Jesus With us!

Sermon for April 3, 2005

1. Good Morning – Let’s pray. O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, everywhere present and filling all things. Treasury of all gifts and Giver-of-Life: come and abide in us, cleanse us of every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One and now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

2. Opening Comments: The Pope and to some “The Holy Father” has died. Like many of us, my heart is both heavy and joyful. Heavy because such a giant of a saint is gone from this earth, joyful because He is home in glory with His beloved Lord and is receiving His well deserved reward. He has heard the words, “Well done my good and faithful servant!” Oh Lord, I pray that I too will hear those words when I step into Glory! How about you?

Like many of you I have been listening to the television and Radio coverage of his passing and the one statement that struck me like a bolt of lightening was from one of his close confidants and it went something like this “John Paul more than anyone I know was Christ in flesh.” What he was saying was that this Pope was truly a holy man and because of that he mediated the Presence of Jesus Christ. When you were near him you felt near to Jesus Christ.

And in this sense he not only presented Christ to all Christians but he presented Jesus Christ even to the unbelieving world.

Truly these is some sense in which it could be said that when you saw him you saw and most compelling image of our Lord.

This is what we are all called to be! To look and feel and sound more and more like our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Why? So that the unbelieving world may see holiness enfleshed and be drawn to it’s beauty and wonder and become thereby captive to our Lord – to become His followers!

It is not surprising to me that the lectionary reading for today touches on this very point. Let me explain.

3. Focus on Scripture: Please turn with me to the Gospel of John chapter 20 verses 19-31. What we’re about to read is eyewitness accounts of the resurrected Christ visiting His beloved disciples.

May I encourage us to really concentrate right now because what we’re about to hear are comments from Jesus after He’d come back from death. Are we ready? Here we go:

John 20:19 On the evening of that first day of the week, This is just hours after His reported resurrection - when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them (How did He do that? – why did He do that?) Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Ah! Can you feel our Lord’s desire to comfort us here – He’s always seeking pacifying or calming their fears. What does this tell us about our Lord?

Let’s read on now - verse 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Now what’s He doing – the disciples were overjoyed – He’s bringing them joy but in revealing Himself. He’s showing them the marks of His death! He’s responding to their doubt - their fear that He had died and that was the end of that.

Think about it – how would you feel? What would you think if Jesus appeared in your living room and said “Peace be with you,” and then proceeded to show you His scarred body – revealing the holes in his hands and feet and side? What would you do?

OK – let’s keep reading – verse 21: Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! That’s the second time He’s blessed them with His peace! Can you hear Him saying that to us – to you, right now. Peace be with you – peace . . . . beeeee wiiiiiittttthhhhhh YOU!

Now listen to what He says next – this is our mandate – our charge our “rason de tre” – this is the very reason for our existence - Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” Jesus is sending us to do what? What did the Father send Jesus for? To show the world what God looks like in flesh and to show them how God lives out His infinite love in the flesh! And in doing this He is going to redeem the world!

To suffer for the lost to the end that they would come to believe and follow Jesus!

Jesus is sending us to share the Good News – the Gospel, that God loves us and has sent His Son to bring us back to Him! He has sent out a rescue mission to find and bring home His prodigal children. Ah! Now let’s read on: Verse 22: And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

Wow! Not only did He give them their calling in life but He then empowered them for this mission!

He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And we must assume that they did receive the Holy Spirit who then proceeded to empower them to continue doing what Jesus Himself had begun to do on earth!

Now what follows has been seen by the ancient church as the empowerment of the Apostles and all thereafter set aside for the Priestly ministry to be able to forgive sins in His name. Listen to the words – verse 23: If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” This is one of the foundational verses (together with it’s parallel verse in Matthew - Matt. 16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”) that under girds the powerful sacrament of Reconciliation or Penance.

Yes, God can and does forgive you directly but in these and other words the ancient church has always believed that Jesus was giving to His pastors a great “means of His grace” in which we can hear the actual words, “In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.’ A number of us in this congregation have chosen to experience this grace and I would encourage you all to seriously consider availing yourself of it. It is a most wonderful means of receiving God’s blessed graces.

Let’s read on and in the next verses that we witness our Lord reaching out to comfort not only our fears but also to respond to our unbelief.

Do you ever wonder – Is this faith really real? Well, guess what – so too did at least one of His first disciples – Thomas. Let’s discover how our Lord responds to this unbelief:

24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” Now this is a hard test – it’s the test of empiricism – it has to be seen and felt and then belief will follow.

In other words Thomas is saying: “I want to see Him and feel Him before I believe.”

Are we today any different from Him? I don’t think so. Now how does our Lord respond to this? Let’s read on:

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” This is the third time Jesus has blessed His disciples with His peace!

Let’s read on: 27 Then he said to Thomas, He had come specifically to respond to Thomas - “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Now how did Thomas respond to this powerful demonstration of Christ’s real presence?

Look at verse 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” In this one simple declaration Thomas is calling Jesus not only His Lord – His spiritual master but that last statement “My God” tells us that Thomas fully grasped who Jesus really was – Jesus is God! Not just a miraculous heavenly being but God Himself!

Now how does Jesus respond to this declaration?

Verse 29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Wow! Did you hear that? Jesus just told you and me that because of our belief in Him without the physical evidence that Thomas just received we’re especially blessed! Jesus is telling us that there is special grace for us because of our belief without proof.

Now I want to come back to this but let us conclude the passage – verse 30 through 31: Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. We’re being told this story so that we will believe and because of that belief will have life eternal!

3. Reflection: Now in this reading we see Jesus in His resurrected state showing once again what God is like in flesh and He specifically responds to doubting Thomas.

Can you see that our Lord wants to come to us – to all of us, even those who doubt and in the most practical ways to convince us that He is real – He is real – He is real – not a phantom or a fairy tale on the order of Santa Clause or Mickey Mouse – but real!

And now He wants to do that same thing through us – John Paul the Second is a most perfect example of this reality. Many people have felt our Lord in John Paul’s presence.

In a terribly cynical world a man like John Paul was a living breathing testimony to the reality of Jesus Christ! And he was a living breathing indictment of the cynicism that would deny holiness in flesh – that would deny the reality of a real Jesus Christ. But John Paul betrayed that terrible cynicism and showed us what God in flesh looks like. And he like Jesus walked in our midst and invited people to look and see Jesus alive and well in him – Amen and Amen!

Now John Paul reaches through the veil and calls you and me to a higher standard of holiness that is a walking breathing encouragement to all of the Thomas’ out there to come and touch us and to see us and in so doing to come to know that Jesus Christ is in fact real and alive in us!

Can you see what God is telling us this morning? You and I must become like Christ – so like Him that people sense Him in us and with us and in so doing become captive to our Lord’s wonder and His Presence. They fall in love with Him and become His beloved and faithful friends.

This is perhaps the greatest legacy that you and I could leave – the legacy that this Pope has left! The conviction that Christ is very very real for we see Him in men like John Paul and women like Mother Theresa.

May it be said at our Memorial services that we revealed Jesus in our very lives so much so that when people were in our presence they “felt” and ‘saw” Jesus Christ – Amen and Amen!

4. Now we’ve been told this story shows us how much our Lord wants to assuage our fear and unbelief to the end that we would believe and receive life eternal.

This is His goal – this is why He came to us – this is why He returned to an unbelieving and doubting Thomas and this is the reason He made sure that this event was recorded in His Word – but even more importantly – this is why He is revealing Himself to us again and again in so many many ways today – we love a Lord who knows our need to touch and be touched and so He continues to come to us in so many different ways. – if we have eyes to see Him.

Remember what He said as He left His disciples – “Lo I am with you always to the very end of the age (Matt 28:19).

In the Gospel of John chapter 14 verse 21: John 14:21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

But the most precious and most available to all of us is through His Holy Sacrament – this is the supreme way that He reaches out to us and touches us and blesses us – It is truly the source and summit of our faith today!

5. The Pope and Terri Schaivo. In one week we witnessed the court mandated death of Terri Schaivo and the gentle passing of a beloved man – John Paul II. Both were Christians – and both stand before their Lord and begin their new life in Glory!

This is what Easter is all about – Jesus lives and because of this we too will live forever! Death has lost it’s sting – it is no longer the end but only the beginning!

But even as we remain this side of heaven He comes to us to comfort and encourage us! He comes – He comes to you and to me to bless us and to comfort us. Do you believe this?

You can still be a Thomas and ask our Lord to reveal Himself to you and He will! This is the good news that He wants to remind us of. Jesus doesn’t stand off at a distance and leave us dangling in the wind – He comes to us and I have to believe that He came to Terri and John Paul in their last moments on this earth. He is a faithful Lord and God and He will be with us to the very end of the age. What a comfort! Amen and Amen!

Let’s Pray . . .