Sermon - Quasimodo Geniti - John 20:19-31

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

If you were to hit an extremely rough patch in your life and run away from everything for a few days, upon coming to your senses and returning home, what would be the first thing you would do? Probably you’d go to your family, those who love you the most and were the greatest troubled by your disappearance. When you show up you wouldn’t just shoot the breeze and talk about silly little things. You would comfort them, speak consoling words in order to give peace to their frightened hearts. You might tell them something you should’ve told them earlier, something important. Most likely, you’d tell them you love them.

Thus Jesus upon His return from the grave doesn’t just shoot the breeze with His disciples, but consoles them with the peace of the resurrection. Of course Jesus didn’t run away from His problems, but faced them head-on and even died for our problems. But when He returned to those whom He loved, His disciples, His church, He came to be with them, not even locked doors could separate Him from His people. “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.””

Then Jesus showed them the marks of the cross on His body, at which the disciples were glad and rejoiced. Then Jesus does something utterly remarkable and gives them the greatest comfort after the resurrection. “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 any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.””

The greatest comfort for us, after the resurrection of Jesus, is that Jesus absolves our sins through pastors today. The gift of Confession and Absolution is the comforting promise that Jesus gives to His church this day. On Maundy Thursday, Jesus gave to His church the sacrament of the altar, today Jesus gives to us the sacrament of absolution. 

With these words of Jesus, He speaks through the mouths of pastors to this day, forgiving the sins of those who are repentant, and withholding forgiveness from those who are unrepentant. He gives peace, true peace, to us through the absolution of our sins. This isn’t just hippy dippy peace of the 60’s and 70’s and today, where peace is just the absence of earthly fighting, but this is the peace which surpasses all understanding. This is peace between God and man. 

On the cross, the blood of Jesus atoned for our sins, paid the debt that we owe. Christ is the sacrificial lamb, our scapegoat who is our substitute and takes our punishment. Because of our sins we are enemies of God. Remember this: your sin is never a good thing. Your sins always separate you from God. We should never think that since Christ died for us, our sins don’t matter anymore and we can sin as we please, because God loves us anyways. Our sins really matter and everyone of them places a wedge between us and God; every sin which we commit is like us spitting in God’s face; every sin we commit makes us more and more an enemy of God. And the blood of Christ atones for our sins, removing the division, bringing us and God together, and gives us true everlasting peace between us and God. Because of Christ, you have peace.

So when Jesus says to the disciples, “Peace be with you,” He really means it! Because He has died and risen the disciples have peace with God! Likewise, when in our liturgy the pastor declares, “Peace be with you,” it’s as if Jesus were Himself speaking peace into our peaceless hearts. When those words of peace are spoken at the conclusion of the baptismal liturgy, true peace with God is given. Likewise, when the pastor says those words at the conclusion of confirmations, weddings, and funerals, everlasting peace is bestowed upon His people. At the conclusion of the divine service, the pastor blesses with the peace of God. Immediately after the words of institution are spoken, the body and blood of Christ are lifted for you to see the tokens of your peace, and Jesus speaks through the pastor: Peace be with you all.

Most pertinent today, at the conclusion of the rite of Individual Confession and Absolution, the pastor forgives the sins of the penitent and concludes, “go in peace.” Open up your hymnals to Page 292, the rite of Individual Confession and Absolution. Follow along as I walk us through what takes place at Individual Confession and Absolution….

So you see, with those words each individual penitent has the chance to confess their sins which trouble them most, the sins which stir up storms of anxiety in their heart, and have those burdens released from their shoulders and handed over to Christ. In the absolution the sinner is give true lasting peace and the anxieties of their heart are laid on the cross of Jesus. They’re taken away completely. 

The words of the pastor are the words of Jesus: “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 the Son and the Holy Spirit.” The forgiveness which the pastor speaks is spoken at the behest of Christ Himself. The same authority of God the Father to forgive sins has been given to Jesus, which is then given to the pastor. When I, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto you, it’s not my forgiveness but God’s forgiveness. Just as sure as those words of absolution leave my lips, so are your sins forgiven even in heaven above.

Dear friends in Christ, what a travesty it is when the absolution has been so neglected by the church in our day. Sure we have corporate confession and absolution, when we corporately, as a body of believers, give a general confession of our sins and receive a general absolution of our sins. But this is not the same procedure of which Christ speaks of in our Gospel lesson. Rather, what Jesus describes is far more intimate and specific, individualized even. Like in Matthew 18, Jesus says “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.” 

In individual confession and absolution, (which by the way was the only form of confession and absolution until recent centuries; corporate confession and absolution is an innovation that exists because people stopped going to confession and absolution on their own;) in individual confession and absolution, each Christian has the opportunity to confess their own specific sins, lay down their baggage and heavy burdens of guilt, and have those sins specifically removed from them. In this way, the individual can be forgiven and granted relief from their heavy anxieties, receiving peace with God. Their long history of sin is absolved and removed from them as far as the east is from the west. 

This same gift of absolution is offered to you today. Individual confession and absolution is a great gift given to you in the resurrection. Here, in this sanctuary, your sins can be unloaded from your heart and placed onto Christ, who in turn gives you peace. This peace gives you a new shot at life! The history of your sins is taken away from you, that sad history is erased from past, and instead you receive a clean slate in Jesus so that your life in new. 

Sure, of course you will have to live with the temporal repercussions of your sin and make restitution, but in your heart and your mind you can be at peace. You can live at peace in your heart knowing that Christ has forgiven you. Come what may, you have peace with God for all eternity and no amount of earthly strife can compare to what you have in Jesus. 

So come to confess your sins both publicly on Sunday mornings and privately at any other time. Then look upon the wounds of Christ, the marks of the crucifixion, the stigmata of your redemption, and be at peace. Having been absolved of your sins, loosed of the chains which bind you, cry out with Thomas: “My Lord and my God!” In these wounds you have life and peace and joy. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!