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Alleluia! Christ is risen!

++ JESU JUVA ++

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Why are the ten disciples all locked in a room together? They are locked in this room because they are afraid. The chief priests and others have conspired together to kill Jesus. Now these ten believe they could be next. It seems like the reasonable thing to do. Go into hiding. Wait for things to cool down.

They’re also hiding for a theological reason. They have sinned against Jesus. They don’t want to confront their sin. They didn’t want to see Jesus. When you’ve sinned against someone, do you want to see that person? Even more, what if that person had caught you sinning against him? If she knew what you had said about her?

While He prayed, they slept. While He suffered, they ran away. While He hung on the cross, they gave into their fear. John says they were hiding for fear of the Jews. Had the disciples feared God above all things, they would have done what Jesus said and gone to meet Him in Galilee. But the disciples don’t want to see Jesus, and they fear the Jews more than they fear God. So they not only have their own unique sins against Jesus, they are also actively participating in sin together. They have a kind of fellowship of fear.

Thomas wasn’t with them. We aren’t told why. We do know that he, like the other ten, isn’t going to Galilee like Jesus had said. The particularities of Thomas’ sin come later. Because when they tell him that Jesus is alive, he rejects the message and firmly refuses to believe. It’s as though the other ten greet him joyfully declaring, Alleluia! Christ is risen! and he responds by saying, ’I will never believe this.’ Unless the Lord Jesus will do what I say, I refuse to believe this about Him.

Thomas treats his brothers poorly. He refuses to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15). This is what happens when Christians are absent from the body of Christ. They miss you when you’re away. Your absence steals joy from them. Your absence hurts them. And you miss out, too. Thomas isn’t there when Jesus delivers the good news. He must wait until the next week to see Jesus. When you’re absent, you’re missing the fellowship of believers. You miss out on the means of grace. Your absence harms both you and the body of Christ to which you belong.

There’s lots of reasons people stay away from church and away from Jesus. Maybe it’s fearing something more than God. Maybe it’s a refusal to believe in the peace that Jesus gives. Maybe it’s some other kind of sin. We all have regrets and sorrows in this life. But the temptation is to hold onto it. To replay it over and over in our minds. To think that we have to bear it ourselves. So we carry it — even for years.

When you hold onto sin or shame, it can have different effects. Maybe you’ll start to think that this burden you’re carrying is normal. That it’s just part of life. Maybe you’ll start to rationalize your sin and make excuses for it — that it wasn’t really wrong. — that it’s someone else’s fault. — or that everyone does it. — that it’s normal. Maybe you’re holding onto it, and you don’t even realize it’s there. Life just feels directionless and unfeeling.

Maybe you come to the altar and question whether your eating is unworthy. When this happens, the temptation is to ignore that feeling and push it out of your mind by sheer force of will, or to try to avoid feeling that way by staying away from the altar. But this doesn’t address the trouble. Or maybe you realize what a terrible burden you carry. You see the way it weighs you down and prevents your ability to love. Maybe it seems hopeless, and you’re tempted to despair.

Theologically, what you’re feeling is the sensation of death — the helplessness of a sinner before the justice of the holy God. What is needed is the absolution — the removal of this burden. For when the disciples have locked themselves into a fellowship of fear — when it seemed that all hope was lost — Hence, all fear and sadness! For the Lord of gladness, Jesus, enters in (LSB 743:6).

Into their darkness and fear and despair, Jesus breaks in. He speaks, “Peace be with you.” Not just a greeting, but ‘Peace to you’ — ‘Peace be yours.’ As the remedy to their fear, Jesus breaks in, giving and bestowing peace.

But what kind of peace is it? It’s not a peace of external circumstances. It’s not political peace, peace from the Jews, peace from daily needs, or any other kind of worldly peace. When Jesus speaks, their circumstances have not changed. The Jews still want to kill them. Pilate is still the governor. Caiaphas is still high priest. Satan is still acting as prince of this world. The things they were afraid of have not changed.

If it’s not external peace, is it internal? A perfect peace in the heart? The removal of all regret and frustration and disappointment? Do the disciples have no more confusion or concern or stress?

If Jesus had come to give them peace like that, then He failed. Because the very next week they are again without peace. But this makes more sense when we understand that Jesus hasn’t come to give them situational peace or internal peace. Jesus has come to give them peace with God! This kind of peace isn’t a feeling — it’s a fact.

That’s also why Jesus gives them His peace more than once. Because this peace is received by faith, the only way to believe it is to hear it.

This peace is yours because Jesus is raised from the dead. When Jesus died, He paid for all your sins. They are on Him and not on you. So the peace He speaks is the announcement of this fact and the delivery of this gift. This peace is grounded in the death and resurrection of Jesus. So every sin or giving into fear is a failure to believe that Jesus has paid for our sin and has risen from the grave. Jesus has buried your sin in the grave, but Satan wants to dig them up again. “Jesus lives” is the foundation and essence of your life in Christ.

This is your constant need. That’s why Jesus speaks this peace twice on the same day. In the same conversation. Jesus wants this gift to be repetitive. Imagine someone broke something that belonged to you. He apologizes and you forgive him. But what about when he’s reminded about that again later and he apologizes again? Do you just ignore or dismiss his apology? What if it’s a child with a tender conscience? Do you say ‘I'm not going to say it again. I already forgave you. Drop it’? No — you forgive him again!