Date : Second Sunday of Easter, April 11, 2010
Text : John 20:19-31
Title : That you may believe
"Now Jesus did many other signs . . . which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ . . ." Christ is risen! He is risen, Indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia!
I opened last week’s sermon with a discussion of many of the wrong reasons that people are Christians. There are those who use the church for a social club. Then there are the folks who think God is good as long as life is good. And, there are the ones who simply are afraid of going to hell.
Some folks have faith only to hedge their bets, because they think that you have to believe in something. Others hedge their bets just in case it is, in fact, Jesus who is the Savior, but, if he’s not, they aren’t out anything for eternity.
To wrap it up, there are those tried-and-true Lutherans who are only church-goers because that’s how they were raised and it’s their habit, or they don’t like getting yelled at so they come to church to keep a family member off their back.
But, the celebration of Easter is the celebration of the truth, the fact, the reality that the Son of God and Son of Man, Jesus Christ, really did come back from the dead and, having ascend into heaven, we live in the sure and certain hope of which we sing in our favorite Easter hymn: Jesus lives to give us daily breath; Jesus lives and we shall conquer death; Jesus lives our mansion to prepare; Jesus lives to take us safely there.
When viewed from the vantage point of Easter, Christianity is only about one thing: the cure for death. And, because Jesus has conquered death, it means that He has the power to fulfill His promise that everyone who believes in Him, even though he dies, yet shall he live.
Now, this earthly life contains way more than life or death, but Easter teaches us that everything else is, by comparison, trivial. It’s unimportant. It has no meaning.
Indeed, death is the ultimate dividing line of this life. If you have been a Christian for the right reasons—and the right reasons are what we confess in one of the creeds, every Sunday—then you will have eternal life and this earthly life will be a thing of the past—and, that includes the mountain range of sins that you have committed. So, in that sense, not even your sins and sinfulness matter, because they will all be gone for the sake of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
On the other side of the slate, for the unbeliever, nothing will matter, either. The people who have faith in the wrong things—faith in their good works, or faith in a false religion—or, those who like to think they are Christians, but fall under one of the categories of which I spoke to open the sermon, will be condemned to everlasting damnation. They won’t be able to take with them a single thing from this life.
So, it really is true that the only genuinely meaningful thing is faith in Jesus Christ for the benefit of His resurrection for your own resurrection, so that you have the cure for death—and the only cure for death is Jesus’ eternal life.
That’s why John wrote, as we heard in today’s Gospel, that Jesus had done many other signs, all of which His disciples witnessed—all of which the disciples could have recorded in a whole library of books, but they didn’t. John says that he wrote what he wrote for this singular purpose: that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ and, by believing, you may have life in His name.
There it is. There’s John’s purpose for writing the Gospel of Jesus Christ: so that sinful people, who are heading toward death, might read his words and be brought to faith in Jesus for the purpose of having life in His name.
Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the ultimate sign that a person can give. I have become fond of saying that if you can find any other person who has risen from the dead, never to die again, and to have ascended into heaven, you go right ahead and believe in that person.
But, of course, you won’t. Therefore, along the way of your life, why get caught up in anything less than the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Thomas needed a personal sign; he needed to see Jesus in the flesh. Well, kids, you aren’t going to see Jesus, as Tom did. And, Jesus doesn’t promise you any sign other than the best one He can give—the one He has already given: His resurrection from the grave. All signs point to Jesus Christ and His holy life, blessed death, and unique resurrection.
Notice how the Lord didn’t waste any time in giving His disciples the power of His resurrection through the forgiveness of sins. Today’s Gospel lesson picks up on Easter evening. The Lord comes to His disciples, who were so afraid of being crucified that they were powerless, huddled behind locked doors.
Jesus came to them to give them power. The power, however, would not be in performing miracles, in reading palms, in telling fortunes, or in providing insights from the Bible so that people could live lavish lives. The power was in the forgiveness of sins in the name of the living Christ.
Jesus breathed on His disciples. That’s a sign, right there. It’s the sign of the giving and receiving of the Holy Spirit. Now, in reception of Christ’s Spirit, Jesus says, "If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld."
This is the first sign of the Christian Church: the verbal proclamation of forgiveness in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, by the power vested in us by Jesus Christ. It is the very proclamation of the Gospel. The Gospel is what we call the first of the Means of Grace.
The second sign and second Means of Grace of the Christian Church is the Baptism into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In this sign, the baptized is united with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection, putting on Christ as a robe of righteousness so that the baptized in Christ stand before God the Father as holy and beautiful as does Jesus.
The third sign and final Means of Grace of the Christian Church is the Communion of Jesus Christ. In this sign, the verbally forgiven, baptized believer is once more united with Jesus Christ. Now, the union is Christ’s body and blood, given under our own bread and wine, and digested by you Christians for the forgiveness of your sins, the strengthening of your faith, and the power to live in fervent love toward one another.
Take note: the only three things that the Lord Jesus told His Church to do were to preach and teach the Word, baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and eat and drink in remembrance of Him.
Folks, that makes everything else trivial.
Therefore, you don’t get caught up in whether or not a loved one will make it home to see his dad, before his dad will give up the ghost.
Therefore, you don’t get all excited by some event which makes you think that God is telling you that your loved one made it to heaven.
Therefore, you don’t listen to the hucksters who claim to get messages from your dead loved ones.
Therefore, you don’t concern yourself with psychics, horoscopes, or anything else which is concerned with how your earthly life is going to play out.
Therefore, you don’t gauge the authenticity of your faith by whether or not you can speak in tongues.
Therefore, you don’t test the Holy Spirit by telling Him that you will be a believer if God will do this or that for you.
Therefore, you don’t let any other newfangled idea, any other religion, any supposed cutting-edge theory take your attention away from Jesus Christ and His resurrection.
Jesus did, indeed, do many other signs—way more than the ones the Gospels writers recorded.
He didn’t only walk on the water—perhaps, He also levitated off the ground.
He didn’t only make the mute to speak—maybe, He also made the mute to give solid tips on what stocks to purchase.
He didn’t only feed the thousands on a few bread and fish—it could be that He even got some husbands to listen to their wives.
Okay, I’m being silly.
And, that’s the point: getting caught up on any other signs is a silly thing to do. None of that stuff makes a hill of jelly beans to your life. None of it is in the same ballpark as your Savior’s resurrection from the dead, because none of it is the cure for the death toward which every last one of you is heading.
In Jesus Christ’s resurrection, you have the sure and certain hope for your own resurrection. Believing in Jesus Christ, you have life in His name, because: Christ is risen! He is risen, Indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.