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Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed.
Hallelujah. In the name of Jesus.
Amen.
The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground in the garden, and then he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. That was the first gift of life. Life, the gift that Adam and Eve squandered in the garden when they ate the forbidden fruit: on the day that you eat of it, surely you will die.
But now the new Adam has come, the one who brings life and immortality to light through the gospel, and this one, standing on the day that he rose from the dead, breathes on his disciples. If the life that God gave to Adam through the breath sounded like, “Be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the earth,” here’s what the new Adam says: “Whoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven.” This is the life of the new humanity that the Lord Jesus is bringing about through his resurrection. It’s your life. It’s the life of the forgiveness of all of your sins. That’s what we want to think about today.
There’s too much in the text. I don’t know how to preach today. I’ve got about seven or eight sermons. I think I’m just going to give you two of them. The first one is about the absolution. The second one is about Thomas. So here’s the first one.
Can you imagine that when Jesus, who has overcome death and the grave, who has offered himself as a sacrifice for all sins, who is the firstborn from the dead, the first person ever to accomplish this feat of being raised to live in immortality, that this Jesus on the day of his resurrection comes and stands before his disciples, ten of them at least, stands before them in the room and says to them, “Peace be with you,” which makes sense; I mean, this is what he’s accomplished in the resurrection—peace. But then he breathes on them and he says, “Whoever sins you forgive, they’re forgiven. And whoever sins you retain, they are retained.”
And this, the absolution, which Jesus instituted on Easter 1,990 years ago in one week, this absolution is instituted by Jesus so that you and I would have the benefit of all that he’s accomplished in his death and resurrection. So that you and I would have the confidence of knowing that everything that he’s done, he did and accomplished for you.
And that all comes to you in baptism, which he institutes a couple of weeks later, in the supper, which he instituted three days before, and in the absolution. This is an absolute treasure. There’s a line in Martin Luther; he wrote a little essay called Encouragement to Go to Confession and Absolution, and he said the Christians would run, the Christian would run a thousand miles to go and hear the absolution. I don’t think I could make it that far, but you get the idea that this is the most precious treasure on earth—the forgiveness of sins spoken to you.
Now, it’s also a sad tragedy for us to note that it is only the Lutheran Church that still has the absolution. We don’t say that with gloating but rather with sadness. In the Catholic Church, you can go to confession and absolution, but the absolution that’s offered there is not forgiveness of all sins, eternal life kind of forgiveness; it’s the absolution of the temporal punishment for your sin, and you’re also given penance to accomplish to make it worthwhile.
Now our closest cousins on the other side, the Anglicans and the Reformed, can never say, “I forgive you all your sins.” As close as they can get is the assurance of pardon, “Christ died for you so that your sins would be forgiven.” But these words they can’t speak; they’re afraid—they think they’re too bold—“I forgive you all your sins.” You just won’t hear it anywhere.
We have this treasure, and we should extol it; we shouldn’t hide it; we should rejoice in it. I remember, I think I’ve told you all this story: when I was coming back to the Lutheran Church as an adult, and I hadn’t been to the liturgy since I was a kid, so I had never really paid attention to it. I remember going back to the Lutheran Church, and there I was in the service, and the pastor stood up there in his nice white dress, and he looked at us and said, if you can believe it, these words—these words came through his lips. I couldn’t believe what he was saying. I was so shocked. He said, “I forgive you all your sins.”
And I asked him about it after the service. I mean, I was sitting there thinking, who does this guy think he is? No one forgives sins but God alone. Is he standing in the place of God? Is he replacing Jesus? Is he now the mediator between God and man? I didn’t say all that to him after the service, but I did ask him after the service, “How is it that you can say that you forgive our sins?”
And he did one of the wisest things I’d ever seen. He asked—I had my Bible there—he said, “Could I see your Bible?” And so he took my Bible and he opened, I think it was important that— I think if he would have pulled his own Bible out, I would have been like, “What kind of Lutheran Bible is this that adds stuff in there?” He opened my own Bible to the text that we just read, John chapter 20, and he pointed to the text: “Jesus breathed on his disciples,” and he said, “Whoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven, all be.”
There it is, in black and white, or black and red, I suppose. The words from Jesus giving the gift of the absolution. “Whoever’s sins you forgive, they are forgiven.” This is what Jesus institutes, and why? So that you would know that the same voice, the same declaration of innocence and righteousness that’s happening before the throne of God in heaven is so that you would hear that and know that it’s true. Jesus wants you to know, dear saints, more than anything else, Jesus wants you to know that all of your sins are forgiven.
He wants you to know that he is not mad at you. He wants you to know that all the things that you’ve done wrong, all the laws that you’ve broken, all the commandments that you’ve ignored, all the things that you’ve said and done and thought and wanted and dreamed of, all the stuff that you’ve done wrong, all the stuff that you wanted to do if nobody was watching or you could get away with it, all the love that you failed to give to your neighbor, all of your guilt, all of your shame, all of your law-breaking—all of it, all is forgiven. He does not hold any of it against you.
There’s nothing to accuse you of. If you were to stand before God on the judgment day, which you will, and the devil was to come and bring the evidence of your guilt, the devil would have nothing to say. Because every single bit of your transgression and iniquity and sin is forgiven. He’s thrown it into the depths of the sea. He’s forgotten it. And Jesus wants you to know that, to live in that confidence, and to die in that confidence.
And we know how it goes is that the devil comes along and he says, and I think this is how it works, it’s how it works with me: when the absolution is spoken, like when I stood up here and gave the absolution, that the devil says, “Well, look, the pastor’s only saying that because he doesn’t know what you did. All these other people are probably forgiven, but you? No way. I’m not even sure what you’re doing here. I’m not sure how you can call yourself a Christian. All the sins you’ve committed, all the wickedness in your own heart, all the corruption of your flesh, you call yourself a Christian?”
And the devil tries to sneak in there, which is one of the reasons why we practice private confession and absolution. That’s probably really what Jesus is talking about. We can give the general absolution, which is wonderful, but that we get to hear the absolution one-on-one.
So we go to the pastor and say, “Dear Pastor, please hear my confession in order to fulfill God’s will.” We have it, by the way, on the calendar every Wednesday afternoon. You can come to private confession, but any other time that you want, you can talk to me or Pastor LeBlanc or in two weeks, Pastor Davis, and come and say, “Could you hear my confession and pronounce forgiveness in order to fulfill God’s will.”
And here’s the beautiful thing about it: there’s simply no gap. There’s no place for the devil. It’s almost like this. I think it works in this way. It’s like when the devil’s sitting there saying to you, “Well, look, the only reason that pastor dares say anything like the kindness of God and the mercy of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins is because he doesn’t know what you did.” So when you come to confession, you’re saying, “All right, pastor, here’s one. I dare you to forgive that.”
And you know what I’ll do? You know the only thing that I’m authorized by my Lord Jesus Christ to do is to forgive that sin. To pronounce the absolution. To put my hand on your head so that there’s no room for the devil to sneak in there between me and you and say that forgiveness is for someone else and to say to you, “Your sins are forgiven. That sin is forgiven.”
And you know the last word that the pastor says in Confession and Absolution? It’s from Jesus on Easter: “Go in peace.” Go in peace with a good conscience.
Now, what’s the rule? You don’t have to go to private Confession and Absolution. There’s no requirement. It’s there as a gift. It’s not a legalistic sort of thing. And if you’ve never been to confession and absolution, you shouldn’t feel bad about it. Rejoice that the Lord has given you a clean conscience, that you rejoice in the forgiveness of sins.
But here’s a rule of thumb. This is from me, not from the Bible. Here’s how I’d like you to think about it, though. If you come to church for three weeks, and we kneel to confess our sins, and there’s that time of quiet before we confess our sins, and if the same sin floats up to the top of your mind three weeks in a row, then it’s time to give us a call and say, “Hey, pastor, could we meet for private confession and absolution?”
It’s an indication that there’s a sin that you’ve committed that’s stuck in your conscience—it’s like a thorn that’s stuck in your foot or something—and you just need to get the tweezers out and pull it away so it doesn’t get infected. Come in and ask for confession and absolution to fulfill God’s will, and you’ll get it.
There’s another advantage, by the way, of confessing to the pastor. We’ll hear Pastor Davis make his ordination vows in a couple of weeks, and one of the things that he’ll promise, amongst a lot of promises and oaths that the pastor makes upon entering into his office, is to never divulge the sins confessed, so that the pastor’s ear is a tomb—a normal tomb, not the tomb of Jesus. The sins go there to die, and they never come out again.
So this is the first gift of the absolution: that the absolution is for you, that the Lord wants you to know his heavenly verdict regarding your sins, and this is the verdict: you are innocent. Your sins are died for. Your sins are washed by the blood of Jesus. You have a good conscience, not because you’ve done everything right; you have a good conscience because the Lord gets in there and scrubs that dirty conscience with his blood so that you will stand before him on the last day dressed in the white robes of his righteousness and perfection. That’s what is given to you in the promise, “I forgive you all your sins.”
And that’s what Jesus wants you to have. But there’s a second thing on the absolution, and this we often miss, because we think that the absolution comes from the pastor. I think this confusion is added to because in the absolution we say, the pastor says, “As a called and ordained servant of the word, I announce the grace of God to you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins.”
And we think, well, the pastor’s forgiving me because he’s the pastor; like the pastor has some sort of secret forgiveness power? No. It’s true that the pastor is called to the public office of preaching and administering the sacraments, including public confession and absolution. But the office of the keys is the peculiar authority that Christ gives to his church. When Jesus says, “Whoever sins you forgive,” the “you” there is not just the apostles, and it’s not just the pastors; it also belongs to you.
Let me be very clear on this: if you’re baptized, you have the authority to forgive sins. And not just the sins committed against you, although that’s a good place to start; you have the authority to forgive the sins committed against Jesus, against God, against one person, against their neighbor.
So that whenever you hear a confession of sin, it’s not just the pastor that’s obliged to forgive that sin, but you as a Christian are under obligation to forgive that sin. Now, I don’t think this means that when you’re with your friends having lunch or something like that, and you hear them telling you something that they’re guilty about, that you should stand up at the table and walk around and put your hands on their head and say, “As a baptized servant of Christ, I forgive you your sins.”
Yes, you could if you wanted; I think that would be kind of strange. But you can say to them this: “Jesus died for you. That sin is forgiven. In the name of Jesus, I forgive you.” And whatever sins are forgiven on earth are forgiven in heaven. The Lord doesn’t hold it against you.
Now imagine that, because we as fallen sinners are in the business not of forgiving sins but of holding on to sins. In fact, you know, if someone sins against you, you might need that later when you want to sin back. But we are forgiven. We’re not authorized to hold on to sin. We’re authorized— we’re commissioned—to forgive sins.
We’ve been talking about what it means to be a witness, what it means to do evangelism in Sunday school. Well, this is really what it comes down to: that Jesus, resurrected from the dead, breathes on his disciples and breathes on you his Holy Spirit and says, “Whoever sins you forgive, they’re forgiven.” You are forgiven forgivers, going out into the world to spread this joy of Easter, that God is not mad, he’s not angry; his wrath is spent on his son, nah, it’s not meant for you, and that you’re released from your sins.
By the way, just as a quick aside, that’s what the word “forgiven” means. It means released. So that the absolution is a declaration of freedom. You are no longer bound to your sin; you’re no longer bound to death; you’re no longer bound to the grave; you are bound up to Jesus, who is life and light and joy and peace. So dear saints, rejoice in this: “I forgive you all your sins.”
That’s the first sermon; now the second one on St. Thomas, who wasn’t there—can you believe it?—who wasn’t there to hear Jesus give the gift of the absolution.
Now, we don’t know why Thomas wasn’t there, but here’s my best, and this is my opinion, but it’s informed from the Scriptures, because it doesn’t tell us why Thomas was gone, but it does tell us why the ten were there, remember? It was Easter. Peter and John had run to the tomb; they’d come back; some women had said they saw Jesus; the angel had talked to them and said to go to Galilee, but now it was nighttime, and two left were on the road to Emmaus, and they’re locked in this upper room, and the door is barred shut. And it tells us why the door is locked up shut. It says because they were afraid of the Jews. They were afraid that if they were caught, the same thing would happen to them that happened to Jesus, that they would be flogged and crucified, that they would be brought before Pilate and say, “Here’s Jesus’ followers.” If he was condemned, then they’re condemned, and that they’d be dead. They were afraid. Ten of them were afraid.
Now here’s my conjecture. If the ten were there because they were afraid, I think Thomas was not there because he was not afraid. And this is backed up by the scriptures which say—remember when Jesus says, “We’re going to go to Bethany because Lazarus died, and we’re going to go wake him up from the dead,” and the disciples say, “Lord, the Jews are trying to kill you in Bethany,” and Thomas says, “Let’s go with them. If we die, we die.” Remember Thomas the bold?
So here’s what I think’s going on. The ten are there afraid and Thomas says, “Come on, guys, we got to go find Jesus. He’s not in the grave. They said he’s alive. We’ve got to go find him!” And they say, “Why don’t you go?” And Thomas says, “Not one of you is gonna come with me? Peter, you’re not coming? John, you’re too afraid? Philip, you’re not gonna walk with me? No, no, Thomas, you go ahead. We’re afraid.”
So Thomas the bold, Thomas the unafraid, is out walking these dangerous streets of Jerusalem, trying to avoid the soldiers, trying to figure out what people have seen, trying to track down where it was that the women saw Jesus earlier, looking for him, praying, “Lord, if you’re alive, show yourself to me. Lord, if you’re alive, let me find you. Lord, if you’re alive, that I’ll see you and I can serve you and bless you in some sort of way.”
And Thomas is risking his own life looking for Jesus for, I don’t know, how many hours until he comes back and does the secret knock so the fraidy cats can open the door, and he comes into the room saying, “I didn’t find—” and they’re like, “Thomas, Thomas, wait a minute! Jesus was just here!” “When?” Thomas says. “Like five minutes ago, Thomas.” And he says, “He didn’t wait for me! Where did he go? He just disappeared. Couldn’t he have stayed a little bit longer? I’ve been out there looking for him while you guys are sitting around here huddled up for fear, and Jesus shows up for you and not for me?” No way! I’m not gonna believe it until I put my hand in his hands and to put my hand in his side. I’m not gonna believe it.
Can you imagine? That’s got to be a rough night because the ten have this joy of Jesus raised from the dead, and Thomas has this animosity—and that went on not just for that day but for eight days. Jesus had given them the instruction, “Hey, you guys need to go to Galilee,” and you’ve got to think, “Hey, should we go to Galilee?” And Thomas is sitting there in the corner with his arms crossed, “I’m not going anywhere. You guys can go; you didn’t go before; you can go to Galilee; I’m not going anywhere.” For eight days, until one week later, 1,990 years ago today.
They’re still in the upper room, and Jesus appears to them again. And he says first, “Peace be with you,” the same thing he always says to us—“Peace be with you.” And then he uses Thomas’s own words. We can’t miss this. Jesus, when he says to Thomas, “Put your hand here in my hand and put your hand in my side,” he uses the same words that Thomas uses, meaning that Jesus was there the whole time. He was listening to what Thomas said; he knew it, and he shows him hands and his side, and he says, “Don’t be unbelieving but believe.”
And Thomas teaches us what it means to be a Christian. He falls to his knees and he says to Jesus, “My Lord and my God.” And then Jesus looks at Thomas with affection but with a slight rebuke, but mostly with an eye to you and me. And he says to Thomas, “You believe because you’ve seen, but blessed are those who believe and have not seen.” That, dear saints, is you.
Jesus, whom you have not seen, you love. Jesus, whom you have not seen, you trust in with the hope of glory to which you will obtain the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Jesus, who has risen from the dead and has given you this gift that all your sins are forgiven so that you will be with him in paradise. There’s gonna be a day when Jesus will appear for us in the same body that he appeared for Thomas, and we’ll fall down with Thomas and confess the same thing, “My Lord and my God,” and he’ll bring us into the resurrection and the life that never ends.
So we rejoice today, just like in the garden when Jesus breathed on the lump of dirt and made a man who was living, so Jesus, raised from the dead, breathes on us this promise, the forgiveness of sins, and brings us into the joy of eternal life. May God grant us this comfort and this joy, not just now but also forever, in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Christ is risen.
He has risen indeed.
Alleluia.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.