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Christ is risen. It is risen indeed.
Dear brothers and sisters in our risen Christ, today is Quasimodo Geniti Sunday and that translation means something like as newborns and it is a reference to what is often used as the introit text for this Sunday and that comes from 1st Peter 2 verse 2 and there Peter writes Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow into salvation. And we know that pure spiritual milk to be God’s word, to be the gospel, and that this word then nourishes us daily as we grow in our Christian life and faith.
And this Sunday is, I guess you could say, sort of a bridge between the day of resurrection, Easter day, and of course the other Sundays of the season of Easter. And during these, we will hear this ongoing proclamation of the resurrection. We will especially be hearing from our Lord Jesus and his words about the coming of the Holy Spirit, and of course what this does mean for our Christian life and faith. And we do have this testimony of the resurrection in each of our lessons this morning, and I think…
There’s always this risk of saying too little about them if you try to touch on all them, but I would actually like us to do that a little bit this morning because each one of these readings have something really important to tell us about this great promise of restoration to life which we do have in Christ. and also how the Spirit comes to us and then gives us the ability to believe in this and so that we then know that this, particularly the resurrection, is the foundation of our Christian faith.
Now during the vigil service last Saturday night, we also heard this prophecy from the prophet Ezekiel that we hear this morning, this passage about the valley of dry bones, and it is, I think, there’s at least two things going on here at once. Yes, this is surely the vision of the physical resurrection of the body. We get this really stark depiction of the bones being joined together and the sinews being attached and the flesh being put on and the skin covering them. And maybe we think if we picture this in our minds, this is like something out of a movie where animation or CGI has made this all possible. What is otherwise physically impossible to do?
but i think we also want to remember the context of this prophecy especially as it pertains to god’s people israel and to their faith and perhaps their faith which has been maybe somewhat suppressed under this extreme hardship now this vision that comes to ezekiel comes about you know little less than 600 years before the birth of jesus We might remember that Ezekiel was one of those who was actually in captivity in Babylon with his fellow Judeans. We remember maybe that Judah had fallen, the temple had been destroyed, and God’s people seemed to be without any hope at all.
And yet even here in probably the lowest point they had ever had, when restoration seems impossible, the Lord has this plan for his people. And so Ezekiel’s vision is that plan of the restoration. It is a vision of the restoration which the Lord says is indeed possible only by his word. And he will restore his people to life. He will free them from their exile and most especially from their spiritual death of unbelief and idolatry. He will bring them as the hymn we just sing, says out of joy, into joy and out of sadness.
And this restoration comes by the preaching of the word, even to those who are dead in their trespasses. It comes through the spirit that is breathed out in the word so that those who hear it will receive the breath of life. And it almost seems like a rhetorical question when God asks Ezekiel, can these bones live? And I don’t know, Ezekiel doesn’t bother to answer. He sounds like St. John in Revelation, Lord, you know. But of course they can. because God’s word is active and is living and it can bring an action and life to those who are otherwise dead but the Lord just needs someone to preach it to his people and then from those who would hear and those who would believe would be this remnant that we always hear about on which the new Israel would be built not just a physical Jerusalem and a physical temple for those who both be done away with demolished again but no it’s the spiritual Jerusalem the church of all nations
And the temple is the body of Christ which cannot be destroyed. But of course, as with us, it is the hard part of this is for God’s people to believe any of this without actually seeing it take place. The Ezekiel alone gets the vision, but he’s given this task of preaching what the Lord promises. And yet many would believe without seeing. But our friend Thomas, he demands proof. He demands physical proof to quash his doubt about the resurrection of Jesus, perhaps despite what he might have heard.
We know that Mary Magdalene comes back and tells the disciples that she’s seen the empty tomb. She’s seen Jesus. Maybe Thomas wasn’t there, but surely he’s heard rumors around town. Either way, he doesn’t believe it. And I think sometimes we tend to think very poorly of Thomas for his… Faithlessness, although we forget the other disciples also were in disbelief as well until Jesus appeared to them. Peter and John saw the empty tomb, but John himself admits that they didn’t understand.
Perhaps the disciples at this time then are no different than their forefathers in Babylon. They think that their world has come to an utter end. And so it’s no coincidence then that Jesus appears to them later that day to strengthen them and then removes Thomas’s doubt one week later on Sunday Jesus appears again when Thomas is there now to the 11 in the room and again He gives them these comforting words peace be with you. It is the peace of reconciliation with God It is the peace of the absolution the peace of the forgiveness of sins that he is giving to them
So that they may give it to the church And then he breathes the Holy Spirit on them because he knows they will need to be strengthened for this task of proclaiming the gospel. And then, of course, he gives Thomas what he has given the others physical proof. He even tells Thomas to touch him, put his hand in his side. And he says, do not disbelieve, but believe. And Jesus’ words must have really stung, perhaps even crushed Thomas. But they also comfort him because the Lord has forgiven him for his doubt.
and so thomas explains exclaims with this great confession my lord and my god and in this very confession we hear what saint john tells us in the very first of his gospel that jesus christ the messiah the word made flesh is god and then jesus tells them about this mission that he’s sending them on and that he will bring by their preaching they will bring the nations into the kingdom of God much like this prophecy given to Ezekiel to preach Israel will be re-established for many will come to the gospel that the apostles preach many will indeed believe by hearing and not by seeing and St. John ends this chapter by telling us that he could have written a lot more stuff He could have told us of all these other many signs that Jesus did in the presence of the disciples, but that what he has written, what he has written inspired by the Holy Spirit is sufficient.
It was written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have eternal life in his name. You remember that this assurance comes right after he told them that they believe because they have seen him. but that from now on many will believe because they have not seen. And they will be the ones who are truly blessed.
So we can’t see. So what does it take for us to believe and confess the truth? Especially in this world that tends to find truth relative, if it even says there is a truth. Perhaps John’s words in the epistle are helpful for us this morning. Luther actually thought that this epistle should follow right behind the gospel of John. He called this epistle a battle against doctrine. That is, a battle against the doctrine of man and a battle against the world. John was writing this epistle primarily against the heresies of this guy named Cerenthus, who denied that Jesus had his divinity, that basically his divinity remained with him prior to and during his crucifixion. That essentially the true Christ wasn’t really flesh and bone, only divine. So therefore, a denial of the bodily resurrection.
And this heretical doctrine was, as Luther said, a doctrine of man, of the devil, of the flesh, and everything evil of the world. Because this doctrine confessed what it thought it knew, what it thought was reasonable and logical, and not what was in Scripture. And yeah, sure, Scripture was written by logical and reasonable men, but it was only because they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Right. And we believe because of the testimony that has been given to us, as John says, but not because it is the testimony of men.
And John really hammers this point home in this epistle lesson. He uses this word testify or testimony seven times in these very last verses. He even begins the first letter by writing the life that is Christ was made manifest to us, that is the apostles, and we have seen it, and we testify to it. And he says it again in chapter 4. He has given us his spirit, and we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
But John goes on to say, words to the effect of, but don’t take our word for it. For there are three that testify, the Spirit, the water, and the blood. The Holy Spirit testifies that Jesus is the Son of God, the same Holy Spirit that Jesus gave to them, and again promised to keep sending to his disciples and his apostles this spirit of truth who would teach them, bring them to all remembrance of the things that they had been taught, and guide them in all truth.
And the water testifies. The water testifies through the baptism of Christ himself, who was anointed into this office of ministry by the Holy Spirit. and the blood testifies. The blood testifies to the passion of Christ when he shed his own blood for all of our sin. So then, the spirit, the blood, and the water are inseparable in their testimony to the truth of Jesus as the Son of God, to the truth of the resurrection. And we are, quite honestly, compelled to believe this. The scriptural requirement for credible, believable testimony is the presence of two or more witnesses.
And yet we know, St. Paul tells us that Christ appeared to over 500 of the brothers and of course he appeared most vividly to himself on the road to Damascus But again, these are the testimonies of men and yes, they are inspired But John reminds us that the testimony of God is greater for this is the testimony of God that he’s born concerning his son And so if we believe the testimony of the law We have to believe the testimony of the gospel and when we believe that then we actually have the testimony of God within us
John tells us, if we refuse to believe, then we have made everything God says about himself to be untrue. So unbelief then is not just foolishness, it is blasphemy. And we are, of course, constantly engaged in a war against the Father of lies and unbelief. Satan works in many ways so that when our eyes think we see something that is in front of us, it is the truth. Or he works maybe in ways that our feelings mislead us and take us into sin.
And so our eyes do often deceive us and betray us. That’s not to say what we don’t see isn’t true. The glory, the majesty, and the power of God are ours to behold in all of creation. When we hear from the small catechism, this is what we call the natural knowledge of God. In seeing it, we know that all that we confess about our creator based on the testimony of the Holy Spirit in Scripture is true. It is confirmed. It is confirmed. that He created all things, that He orders all things.
And, of course, we have the revealed knowledge of God in His Holy Word, where we hear this proclamation, most especially, of the forgiveness of sins. That He loved us in such a way that He gave His Son, His only Son, up for us, that we may have life, as John says. And even when we find ourselves, like Thomas, doubting and saying, I believe, Lord, help my unbelief, And thanks be to God that, as with Thomas, he does not cast us aside.
He does not do away with us when we doubt. He calls us to trust him by trusting in his word, the word that we receive in this very place. Now, this Sunday is sometimes also called low Sunday. I don’t think it has anything particularly to do with attendance. Rather, it is called this because there is this, I think, wrong perception that we are somehow coming down. We’re coming down from the highest Sunday of the church year, but I don’t think we ought to see it this way because we’ve talked about this over the past week or so, that every Sunday, each Sunday is the day of resurrection after all.
This candle, this paschal candle over here, the Christ candle or the baptismal candle, whatever you want to call it, it is a reminder of this. It is a reminder of the resurrection. So maybe it should be there every Sunday. Because we don’t want to think about the resurrection as something only from the past. We know it’s historical. It’s an historical event, but we don’t want to view it as just history. It’s a present reality. And though we weren’t eyewitnesses to it, we do have the testimony of those who were there. But more than that, we have the testimony of the word himself.
And thanks be to God that our hope is not in the things of the world or in the things that we can see or only the things that our reason allows us to comprehend. We believe the testimony of the Spirit in the Word of God. We believe the testimony of the Spirit in the water of Holy Baptism. We believe the testimony of the blood of Christ atoning sacrifice and the blood that comes to us for the forgiveness of sins in His Holy Supper.
So in a world that wants to rob us of all these good things, all these good gifts, these free gifts that the Lord has for us, may we freely and truly receive them as the gifts they are, because they are indeed the testimony of God. And it is with this testimony of God that we may believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that by believing we may have Christ, we may have life in his name. Amen.
Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. You have a peace of God which surpasses all understanding. Guard your hearts and minds in our risen Christ, Jesus. Amen.