Are you ready? Are you ready to speak and give a defense about the hope that is in you as a Christian? A good defense lawyer will make himself prepared. He will do research, conduct interviews, review the data, check with the prosecution to see what information they have, they will be familiar with their clients’ version of the story, but they will also be familiar with everyone else’s version as well. They study, and study, and practice and study some more. Why? All so that when they get to the trial, they can present and defend their case with no surprises, or at least with as few surprises as possible. They are ready and able to anticipate every objection, every cross-examination question and answer. Simply put, they are ready to give their defense and win their case.

Now should the time come that someone cross-examines you about your beliefs, are you that ready to give a defense of the hope that is in you in Jesus Christ? Not only that, but do you hold those beliefs so dearly, that you would be willing to die for that hope? When Peter wrote the epistle text from today’s reading, he was writing to Christians who were being pressured and persecuted for the Christian faith. There was a good possibility that they might be brought in for questioning by the government officials because they belonged to this odd religion called Christianity; this religion which didn’t really fit in with the rest of the culture. This “Jesus religion” made people feel uncomfortable. They didn’t understand it. They didn’t like it. The Romans felt it was anti-Caesar and could destroy the fabric of Roman society, and the Jews believed Christianity was a blasphemous anti-God, anti-Mosaic Law troublesome sect. Therefore the Christians were under scrutiny. The people would have their eye on them, watching their conduct, waiting for the Christians to mess up. If they did slip up, it would have given people a reason to dismiss Christianity or to justify persecuting the Christians. So Peter tells Christians living in this sort of a situation to watch their conduct and to be ready to speak up for the Christian faith. He writes: “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”

Even though we Christians in America are not yet facing violent persecution or imprisonment for our faith, things are not that different from Peter’s day to our own. In fact, culturally speaking, in many ways, our country is regressing back to a pagan, anti-Christian 1st century world view. Increasingly, practicing Christians are looked upon by people in our culture as being a little weird, strange, or evil. The world does not understand true Christianity as we Lutherans teach it. They don’t get it. They don’t like it. We make them feel uncomfortable. We remind them that there is a God in the heavens who is looking down on all of us and seeing how we’re doing. People want to get out from under that. Their conscience nags at them. They’d rather not think about things like God and guilt, a right or wrong that goes against fleshly impulses. They don’t want to think about sin and death and what happens after that. And we Christians by our existence and by our witness remind them of all those uncomfortable realities. Don’t be surprised when the people of this world look for opportunities to make fun of us Christians, or focus on our personal flaws and foibles, in order to dismiss our faith. “Oh, those Christians, they’re just a bunch of phonies and hypocrites. Who needs their stupid religion? Who needs their church?” That’s the attitude of the world around us. It is especially hard to defend against this when we act and talk like we are one with the world. Jesus said in today’s Gospel text, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments…” How can the world even mark us as Christians and ask us about the hope that is in us if we live just like them, living as ones who have hope only for this world, serving ourselves and pursuing the things of this world and our flesh? If we do not even act like those who have been redeemed or who are “zealous for what is good”, why should anyone believe us? St. John wrote in His first epistle: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

Lord have mercy! We are truly unworthy to be called His people according to our sins. We do not deserve His mercy, love, and forgiveness. We deserve to be blotted out and condemned with all the unbelieving evil-doers. Let us repent and confess our sins, pleading for forgiveness and the power to truly love and serve Him, to restore in us a hope of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God, there is hope anew in Jesus Christ who has died for those sins. As St. John also says in His first epistle: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” St. Peter wrote: “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit.”

We were the unrighteous, but now through faith we are accounted as those declared and being made righteous for the sake of the righteous One, Jesus Christ. As St. Peter wrote, the Holy Spirit now declares: Baptism now saves you, as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You have been washed, you have been sanctified (that is, made holy), and you have been justified (that is, declared righteous) in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. You have been forgiven in Jesus Christ. You have been washed, examined, and absolved. You have had that hope of salvation and forgiveness renewed within you by His Holy Spirit. So I ask you are you prepared? Are you ready to give a defense for the hope that is in you? Yes you are. You are being made ready, and being prepared every time that you remember the benefits of your baptism. Every time that you are led to confess your sins and hear the words of Absolution, you are being trained, changed, and renewed. Every time that you come to Bible Study, sing the liturgy, sing the hymns, hear the Word preached, the Holy Spirit is coming to you, filling you up, dwelling with you and in you. You are not orphans, you are God’s children. Jesus, your brother and Savior comes to you by His Spirit in these gifts which He has given to the Church to strengthen you through faith, to be protected as you live in Him in this world. By His Spirit, you have a clean heart recreated in you, you have restored in you the joy of His salvation. This joy propels you to be zealous for good works: to love and serve God by serving your neighbor, even those cannot or will not reciprocate your service and love.

How can we love and serve the unlovable? Those who might or even do hate us? In the same way that God has mercy and loved us, who have been unlovable. In our previous sin and rebellion. Then when you have lived the life of a loving Christian, people will ask why you love them, why are you kind, why do you seem to have hope even in the midst of suffering, why does earthly success not go to your head, why are you so grounded? You may answer: I am a sinner, but I have been forgiven, my Savior has loved me, so how can I not love you? He has given me eternity, so how can I misuse this time on earth? If I have suffered, it is nothing compared to the suffering of my Savior, Jesus Christ on my behalf. If I have had success in the eyes of the world, it is to God’s glory, for where I have failed, God has made me a success. I am grounded because I have been planted by the tree of life in the cross of Jesus Christ, and by His blood and through His Word, I am fed and led to drink His living water.

Yes, dear friends, Jesus comes to you here in His Word and there in His body and blood, so that you may be blessed with forgiveness, and blessed to forgive and live in love by His Holy Spirit. You have learned to give a defense and explanation of your hope because Jesus Christ is your defense and sure hope. He has died for you, risen, and prepares a place for you now and hereafter in eternity because He loves you.

Are you ready to give a defense for the hope that is in you? Through Christ Jesus, yes, yes, you are. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Most of you know that if you have a “smart phone”, whether it be an Apple phone or Android, you can train it to activate by voice commands. Rather than typing, swiping, or some other action, you can activate the phone by voice to look up information, call someone, open up an application, all without hands. However, as many of you know, to use this function, you have to train the cell phone to recognize your voice by repeating a line over and over again. The idea is that by calling out the magic words with your unique voice, the phone assistant will awaken and then you can proceed to command it. Yet it doesn’t always recognize your voice. It only recognizes your voice if you use the same tone, the same volume, the same pitch with the same rhythm as when it was trained, otherwise it may just ignore you.

In today’s Gospel text Jesus, names Himself as the Shepherd of the sheep. His sheep know Him by His voice. When He calls to them by name they follow Him. A stranger they will not follow, but “they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of a stranger.” The sheep hear and know His voice. They recognize Him by His voice. To hear and recognize the voice of the Shepherd implies that there is familiarity with the shepherd beyond what a cell phone can recognize. In the ancient Middle East, the shepherd would be with the sheep for many, many hours at a time, speaking to them, calling to them, singing to them, perhaps even playing an instrument to them to lead them, guide them, and calm them down. The sheep learn to know the different tones of the Shepherd’s voice. They know when the Shepherd’s voice takes on the tone of warning. They know the sound of rebuking, leading, guiding and loving. They know the Shepherd’s voice inside and out. This kind of recognition can only come from constant exposure to His voice. It is much like a baby which recognizes its mother’s voice after being born because it had heard her voice all the time while still in her womb.

This passage from John along with the entire 10th chapter describes the ongoing life of the Church which is represented as the flock of sheep who have Jesus as its Shepherd and Overseer. Jesus continues to call, gather, and enlighten His sheep from every generation through the voice of His Word in Scripture and His Sacraments as they are faithfully administered by His under shepherds. If these “pastors” are not faithful, if they are false teachers and preachers, then they are as thieves and robbers. The sheep should be prepared and able to recognize these charlatans and rogues because as sheep of the Shepherd, they would have been students of His voice having studied the scriptures, deeply and often at home and Divine Service. The sheep would understand the dynamic that when the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd they don’t just shrug their shoulders and pay Him no mind, but they hear His voice and follow Him. There is walking; journeying; following; obeying. They also are to be faithful to the Scriptures not just in thought but in action, as St. James writes: “Lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves”(James 1:21-22).

James sounds like he is speaking today by what he says next. “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of a man he was” Sadly, this is happening among many who claim to be members of the church today. Many have forgotten who they are and whose they are: they have forgotten the voice of the Shepherd.

The Christian culture in America is marked by one of plurality. It has been influenced by American consumerism and the thought that anyone is free to do what is right in their own eyes. It is perplexing…and very difficult to combat. They follow the voice they have come to know. There are churches that do not emphasize the voice of the Good Shepherd in historic truth of God’s Word and His sacraments. Instead, they emphasize the whims and wants of the modern individual. In such a case, the subjective desires or interpretations of the individual become the driving force on how one worships and what one believes. The voice that is heard and followed is no longer that of the Shepherd but voice of the “sheep who liked to stray”. The problem with throwing out the voice of the Shepherd to appease the itching ears is that people end up not having a shepherd in this world. They walk alone, searching and fighting to survive the spiritual onslaughts of the devil with very little protection. An individual who might claim to believe in Jesus, who may claim to pray to Jesus, but if he does not attend a faithful congregation, thereby avoiding a deeper contemplation of the Scriptures with brother and sister sheep to hear and be fed by their Shepherd’s voice in truth and purity, how can they stand against the evil wolf and dread satanic lion? Perhaps they attend a church that checks the boxes of programming, sports teams, favorite music, but if the Word of God is not there or diminished, then the voice of the Good Shepherd is not there or muted. Everything is trite and superficial. The true teachings of the scriptures sound foreign to those sheep and so the voice of the thief sounds completely reasonable. This is one reason why so many people today are leaving Christianity. They were misguided to begin with. They did not know, or they forgot, or they covered their ears from the voice of the Good Shepherd by placing a greater emphasis on voices other that the Good Shepherd.

All too often, we also forget the voice of the Shepherd or we ignore Him when we choose to skip Bible Class or Divine Service, when we conveniently ignore parts of Scripture that make us uncomfortable or tells us that what we are doing is wrong or tells us to do something we don’t want to do. Then we are not being sheep of the Good Shepherd, we are disowning Him by our sin and unbelief wanting to follow the voice of our flesh or the world. This is exactly what the Great thief, the devil wants. He wants the sheep to jump the fence, to avoid the Shepherd who is also the door, and then wander into the hands of those who mean us harm, who will bring us again under judgment and destruction.

Let us repent of our sin and our stubbornness.

Thankfully, the Shepherd has mercy on His sheep and Jesus is truly the Good Shepherd. He does not give up on sinful stubborn sheep, but He continues to call to you, to me, to unbelievers, to repent, to come back and enter again the sheepfold, the Church, through the only door that saves and protects from the evil one, and his band of thieves. This door is Jesus Christ. He is the Good Shepherd. Why? Because as He said in the verses following this morning’s reading in John 10: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” (John 10:11, 18)

Jesus has laid down His life so that the sheep may have life. This He did at the cross. He has suffered for you bearing your sins in His body on the tree, that the righteous wrath of God for your sin would be taken by Jesus Christ. By His wounds you have been healed. He has risen from the dead and taken His life back up again, so that we may have that resurrection life as our inheritance by faith in Him.

The voice of the Shepherd is the voice of life. His voice called your name to that inheritance and life with a loving yet thunderous tone in Holy Baptism. He continues to call you through His Word, to hear again His voice in all its tones. Tones of admonishment, to which we confess our sins and then receive forgiveness in the absolution spoken in tones of love and reconciliation by His undershepherds. This voice is His voice. The Word of God in the liturgy is that which familiarizes us again to His voice which leads us through the valley of the shadow of death to the still water, as we are invited by our Good Shepherd to drink and eat heavily and healthfully on the preaching of His Word and the eating and drinking of His precious body and blood given and shed for you in this bread and wine. Your Good Shepherd here continues to come to you and call you and lead you to the cross, and to the empty tomb: to the place where He now leads His sheep to have life and have it in eternal abundance. As we follow Him by faith, He leads us forth through this life to the life in heaven which He has prepared. Through suffering and persecution, through joys and triumphs, He leads us forth. We hear His voice and He hears us pray. He comes to us and picks us up and carries us when we are weak. Through Him we have salvation, hope, and eternal life.

May we be drawn to Him and His Word ever and always, so that by faith we may recognize His Voice, His Love, His direction and guidance throughout this life until the day, when His voice will once more call us by name to come forth from the tomb or from this life to eternal life in resurrected victory through Jesus Christ, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Have you ever been so focused on something, so distracted, perhaps in worry about a problem, that you missed what other people were saying to you, even if they were telling you the solution? Have you ever been looking for something that you thought you had lost, but you were so panicked that you didn’t even see it, even though it was in the open? Then, someone else points it out to you and finds it for you? What a joy, what a relief, but then you may also think, how did I not see it when it was just there and why couldn’t I listen and hear the solution in the midst of my worry?

This morning’s Gospel lesson also speaks of some travelers who were so focused on their worries and problems that they too could not see or hear the solution to their trouble even though He was right there with them before their very eyes and ears.

The Gospel account for this morning took place on the 1st day of the week after the death of Jesus: IOW: Resurrection Day. Two of Jesus’ disciples were on their way to Emmaus. Now these disciples were not among the 12 closest disciples but were likely part of the 72 who had been temporarily sent out to the lost sheep of Israel by Jesus in Luke 10. During that time, they witnessed the power of God’s Christ as God worked through them His power to preach, perform miracles, and cast out demons. But now… to them, that experience was a forgotten and old history as they left Jerusalem downcast and defeated thinking their teacher was dead. As they were speaking to each other about the recent events, suddenly another traveler joined them. We are told by St. Luke who this was, but we are told that the disciples’ eyes were kept from recognizing Him. The reason they could not see Jesus is because they were too overwhelmed by their own feelings, their own doubts, their own despair to see straight, but they also were kept from seeing Him until the perfect and most meaningful time.

In verse 17, when Jesus asked them about their conversation, our translation says that they stood still looking sad… The Greek uses a word that is more meaningful than “sad”. The word is skuthropos which means to be gloomy, sullen, beat back, overtaken, wretched, destroyed, having lost all. This is how they felt, as gloomy wretched beaten ones who had lost it all. Amazed that this stranger hadn’t heard of the events in Jerusalem, they recounted it briefly. Referring to Jesus, they described Him as a “prophet mighty in word and deed”. “We had hoped that He was the One to redeem Israel.” they say in past tense.

Notice they do not say He is the Son of God, nor that He was the Savior, but that they had hoped at one time that He would have been. They reveal that there were women who had seen a vision, who had said that this Jesus was alive, but when other disciples went to the tomb, they saw the tomb but did not see Him. So they did not believe. Like Thomas from last week’s Gospel, They thought it would be wonderful if Jesus were alive, but it sounded too good to be true. Jesus let them talk, Jesus was using this moment to show them what they didn’t know so that they might learn what they must know.

Then Jesus says “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer and enter His glory?” Jesus did not say this to insult them, but rather he said it with pity, to get their attention as He then expounded to them the scriptures, proving that all of Scripture, Old and New Testaments are to be interpreted through Christ who has fulfilled them all.

There was something about these words that held the disciples attention, yet they still did not perceive. So, as they reached Emmaus, they were going to stop, but Jesus appeared to be ready to continue on. The disciples said what turns out to be a beautiful prayer, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent.” He stayed and as they were about to eat, when He was at “table with them” He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Immediately their eyes were opened; opened by Jesus who chose this moment to open their eyes and reveal Himself in this breaking of the bread. Therefore there is something special, some significance in this act of blessing and breaking bread. Jesus did for these disciples the same thing He had done with them on the night when He was betrayed as in Luke 19, taking the bread, blessing it, breaking it and telling them, “This is my body given for you.” Jesus revealed His body and person in this Sacrament of His Holy Eucharist.

As they recognized Him, Jesus vanished from their sight, to meet them again later. In the same way that He can appear and vanish in these resurrection accounts, Christ is not limited to time and space. As the Son of God according to His glory His body can be present when and where He wills and promises even in His Holy Supper. In the text, the revelation of the resurrected Christ brought them to faith and in their joy and excitement they ran 7 miles back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples the good news. How is this message described? “Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them (specifically)in the breaking of the bread.”

Dear friends in Christ, this is not a story, this is not a fairy tale, but has really happened, and may our own eyes be opened to His appearance in His Word and in the bread and wine. The whole thrust of this passage and all the accounts of Jesus appearing after He rose is to open our hearts and minds to the fact that Jesus was and is the Christ, the Messiah, the perfect paschal/passover lamb of God who through His death on the cross has paid the price of sin. He has in fact redeemed all believing Israel made up of all peoples, Jews and Gentiles who perceive that Jesus is their Savior from their sins.

He is the solution to the problems of death, of sin, sickness, sorrow, anxiety, hatred, greed, and falsehood. Yet so often the world cannot and will not see or hear the voice of Jesus. They will search anywhere else closing themselves off from the Gospel of Jesus Christ because the cross of Jesus Christ and the love of God doesn’t make sense to sinful nature. We want to see proof, we would like to get some kind of credit for our actions, or we want something that will excuse us in our sin. People reject the word of God and the voice of our Savior because they get caught up in themselves, their perceived needs, wants, and desires and the distractions of this world. In so doing they become slaves to sin and death even though the solution is preached and taught in God’s Word, in His Church: offered freely by grace for the sake of Jesus who has died for all sin, and reveals Himself in His Word and sacrament. All too often we take the Gospel of Christ for granted in the midst of our earthly woes and worries and become enslaved again to our sin and selfishness. Repent, and have hope. Jesus reveals His love and forgiveness for you as He comes to you and speaks through the Absolution, you are forgiven in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Even as He first came and redeemed you in Christ’s blood through baptism, He takes away your sin again. He then comes to you to confirm His love and forgiveness won for you at the cross in His Word preached and in His Word made flesh offered here in the blessing and breaking of bread. Here in the bread and wine which is His body and blood, He continues to open your ears and eyes to witness His salvation as it is prepared and given to you. As we sing in the nunc dimitis, “My eyes have now seen the salvation…” Yes He reveals His salvation solution to you in the breaking of bread. He reveals the mystery and wonder of His resurrection through His resurrected body given for you, which prepares your body for its perfect resurrection at the last. He prepares you for His final and triumphant return. He is risen and the problems that harass you during this coming week and the weeks to come are already defeated in Christ’s victory. He will give you the strength for each day and each obstacle, remember Jesus Christ is the solution for all those problems and He will lead and guide you through them. He has already lead us from death to life in baptism. He has already defeated sin, death, and the power of the devil through His death and resurrection. How much more will also help you through any other trouble? For this, let us pray, praise, and give thanks.

That is why He continues to gather us and His Church around His Word and Sacraments, because this is where He is and where He reveals Himself. Only in Him and His revealing can we grow in faith and knowledge of the Jesus who is the Way, the truth, and the Life. Only by His power can our fears, doubts, sins, and self-focused-ness be overcome. He continues to manifest and reveal Himself, each and every time He gathers us together. He has given us the solution of salvation through faith in Him. Through His Word and in His Holy Supper Jesus Christ strengthens us as He prepares us until He calls us home. There He shall stay with us and we with Him where there is no evening or darkness, only joy and life in His light forevermore. Amen

Pr. Aaron Kangas

The second Sunday of Easter is annual “Pick on Thomas Day.” There are people in this world who have never even picked up a Bible, but they have heard about “Doubting Thomas.” This label is somewhat inaccurate and, in many ways, unfair: unfair that he is singled out as if nobody else doubted.

In the resurrection account from St. Luke, chapter 24, the women had told the disciples about the angels and Jesus’ appearance, “but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” (Luke 24:11) They … meaning the 11 disciples … did not believe their witness. The disciples were not just doubtful; … they did not believe. They were unbelievers.

Thomas was not among the disciples during that first appearance of Jesus in our text today from John’s Gospel. After Jesus’ first appearance to the disciples, when confronted with the others’ witness he did say, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” See how inaccurate the phrase doubting Thomas is, Thomas was not a doubter, but an unbelieving sceptic as well. They had all been unbelievers. So … how come Thomas is the one who got singled out with the label “Doubting Thomas”? We don’t speak of Pagan Peter, Unbelieving James, Matthew the Infidel? The fact is: not a single one of the disciples believed the report of Christ’s resurrection until they saw Jesus in the flesh. The entire crew failed miserably: they fled, when Jesus was arrested, they didn’t believe the eye witnesses of Christ’s resurrection, and that first night after the tomb was found empty, where were the 10? Afraid for their lives, in a locked room, not remembering anything Jesus said.

In the midst of their fear and unbelief, into the locked room, Jesus comes and stands among them. He who was crucified and dead is no longer so. He is alive. The witness of the women and the Emmaus disciples (about whom we will hear next week) were proven true!

He had every right to scold them vigorously. “Why did you not believe?” Jesus had every right to condemn them but He did not. Jesus came and stood among them in the midst of their failings, their grief, fear and unbelief and brought them peace and forgiveness, comfort, and mercy, and the first words from His mouth to their ears was His loving message “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Jesus not only gave them His peace, but He even invited them to check out the wounds of the crucifixion in His hands and side which was pierced to make peace. Peace with Jesus and Peace with the Father.

Now as if that were not amazing enough, Jesus showed the profound working of God’s grace in the fact that He chooses to use humble and fallible instruments to deliver this word of forgiveness in the office of the Ministry. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” Jesus Himself is “an apostle” because an apostle is a “sent one.” He was the appointed Apostle from God the Father. He was sent from the Father specifically to save the spiritually dead, hopeless, and helpless people as a mission of mercy. To establish peace and reconciliation between God and mankind by His earning forgiveness in His perfect sacrificial death and resurrection and then giving this forgiveness to those who have sinned and failed but repent and believe.

So He who was sent by the Father appoints this group of weak men as apostles … as “sent ones.” These men who just a split second before were unbelievers, or at least misbelievers. They are appointed and sent from God the Son with His authority: as Jesus gave them the special authority to admonish and call sinners to repentance and announce forgiveness and peace to those who do repent. He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Jesus had just endured the cross, and the wrath of His Father for all sin so that forgiveness of that sin could be given. Now, He has taken that dearly won forgiveness of sins and placed it in the hands of this group of sinners and appointed them to the ministry of reconciliation, to the Office of the Keys and distribution and announcement of that forgiveness.

Jesus has given His forgiveness to the Church, and the Small Catechism covers the way in which this authority to forgive sins is lived out in the Church when it discusses the Office of the Keys.

What is the Office of the Keys? The answer: The Office of the Keys is that special authority which Christ has given to His church on earth to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent.

The catechism then cites this passage from today’s Gospel lesson: The Lord Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven’ (John 20:22-23).

What do you believe according to these words? I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.

We exercised this authority and have received the Words of Christ earlier in the service when you confessed your sin, your failings, your weakness, and the fact that you don’t deserve forgiveness, but for the sake of Jesus Christ God’s people plead mercy. And so you heard me say, “Upon this your confession, I, by virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

These words of forgiveness and peace are so precious and so valuable that even if the rest of the service is a total bust … the sermon dull … the hymns hard to sing …no matter what goes wrong in the rest of the service, it is worth it to come and confess and hear those words of forgiveness and peace in Jesus Christ and receive what those words promise. For in those words of forgiveness, Jesus comes and stands among us, and we receive the very forgiveness that Jesus gave to those underachieving disciples on the very day that He rose from the dead.

There is great comfort for us in today’s Gospel reading. All of us mess up. We all fail regularly in love for our neighbor, in faithfulness to God in thought word and deed. We have doubted and disbelieved. Just as Jesus came to those disciples with His peace and forgiveness, He also comes to you today. Be no more disbelieving but believe. Your crucified and risen Jesus comes to you this day, comes and stands among you to announce His victory over your sin, over your past failings, conquering your doubt and your fear including the last and greatest enemy of death. As Jesus said to John in the book of Revelation He says to you and me. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, fear not, I am the first and the last, the living one, I died and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

The keys of death and Hades is the forgiveness that Jesus earned on the cross for you. Today’s Gospel teaches that heaven is opened to you when the office of the keys is proclaimed, when you hear the words of absolution from me, your pastor. Whenever you hear the preaching of the Gospel of Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you remember the promise of God to you in waters of Holy Baptism. Whenever you receive the body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar there Jesus is among us. Whenever and wherever God is using these humble instruments: pastors, preaching, water, spirit, absoluting, bread and body, wine and blood, people confessing, there Jesus brings His love and forgiveness delivering the peace which He has won for us. There He shows the instruments of our salvation. There we behold the wounds in His hands and his side, from which poured His blood and water, the instruments of Your salvation, your forgiveness. Water and blood. The Water fills the fount, the blood fills the cup. Both poured out for you, covering you, and filling you with His grace and mercy. The speaking of the Absolution and preaching of His Word is Christ’s breathing out His Spirit. Do not disbelieve, but believe that Jesus comes and stands among us in all these ways to bring peace and forgiveness to you to open the kingdom of heaven to you. This is the way that His peace, comes to you. Peace between you and God, peace with your brothers and sisters, Peace in your mind and heart, peace which the world cannot give. Peace which comes from the joy of His crucified and resurrected presence to you that you may no longer fear, but believe. You haven’t seen Jesus in the same way as the disciples, you haven’t touched His wounds with your fingers in the same way, but you have and do in a sacramental and mysterious way. Jesus still comes and stands among us when He His Word is preached and His sacraments celebrated in truth and purity. You have seen Him, you will see Him, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and by believing you may have life eternal in His name. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Christ is Risen! He is Risen, indeed, Alleluia!

On that first Easter, through the dark streets and paths in and around Jerusalem, even before the light of dawn, the faithful Holy women proceeded. How weary and sad their footsteps must have been as they made their way to the tomb. As so many before them and since have done for loved ones who have died, they were going to see the grave of their loved one, their beloved teacher and master who not only died, but was killed so quickly and violently. We know from other Gospels that they had brought spices and oils with the hope that they could anoint the body and so with grief and mourning say their final farewells.

They were on their way to the grave that morning, the same road we all must travel. Death comes to all mortal flesh. It is a direct result and punishment because of sin. The wages of sin is death. Ever since Adam and Eve paid heed to the false teaching and preaching of Satan to eat the fruit that would give them the knowledge of good and evil in direct disobedience to God, there has been the curse of death. Every generation born must also die, so it has been, and so it will be until the end of time. The unnatural cleaving of the soul from the body in death is not what God had intended when He created Adam and Eve, for He created them for life.

Yet because of that original sin, all must die. Death itself points to an even greater punishment, that being an eternal death. Yes, Death brings fear. The threat of death should turn every heart of every man and every woman to fear the Lord and beg for mercy, yet many do not. They fight against it; they fight against man, against God. Fear is ultimately the source of all wickedness and cruelty. The hope that in destroying or controlling others, they may gain some mastery, some reassurance of their own power and security within themselves in the present, but it cannot last. For others, they may seek to escape the thought of death by living as though each day were their last; living carelessly in drunken or doped dissipation wasting their lives and time in numbness. Others may seek to find hope for life now and in the hereafter by works of their own righteousness, through works of the Law. This too is will come to nothing, for St. Paul and St. James note: “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.”

There was only One who was completely righteous, only One without sin. It was Jesus of Nazareth, He who lightened the darkness, who forgave sins, and healed diseases. He lived as One who was not a slave to fear or sin, yet He was betrayed into the hands of evil men. He was crucified, scorned, and mocked, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.'” The reality is that He had come to save others by not saving Himself. He allowed Himself to be sacrificed upon the cross to pay for the price of every sin. Jesus was sent by His Father to restore creation, to remove the curse of sin, to remove the power and sting of death. He came to remove fear and its allies, hatred, selfishness, and sorrow.

Therefore, Jesus became a curse on Good Friday. He went and did battle against sin, death, and the devil even as He took the full wrath of His Father upon Himself. This was the only way, and He was the only One who could ever reconcile God and Man again. Therefore, He died upon the cross in bitter agony an innocent Passover Lamb, the crucified King so that your sins and the sins of the world might be forgiven. His Words from the cross, “It is Finished” mark that the work of redemption and atonement was completed in Jesus’ perfect life and perfect death on that Good Friday.

What then of the resurrection? What is its point? The crucifixion of Jesus and His resurrection cannot be separated and neither should be diminished. Through the crucifixion, the work of atonement took place. The wonder and beauty of the resurrection is that it confirms that Jesus’ death was an acceptable sacrifice for sin. It confirms that the Father approved the sin and blood offering for sin and because the power of sin is undone, so too is the power of death undone. In the Father’s justice, He would not let the innocent One remain in death but raised Him up.

The women who came to the tomb did not yet understand what Jesus had done on the cross, the disciples were still hiding in fear, the body of Jesus was still in the tomb or so they thought. In the same way that the Trinity used an earthquake as a drumroll to announce the atonement at Jesus’ crucifixion, so now He uses another earthquake. He sends another great earthquake to underscore the great miracle of salvation that is taking place in the resurrection. An angel descends and removes the stone that had been sealed over the grave announcing life’s triumph over death, yet the guards, in fear, become like dead men. But listen to the words of the angel to the women, but because of Christ it is spoken to all Christian folk: “Do not be afraid!” Do not fear control you. Do not be afraid of death any longer. Do not be afraid of God’s judgment upon sin, for it is fulfilled in Christ. Behold, the angel did not roll the stone back so that Jesus could get out, He was already out. Jesus had already risen. “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.” Death could not hold Him. Death and its threat is now as empty as the Tomb of Jesus Christ. Then as they departed quickly, Jesus Himself, appeared to them and said, “All Hail” not greetings as our poor translation has it. He literally said “Be Glad, Rejoice!” Then He also repeated the theme, “Do not be afraid.”

On this day of Resurrection and remembrance, know that this message is also yours by faith in Jesus Christ. We too come to seek His presence to worship Him, to hear His Words of Absolution and to grasp by faith to His feet which brings this good news of salvation. Here is where He comes to us and greets us again this happy morning. He greets us with triumph over death, because this resurrection of Jesus is Christ is also yours. In the Epistle reading for Colossians, St. Paul says to you and all believers that you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. “When did this happen you ask?” Well in your Baptism, of course. That is when your creator recreated you to prepare you for the final recreation at the last day. You passed through the water and the blood of Jesus poured from His side at the cross when you were brought to His font of baptism. Believe the power of Baptism as said in God’s Word. It is His pledge to you sealed with His own blood. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like His.” (Romans 6:3,5)

This day we may rejoice, His resurrection has already become your resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus is not just an historic event. It is for you. Received by faith in Jesus Christ, you have the promise of the resurrection of both body and soul that is yet to come this is your sure pledge from God by His blood. Let us praise the Lord, for Jesus has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Death is now no more than a slumber. We no longer need fear death or condemnation for we have been reconciled through Christ. Now He comes to us in His feast of triumphant celebration here in His crucified and raised body and blood in the bread and the wine. Here He gives us the strength to go and tell others of this joyous truth of Jesus Christ crucified and raised for the for the forgiveness of sins.

We are able to march forward into the future safely in God’s care in Jesus Christ. Already now and at the last day, our song of triumph is “I know that my redeemer lives. What comfort this sweet sentence gives. He lives to silence all my fears, He lives to wipe away all my tears, He lives to calm my troubled heart, He lives all blessings to impart. He lives and grants me daily breath. He lives, and I shall conquer death. He lives my mansion to prepare; He lives to bring me safely there.” In Jesus Christ’s name, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas