Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Gospel, which was read earlier.

If you have ever watched “Little House on the Prairie”, you might remember something about the house. Try to remember very hard about the house. Do you remember the state-of-the-art alarm system and guard dogs that the Ingalls had? Remember all the locks on the door? They didn’t have alarm systems and I never saw guard dogs and to be honest, I don’t ever recall seeing a lock on the door. All they had was a latch to keep the door from flopping in the wind.

Look at the society that we live in today. We have the state-of-the-art alarm systems, guard dogs, deadbolts. We install alarms in our cars, no matter how much the car is worth or not worth. Why do we do all of this? We live in a society with certain fears everyday. Something similar prevailed in Jerusalem on that first Easter evening. This account of Luke is very similar to our Gospel from last week from St. John.

Look at what the disciples had been through. Jesus, their Teacher, had been killed. Judas, one of their own, betrayed Him and all of the others, and then hung himself. They saw what Jesus was put through and saw His death. If the Jews killed Jesus, what would stop them from going after the disciples next? The logical thing for the disciples to do was to hide. They found a room and locked themselves in it. They also had doubts about their eternal salvation. This Man Jesus, who they believed to be the Messiah, was now dead. They followed Him for three years, they were taught by Him, and they taught others about Him. Jesus told them, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Some way, truth, and life He turned out to be. Look at what all of that stuff got Jesus: dead and buried in a tomb.

Imagine the looks on their faces when Jesus appeared to them. Here they are, locked in a room and somehow, Jesus appears to them. Imagine the thoughts of the disciples: “I thought the doors were locked! How’d He get in here?” “What are you talking about? He was dead and buried in a tomb with a huge stone in front of it. How’d He get out?” I’m sure Jesus knew they were scared. He knew what was in their hearts. That is why He greets them with three simple words to help calm them: “Peace to you!” Up until this point, the accounts of Luke and John are very parallel in what has happened. But that changes with the exchange Jesus has with the disciples.

As evening came that first Easter Sunday, the eleven apostles and the other followers of Jesus, men and women, were more and more convinced that the grave was empty because Jesus had risen. But they had little understanding as to just what the meant. People in those days generally believed that the souls of the dead were able to roam the earth. There was a great fear of ghosts. However, it was unthinkable that a dead person could make bodily appearances. Yet that is exactly what Jesus did: with His glorified body, He appears to Mary Magdalene, Peter, the Emmaus disciples, and to the group that has assembled here.

The disciples are understandably frightened, as anyone would be when someone suddenly appears before you in a locked room. Trying to calm them, Jesus asks them a question. “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?” Even after they saw everything, they still doubted. Once more Jesus tries to calm them and show that it is He. Obviously with locked doors, there’s no way that anything could get in or out, except Jesus; Jesus could not be locked out. Jesus appeared in front of the disciples in a locked room. There He is, doors locked and all. He even shows them His flesh to help prove that it is He. “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” He shows them the holes that are in His body. As we saw in last week’s Gospel, Thomas would not believe unless he could put his fingers in the wounds of Christ. Jesus wants to convince them that they are not seeing a ghost but rather a real, live person. He shows them His wounds, something that only a body and not a ghost could have.

Jesus goes a step further to prove who He is. He asks them, “Have you anything here to eat?” I don’t know a lot about ghosts, but I’m pretty sure that you can see through a ghost. If you gave a ghost something to eat, it wouldn’t have anything for the food to go through so it would just fall on the floor. Jesus is in a tangible form. You can see Him, but not through Him. That means if you gave Him something to eat, He would eat it and it wouldn’t fall to the ground. Jesus is doing all He can to bring peace to the disciples and establish that He is their risen Lord standing before them. Unfortunately, fear was something they couldn’t lock out.

When the disciples gave Jesus the fish to eat, they didn’t know what would happen. Would it fall to the ground? Could a ghost eat fish? Well, Jesus ate the fish. It didn’t fall to the ground. The text says that He took it and ate it before them. So much for being a ghost I guess.

After Jesus showed that He was who He said He was, He talked to the disciples. They knew what had to happen to Jesus. He told them many times during the times that He spoke to them, taught them, ate with them, but they did not understand then. But remember: Jesus’ disciples had the risen Lord Himself standing in front of them, and they still didn’t get it! Jesus had to open their hearts and minds to understand the message of the Gospel. When He opened their minds, they fully understood what had happened to Jesus in the days before this meeting. Christ had to die, He had to suffer, and He had to rise again. If He had not done so, then all of mankind would be condemned sinners doomed to hell. Christ took your sins and my sins upon Himself. Imagine that 2000 years after the death of Christ, you are the one person that Christ died for. If the only two people on this earth were you and Christ, Christ would die for your sins. He would gladly give up His life so that you may have life eternal.

So what does this have to do with you? It means this for you: Jesus Christ died a horrible death so that you can live forever. And to prove His love for you, He gives you His very body and blood in a wonderful meal. Eat His flesh and drink His blood for the forgiveness of your sins and in remembrance of everything He has done for you. Believe this message in the face of doubt. You don’t see the Lord Jesus in front of you like the disciples, and yet at the same time, you do. For wherever His Word is preached and His Sacraments are given out, there is Jesus. Jesus is not in the tomb, for He rose from the dead. But He is right here, right now, in our midst, and He gives you life, and hope, and above all, He gives you peace. Because He has risen from the dead for you, there is no need to hide behind locked doors. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Gospel, which was read earlier.

Last Sunday we saw the triumphant resurrection of Christ. With it brought new life for all people, believer and non-believer alike. But with it also came fear. The disciples were gathered behind locked doors. They had just experienced a very exciting and soul-riveting few days. Mary Magdalene had discovered an empty tomb and told this to Simon Peter and John. The two disciples had gone with Mary to the tomb to see for themselves what she had told them. They also found an empty tomb but did not understand. Mary later saw Jesus and then told the disciples, which brought them together in the locked room. Someone had taken Jesus. The disciples were afraid. Look what happened to Jesus, the same could happen to them. They could be crucified for their part in Jesus’ heretical teaching. The best thing for them to do is hide out until this blew over.

So here you have the disciples, locked away in some room where no one can get to them. No one, that is, except Jesus. The disciples obviously had a lack of faith. They had been with Jesus for three years. They had seen His actions, heard His teachings and received His body and blood less than a week before. Now their faith was gone. Their Teacher was dead and the authorities could be coming after them next. All was lost according to them.

While they were eating and fearing for their lives while trying to make sense of everything that had taken place, Jesus appears in the room. The doors are locked, the windows are closed. There was no way for Jesus to get into the room. He says four simple words to them: “Peace be with you.” Here is the risen Lord, after everything that has happened, coming to His disciples and giving them a greeting of pure Gospel. He forgives their sins and declares that all is well. With this greeting, they now know that there is no reason why they should be fearful of their lives.

Now if walking into a room that was locked up tighter than Fort Knox didn’t convince them that it was truly Jesus, He shows them His hands and sides. If you didn’t believe it was Christ before, you have to believe it now. And when they saw His wounds, they were overjoyed. They had never before experienced this much joy. Here is the risen Christ standing right before them. Jesus appeared again and again, intensifying faith and joy, until nothing could even disturb the solid certainty.

Jesus speaks again. “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” Here it is, the Gospel charge. We’ve seen what Christ was all about for three years, we’ve seen His miracles, heard His teachings, and seen His death and now His resurrection. So what are we supposed to do? As Christians, it is our charge to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ, of His life, death and resurrection and what that entails: the forgiveness of sins.

When Christ breathes on them the Holy Spirit, He gives them the Office of the Keys, a permanent bestowal on all Christians. He gives all Christians the ability to forgive sins. On Calvary, Christ attained redemption, justification, reconciliation, and forgiveness of sins for all men. It is our duty as forgiven Christians to proclaim that message to other Christians and to non-believers: Christ has forgiven your sins, go and sin no more.

Thomas wasn’t with the disciples the first time they saw Jesus. We don’t know why he wasn’t there, but when they told him, he wouldn’t believe what they had told him. How often do we not believe? If I told you the sky was falling, would you believe me? If I was just outside and I saw the sky falling, would you believe me? Why would you doubt? You mean to tell me the only way that you’ll believe is if you go outside yourself and see the sky falling? Of course, the sky isn’t falling, but you doubted what I said. Was there any truth to what I said? Of course not, but you still had that little bit of doubt. The same was true for Thomas. He wanted to see the nail marks, put his fingers there and put his hand into the side of Christ. Unless he could do that, he doubted; there was no way that that could be true.

The following week when Thomas was with the disciples, Christ appeared to them again. The conditions were the same. The house was locked; there was no way of entry. Jesus enters and again speaks to the disciples: “Peace be with you!” Then Jesus addressed Thomas personally. He told him to do exactly what he needed to do to believe. But Jesus tells Thomas something else: “Do not disbelieve, but believe.” He told that to Thomas because he had seen the wounds of Christ, he saw Christ standing in front of him. There was no longer any reason for him to doubt. But Jesus also tells us that today. The only reason for us to doubt is stubbornness. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” You don’t have to see everything to believe it, especially when it comes to Scripture. If it’s in the Bible, it’s true, because God has declared it to be so. “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” You see, one does not have “to see it to believe it”, like the saying goes. Everything you need to believe in is already written here. If you believe, you have life in Jesus’ Name.

Today’s Gospel gives us an account of the great gifts that Jesus desires for us. He patiently ignored the doubting hearts of all the disciples in order to show them His risen body. Then He sent those disciples to be apostles so that the church down through the ages would have the very word of God through the mouths and pens of those apostles. He puts His own forgiveness – the very forgiveness that He earned with His life’s blood on the tree of the cross – He puts that forgiveness into the mouths of the faithful pastors of His church. In all these ways, He sends the Holy Spirit to establish and strengthen our faith – the very faith that believes in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and receives all the gifts that Christ gives to us.

Today’s account from the Gospel shows us how gracious Jesus is – not only with Thomas, but with all of the disciples. Even though the disciples denied and abandoned Jesus – even though they believed He was dead and gone – even though they continued to sin daily, Jesus did not reject them. Instead, He made them part of His plan to proclaim the Gospel to the world.

From this Gospel account we learn that Jesus does not deal with us as we deserve, but He is gracious. He seeks us out as sheep who have gone astray. In spite of our many failings and sins, He continues to supply us with His loving and gracious forgiveness. In spite of our many failings, He has chosen to make us His forever.  In the name of Jesus, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Gospel, which was read earlier.

As St. Mark begins our text for today, he writes, “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.” Maybe we should ask a few questions before we begin. Why were the women going back to the tomb? Why were they bringing spices? What was the point of anointing Jesus’ body? Why do these women have such urgency in doing this?

Jesus died Friday at 3:00 pm. The amount of time it takes to take the body off the cross and begin to wrap the body and begin to anoint takes time, plus getting to the tomb and securing the stone – all of this takes time and the Sabbath was drawing nigh. The disciples of Jesus simply ran out of time to properly prepare His body for burial. We can understand this. When our loved one dies and the time comes for them to be buried, we want proper care taken. The women wanted the same thing for Jesus. In order to finish the anointing process, they had to wait until Sunday morning – as soon as the Sabbath was ended.

The spices brought by the women were liquids because they wanted to anoint the body with them. Nicodemus had brought no less than a hundred pounds of dry, powdered spices which were strewn between the wrappings. But the body of Jesus itself had not been treated with perfume-like essences before being wrapped with linen strips. The women wanted to make this deficiency right. To anoint the body for its burial in this way was part of the honor bestowed upon it by loving friends.

As they were making their way to the tomb, there was one small issue they had not resolved: “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” These women had thought of every detail, except this one. We might ask ourselves, why didn’t they think this through? But when great tragedy happens in your life, we are not thinking with great clarity. All of the details after death for us in our culture today can take days or even weeks. We need to get our family together, we need to make all of the proper funeral arrangements, get everything in order. But with Jesus, beginning with His betrayal, mock trial, crucifixion – this all happened in just a few short hours! They had watched Jesus being tortured, beaten, flogged, and die a horrible death. It is no wonder that the women don’t have an answer as to who will roll the stone away – they just aren’t mentally there yet.

When they arrive, they find that the stone had been rolled back already. This stone was massive, what would take several large men to move it. To see that the stone was rolled back would have caused the women great fear, as it should have. Did someone rob the grave of Jesus, taking the body of Jesus?

Upon entering the tomb, they were not greeted by the dead body of Jesus, or any body of Jesus for that matter. Instead, “they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.” How could they not be alarmed? They were on their way to the tomb of Jesus to anoint His body, only to realize that there was no one there to dislodge the stone that sealed the tomb.

From his shining garment, they knew that he was an angel, a messenger from God. His message? “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here.” And then, so that they might fully believe, they were given a special message to deliver to the disciples and especially to Peter. They were to remind the disciples of an appointment Jesus had made with them as they were leaving the upper room to go out to Gethsemane: “After I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” And so the angel tells them, “There you will see him, just as he told you.” It was too marvelous to believe and the angel’s presence was too awesome. They fled from the tomb. Fear filled their hearts, and as a result they didn’t race into town shouting, “He’s risen! He’s risen!” This shows the reality of the event. Anyone who comes back from the dead – that is a scary and astonishing moment.

For you this morning, there is no reason why you should be filled with fear. You can run into the streets shouting that Christ is risen and you should! Jesus’ resurrection not only defeats our death in the grave but Jesus’ resurrection defeats the power of the devil and hell.

What we celebrate today is your salvation. You have a written guarantee of the resurrection of your body from your grave. You will not simply die and be gone. Some – many – will wish that it were so, for they have forsaken God and rejected His gifts and chosen death and hell, like the leaders of the Jewish Church in the days of the first Easter. But those who believe the Gospel have a resurrection to life and joy and glory, not pain and sorrow and corruption without end. How are you going to respond? What does it mean that you will rise to eternal life? The question is not about defining terms, but how this truth transforms your life. What difference does it make? Does it mean anything to how you face and approach death? It should. It should change your fears to confidence. It should change your sorrows to comfort. He is risen – and we too shall rise. You shall rise again because Jesus has risen.

Listen to what St. Paul says: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Now we know that our sins have been fully paid for and forgiven. That means, of course, that God loves us, now. The cause for the enmity between God and man has been removed. Now we have no reason to fear anything, because the Lord God Almighty is on our side. He considers us to be holy with the righteousness of His only-begotten Son, who He declared to be “well-pleasing” to Him. 

St. Peter calls this the living hope that we have obtained through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. As Christ prevailed victoriously, so shall we. As Christ lived, so we live. Because Christ is awakened from the dead and is seated at the right hand of God and intercedes for us, so now nothing can divide us from the love of God: neither death nor life, neither angels nor kingdoms, nor strengths, neither present things nor future things, neither height nor depth, nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God in the crucified and risen Lord.

This is your inheritance, not because of anything you have done. No one is worthy of these awesome, infinite gifts of Christ, for all are sinners, from youngest to oldest. But all is given freely by Christ, the Firstborn from the dead, the Crucified One who lives and can nevermore die. He has given you everything. Christ has risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for this morning comes from the Gospel, which was read earlier.

As we sang in our opening hymn, with great haste did they go to the tomb of Jesus. John records for us that it was still dark, yet Mary Magdalene, the first on the scene, was able to see that the stone had been rolled away. Without even going in to inspect the scene, she immediately runs to Simon Peter and John to tell them what she had discovered.

The scene must have been riveting. The stone rolled in front of the tomb was massive. It would not have been easily moved, yet there it was, dislodged from the mouth of the tomb. John the Evangelist tells us that, at first, on the day of the resurrection, there was a lot of confusion – a lot of concern about what had happened. All four Gospel accounts tell us that, at first, Jesus was nowhere to be found. According to John the Evangelist, He, Peter, and Mary were looking and seeking all over the place. Mary saw the stone taken away from the tomb, but no Jesus. John looked at the burial cloths from outside of the tomb, but saw no Jesus. Simon Peter went charging into the tomb and saw the linen burial cloths, but no Jesus. Then John went in and examined the linen burial cloths and saw the head wrapping, but still no Jesus. Ultimately, they didn’t know what else to do. Peter and John went home. Mary stuck around.

Mary remained at the tomb in mourning. She looked into the tomb again and saw two angels, but still did not see Jesus. She had a few brief words with the angels and then looked away. It was then that she looked right at Jesus, but did not see Him. Instead, she thought she saw a stranger and thought He was the gardener. We can look at Jesus’ ministry before His crucifixion as well and say that even then His followers did not really see Him. He regularly and plainly told them that He would be handed over to the ruling authorities in Jerusalem, suffer, die, and then rise from the dead. All four of the Gospel writers record words of this sort coming from the mouth of Jesus on a variety of occasions. All four of the Gospel accounts tell us about confusion and protest every time Jesus said these things. His followers believed He was the Christ, but they did not understand that the Christ must be crucified and then rise from the dead. Today’s Gospel says the same thing about Peter and John: for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead.

We can never see Jesus unless God Himself decides to show Him to us and that is what happened. God sent Jesus into the world to rescue us from the mess we have made. God the Father sent His only begotten Son into our flesh to live with us and to experience the brokenness of this sinful world with us. As He experienced all these things, He did something that we cannot do. He lived a life of total perfection. He never sinned. Not only did He never sin, but He took our sin onto Himself. He bore our sin for a lifetime – from the womb of Mary all the way to the cross. There on the cross He experienced all the wrath of God against our sin. With His sacrifice on the cross, He paid for our sin – He exchanged our sin for His righteousness.

Now, today, we celebrate the anniversary of the event that assures us that His sacrifice was enough for all people in all places in all times. We know that His payment is enough because He rose from the dead. His resurrection assures us that Jesus defeated sin, death, and the power of the devil. It assures us that He has paid for our sin and we now have His righteousness. The resurrection assures us that God now sees us through His Son Jesus Christ. God no longer sees our sin. When God looks at us, He sees the perfect, holy righteousness of His beloved son, Jesus Christ.

Before Jesus went to the cross, He told His followers how He would distribute this salvation to His church. In the great Good Shepherd chapter of the Bible, Jesus compared His church to a flock of sheep with Himself as the shepherd. He said that the Good Shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. We see this in today’s Gospel as Jesus spoke with Mary and said to her, “Mary.” Jesus, the Good Shepherd called Mary by name. The clouds lifted from her mind. The light shone in. All sorrow melted away. Triumph replaced tragedy. Tears of joy replaced tears of despair. Mary’s confession only needed one word, “Rabboni!”

The Good Shepherd continues to call us by name. He calls us by His Word as we hear it and read, mark, learn, and take it to heart. He calls us as He joins His word to the water of Holy Baptism and adopts us into His family. He calls us as He joins His word to bread and wine and gives us His true crucified and risen body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.

What does it mean that Jesus calls us by name? It means that all the blessings of Christ’s resurrection belong to us. It means that the righteousness He earned with His holy life is ours. The punishment for our sins has been paid on the cross. When Christ calls us by name, He promises to remain with us not only in this life, but even through our time of death. When that day of death comes He will call us by name to live forever with Him.

We know all this is certain for Jesus keeps His promises. He promised a savior to Adam and Eve and to all those who waited through the time of the Old Testament. He kept that promise with His glorious victory on the cross. He certified that promise when He rose from the dead. Now we have His promise: “Because I live, you also will live.” He has promised that a day will come when our graves will be as empty as his tomb for our bodies will be like His and we shall see Him as He is. This is a promise we can believe for Christ has risen! He has risen indeed, Alleluia!  Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.