Sermon for Dwight E. Whan
Christ is risen. (He is risen indeed!) Alleluia! Amen. On a very dark and
mournful day, the resurrected Lord Jesus comes to His disciples and He
proclaims to them, "Peace be with you." These Words do something much
greater for the disciples than make them happy. These Words on our Lord's
lips perform for the disciples a miracle.
Dear Pam, Ethan, Evan, and Hannah,
If anyone in this room today understands what these disciples are
experiencing in today's Gospel, you do. Someone Whom they loved had been
taken away from them. Even after three days passed, these disciples still
could not believe that He was gone. They had known for quite a while that
this man's death was coming, but that knowledge gives them no comfort as
they huddle there in that last place they had been with Him before He died.
Yes, the disciples knew that this death was coming, but they were still
totally unprepared for it when it happened.
Peace be with you.
Fairness has nothing to do with this death. He was a good man. He had a
reputation for doing the right thing. He was too young. He had many people
depending on Him. There was so much more He might have said and done if only
He had lived longer. He went quickly, especially compared to many who died
the same way, but the final hours of His death still took too long for those
who had to watch.
Peace be with you.
The upper room everywhere reminds the disciples of what has just happened to
them and to their Lord, but they have no place else to go. They want to
remember His laughter and His health, but a different picture wages a war
against their minds: Every time they close their eyes, they see the image of
His suffering and they want to shake it and they fear that image will be all
they remember. There was a time when the future seemed bright. There was a
time when everything seemed stable for these disciples, but their stability
had been built around this Man Who died. Their feelings of stability died
with Him. Now it seems as though the sun will never again shine quite so
brightly as it once did. Now there are too many questions; too many
uncertainties; too many fears. They have no idea how they would face the
days ahead, much less the rest of their lives.
"Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with
you.'" Three times in this Gospel Jesus says to His grief-stricken,
terrified disciples, "Peace be with you."
For those of you who are guests in our worship, there is something
you should know about us crusty old Lutherans. I do not know what you
believe, but you need to know what we believe. At Grace Lutheran Church we
believe-Dwight believed-that our worship is all about Jesus coming to be
with us in the power of His resurrection from the dead:
· Jesus, God the Son Who is almighty and Who now sits at the right
hand of the Father, here among us.
· Jesus, the Man born of Mary, Whose human flesh is in every way
exactly like ours, "yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).
· Jesus the God-Man present among us spiritually, physically,
miraculously, and eternally.
This living presence of Jesus is what the preaching of the Word in this
place is all about. The fleshly presence of Jesus is what our Holy Communion
is all about. The human-and-divine presence of Jesus is in the Baptism of
our infants and in the singing of our hymnody and in the passage of our
Church year. Even the robe that I wear is not about me, but about the Christ
who sent me. Every aspect of our worship focuses itself on the bodily
presence of our once-dead-but-now-alive Lord Jesus among us. Every aspect of
worship is about the miracles Jesus continues to do for us in His Word.
Do you know what this means, Pam? This means you and I, your
children and your loved ones, your fellow Christians and your guests-we are
all now gathered together in our upper room. If there is anyone here who
understands what the disciples were experiencing in their upper room, you
do. These men gathered on account of an appalling death and so have we.
These men lost something they still could not accept losing and so have we.
These men have no place else to go and neither do we. But look at that:
Jesus came and stood among them and said to them "Peace be with you. Peace
be with you. Peace be with you."
This peace that Jesus gives to His disciples is not a Hallmark greeting. It
is not a hug and it is not a "hang in there." The peace that Jesus gives is
a gift that He pours into our ears. The peace of Jesus is a peace, not as
the world gives (John 14:27), but a peace "which surpasses all
understanding" and a peace that "will guard your hearts and minds"
(Philippians 4:7).
Here in our upper room, our Lord Jesus is here with us in the power of His
resurrection. Here in our upper room, He is bringing to us the same
life-creating gift that He brought to His disciples in today's Gospel. These
are Jesus' Words FOR YOU: Peace be with you.
Jesus' peace is a miraculous peace. Jesus' peace is a death-defying peace
and a resurrection peace. Jesus' peace is now yours because life and death
contended on the cross-and the victory went to life. Christ is risen! (He is
risen indeed!) Alleluia! This is the peace in which Dwight died, the peace
in which he now rests, and the peace in which he shall rise again.
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being
locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood
among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." When He had said this, He
showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they
saw the Lord.
Jesus so dearly loves His disciples that He gives to them evidence
of His resurrection victory. "He showed them His hand and His side. Then the
disciples were glad."
Our brother Dwight also lovingly gave us further evidence of his
own resurrection victory over death, in the same way that Jesus showed His
disciples His hand and His side. In the darkest hour of his suffering, not
long before he died, Dwight called out to me, "Pastor, do you think Jesus is
going to come for me now?"
"Yes, Dwight, I do." Then, while Pam and I were both at his side,
I asked him, "Dwight, are you ready to die in this Christian faith into
which you were baptized?"
Dwight's answer was clear and it was strong and it was
unmistakable. He summoned his breath and spoke with more power than he had
spoken in days. "Yes," he said.
Peace be with you.
Those disciples who gathered in the upper room went on to face
many hardships. For the rest of their days, not much remained certain for
them, except for the resurrection of their Lord Jesus from the dead. Yet
through all their losses, all their hardships, all their struggles, this one
fact remained: Christ is risen. (He is risen indeed!) Alleluia!
By the power of this resurrection, Dwight Whan now lives. By the
power of this resurrection, Dwight shall again be clothed with his body and
raised to immortality and light. By the power of this resurrection, so also
shall you-and we shall "meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be
with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
Until then, peace be with you. The peace of God which passes all
understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
___________________________________________________________________________
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