The Second Sunday of Easter The Priority of Peace and Forgiveness
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. In today’s Gospel, Jesus wants you to know that it is His top priority to proclaim peace to you and the forgiveness of sins of your sins, by the power of His resurrection from the dead. According to today’s Gospel, Jesus is so intent upon speaking peace and forgiveness to us that He came to His disciples “on the evening of that day, the first day of the week,” the very same day that He arose victorious over death and the grave. Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) Dear Christian friends, The purpose of preaching is NOT to teach you how to be a better person. A lot of sermons get preached all across America every Sunday. MANY of those sermons try to help you improve yourself and become a better person. Such sermons might • provide you with you tips for having a better relationship with your spouse, your children, or your coworkers; or • outline ways for you to avoid feeling crushed and overwhelmed by the difficulties of your daily life; or • teach you that you should be more patient and less demanding; more generous and less self-centered; more forgiving and less angry or resentful. You might find such information to be personally helpful to you. Nevertheless, ALL such sermons miss the purpose of preaching. The purpose of preaching is NOT to teach you how to become a better person. Please do not misunderstand: Just because the purpose of preaching is NOT to teach you how to become a better person, that does not mean you have no room for improvement. You and I have been around each other long enough to know “a miserable sinner” when we see one, in the mirror or otherwise. Even if you might not see much room for improvement in yourself, you undoubtedly can see room for improvement in me. (I also might have noticed a thing or two about you that could change.) We all commit many sins on a daily basis and “surely deserve nothing but punishment” (Small Catechism, Fifth Petition.) Let’s just admit that and be done with it! But just because we all could and should do WAY better than we do, we do not need to draw the conclusion that the purpose of preaching is to make us better people. God clearly says in His Scriptures that • “nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” (Romans 7:19) and “my sinful nature” (NIV). What can a turkey barn or a landfill do to make itself smell better? How might a dead body prevent itself from decay? Where there is “nothing good,” how can I expect something good to arise? • “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9). Where is the cancer patient who has performed surgery upon himself? Who has ever cured himself of Alzheimer’s disease or any other desperate sickness? • “the intention of man’s hear is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). Who are we to think that we can make ourselves better, through preaching or otherwise? Shall we think of ourselves more highly than we ought, and thus receive the condemnation of God? (Romans 12:3) May the LORD forbid it! That is the first reason why I have said to you that the purpose of preaching is NOT to teach you how to become a better person. When sermons are designed to help you improve yourself or to become a better person, such sermons will only create whitewashed tombs filled with the bones of the dead (Matthew 23:27). But our sin—really, our inborn death (Romans 5:12)—is only the first reason why I say to you that preaching is NOT for your self-improvement. The other reason is this: Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) In today’s Gospel, Jesus wants you to know that it is His top priority to preach and proclaim, NOT self-improvement, but “peace to you,” by the power of His resurrection from the dead. Jesus does not preach to you so that you can stop sinning—as if that were even possible—but Jesus preaches to you so that your sins may be forgiven, covered, and washed away in the blood of His crucifixion! How important is the preaching of peace and forgiveness? According to today’s Gospel, Jesus regards the preaching of peace and forgiveness to be the top priority of His resurrection from the dead! Jesus is so intent upon speaking peace and forgiveness to us that He came to His disciples “on the evening of that day, the first day of the week,” the very same day that He arose victorious over death and the grave. Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” … Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” What a gift and what great joy from our risen Lord! • First Jesus says, “Peace be with you.” With these Words, Jesus wants you to know that “the strife is o’er, the battle done” (LSB #464). With these Words, Jesus wants you and all Christians to know that there is no longer any conflict between you and God. All that once separated you from your Father in heaven; all sin that once drove you away from His door; even the death that once banished you from His presence: all these things have been swallowed up in the victory of Christ’s resurrection. “Peace be with you.” • Jesus Words, “Peace be with you” carry the entirety of your forgiveness and the fullness of your eternal life. But Jesus does not merely say “peace to you” in today’s Gospel. Here in today’s Gospel, Jesus also charges and authorizes and energizes the preaching of the Church until the end of time: Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” According to these Words, what should you expect to hear from the preaching of the Church? You should expect to hear the proclamation of peace and the forgiveness of your sins—and that is a FAR CRY from self-improvement! Preaching must not try to fix you. Because of the deadly disease of our sin, which continually courses in our veins and darkens our minds, there is no fix for you—just as surely as there is no fix for me. The one and only thing that can help either of us—you or me—is a resurrection from the dead. Praise be to God! Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) On account of Christ’s resurrection, • you now have peace; • all your sins are forgiven in Jesus’ name; • you now have full access to everything that comes with along with peace and forgiveness—including the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen. _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
