant us peace, perfect peace. Peace like we’ve never experience before. This peace we will experience when we are raised to new life, just as Jesus Christ in his resurrected life brought peace to his disciples. Now may God grant you peace and life in Him. In the name of our Risen Lord and Savior. Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding, guard your hearts and your minds and keep them focused in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, our Risen King. Amen.