Second Wednesday of Easter

Peace — is a word that can take us into a lot of different directions. Many times people connect peace with their emotions, or connect it to what is going on in the world or in our community.

On that basis alone, this week has not been very peaceful. A little girl doesn’t come home from visiting a relative, and then she is found murdered a few blocks away. Something like that has a way of taking a seemingly peaceful existence and turning it upside down.

Jesus, however, comes to us this evening with a word of peace that the world does not understand. Why? Because the good news of the risen Christ is bigger than a single day. The message of Easter continues to march across centuries and continents. And yet, there always seem to be forces that try to slow that march. Those forces could be self-inflected fears and doubts. They could be various types of persecutions that we heard in the first two readings this evening. But whatever the case, the good news of Easter will not be restrained. For it is not some myth or fable, not a hoax or conspiracy. The reality of Easter rests on the testimony of eyewitnesses. Therefore, the gospel cannot be boxed in any more than Christ could be put back in a tomb. Many may try and restrain the good news of Christ. But the march of the Church's witness will never slow down

This evening we are going to talk about the Peace that Jesus came to give. Peace is a word of reconciliation, wholeness, and forgiveness, and so much more.

This evening’s gospel reading Jesus appears to the apostles three times and He uses the word peace three times. In each he’s speaking a word of forgiveness. The common bond that ties all three of these together, what we might call

The Bond of Peace, Is Forgiveness.

Let’s take a look at how Jesus uses this word, peace.

The first time Jesus speaks the word peace:

Forgiveness = peace from fear.

Peace must include freedom from fear.

Some of those words associated with peace: salvation, joyful assurance, presence of God—the very opposite of fear.

People living in terror—of their town being bombed, of test results from their doctor, of a pandemic, of an angry God—aren’t at peace.

Ask most folks why peace is better than war, and the answer will be something to the effect that nobody gets killed by peace; nobody’s scared of peace.

There was no peace for the disciples after Good Friday; they were scared (John 20:19a)! John 20:19 “On the evening of that first day of the week, the disciples were together behind locked doors because of their fear of the Jews.’

All of them had left Jesus in fear, especially Peter.

They were deathly afraid the Jews would come for them too. That’s why the doors were locked.

Worse, they now had no leader to make them feel secure.

What sort of fear upsets our peace?

Is it fear of death—our own from illness? Maybe it is the daily danger of a friend or loved one in Ukraine, Poland, or one of the other eastern European countries who are living in turmoil right now.

Is it fear that some hidden sin might be discovered—by our spouse, or by your friend?

Is it fear for our jobs—of losing them or failing at them?

Is it fear of school—of the bully on the playground? of finishing your science fair project on time? of the turndown letter that might come from a college any day?

Christ returned from death to give peace from fear; suddenly he “stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’” John 20:19b.

For Jesus’ reappearance to give peace from fear, there had to be forgiveness. Remember, the disciples had left Jesus. Now that he was alive—and more powerful even than death—he might be angry; he might have come back for the very purpose of taking revenge on his deserters, his triple denier. More than the Jews, Jesus was the one they really had to fear.

Instead, Jesus says—begins with—“Peace be with you.” This was absolution, clear and simple, Jesus’ declaration of forgiveness for deserting him, denying him. All was forgiven and forgotten. Jesus came in peace, not in vengeance.

The result: peace from fear.

The disciples rejoiced (John 20:20). Their relationship with Jesus was restored. They had their leader back. He wasn’t angry with them. They had nothing to fear.

We, too, can rejoice. We have nothing to fear if Christ isn’t angry with us.

Our desertions—including those secret sins, when our priorities are out of wack—are forgiven.

The one who conquered death is with us to deliver us—maybe from death, certainly through death. Revelation 1:17-18 “When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He placed his right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last—the Living One. I was dead and, see, I am alive forever and ever! I also hold the keys of death and hell.”

The one who now rules all things for his Church will protect us, provide for us, support us.

The one who couldn’t be kept out by a locked door will open new doors for us if some seem to close. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31).

The second time Jesus speaks the word peace:

Forgiveness = peace from helplessness.

Peace can’t be just oblivion, idleness, or numbness.

Eastern mysticism sees peace that way, like a Hindu Brahman in meditation.

But ask any retiree if, after a few months, sitting on the couch flipping channels for the next twenty-five years still sounds peaceful, and you’re likely to get a different answer.

No, peace is more like some of those other words: relationship, reconciliation, cross.

The disciples felt no peace as long as they were sitting idly by.

They were helpless, numb, paralyzed by Jesus’ death.

They were the prime recruits to take Jesus’ kingdom to the world, but there they sat in that locked room.

This wasn’t peace, but turmoil, a rush of conflicting thoughts running through their heads and nothing else on which to focus.

We may sometimes feel numb, helpless, or unable to fulfill our purpose.

There’s a whole world out there that needs Jesus’ peace, and we want to share it.

But what do we do, and how to do it? Our own consciences nag at us, and that’s no peace.

We know that Christ has given us his Holy Spirit specifically for telling others the message of forgiveness, but we feel helpless, thinking we don’t know enough to speak.

Fortunately, Christ gave his disciples peace by making them sharers of forgiveness: “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am also sending you’” John 20:21.

This peace was Jesus’ way of saying these idlers were still precious—and useful—to him.

Jesus’ word of peace was their forgiveness, and now they had the power to share that same forgiveness with the world (John 20:22–23).

The result: peace from helplessness.

We’re no longer helpless; we have the forgiveness Christ earned on the cross and gave to us by his word of peace to announce to everyone we meet.

You see, you and I are still precious—and useful—to our Lord Jesus, and His desire is for us to bear witness to others about this peace and forgiveness He brings.

Because, all whom we absolve have peace from their own helplessness, from the paralysis of their sin, as surely as if Jesus himself absolved them.

The third time Jesus speaks the word peace:

Forgiveness = peace from doubts and unbelief.

A few more of those words associated with peace: contentedness, wholeness, well-being.

These are the very opposites of doubt and unbelief.

Doubt means internal conflict—unbelief requires finding something to make one whole, content.

That’s where Thomas was for a terrible week (John 20:24-25).

Imagine the emptiness, the void.

While his brothers were rejoicing, his unbelief gave him no peace.

We understand Thomas, don’t we?

We believe Jesus died and rose and even that he’s given us eternal life now and will bring us to heaven someday.

But do we really, always, believe that because my Redeemer lives, he grants me rich supply, guides me with his eye, will silence all my fears, will wipe away my tears (see LSB 461) today, tomorrow, on Thursday?

Or do our doubts leave us with no peace?

Well, Christ returned to Thomas to bring him peace: “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’” John 20:26.

Jesus forgave Thomas’s unbelief (John 20:27).

He returned to make Thomas whole, to give him the contentedness of faith.

The result—peace from unbelief and doubts.

Thomas confessed with joy, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

We can be content, whole in faith just as surely ( John 20:29-31).

Christ has forgiven our doubts and unbelief,

He keeps coming back to us with his Word of the Gospel and the Sacraments that we can see and taste and touch.

In them we always have forgiveness, peace with God.

Forgiveness the common bond that ties all of these concepts of peace together. True peace, as the Bible describes it, is always a product of the restored relationship between God and man, and that is only a result of the forgiveness that Christ earned for us on the cross.

One more item of Gospel, before I forget: There are so many external things to focus upon, which will take us in so many different directions. But, where does God direct our attention? His hands and His side, because this is where our salvation resides.

When God wrote the Bible, He wrote it for everyone. But, He also wrote it FOR YOU. Therefore, “These things are written that you —Greg—might believe...” That you—Ron, Tim, Jeff, Kara, Tanya, Carol, Matt, Kellie, Deb — this was written by God, for all of you, so you might believe.” And he signed his name at the end, written with his very own blood.