Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

“Grace to you and peace” (1 Peter 1:2). Grace brings peace and peace is what God wishes you to have. This introductory sentence that begins most Lutheran sermons comes from the opening words of most of the letters in the Bible written by the apostles. They wished that the Christians to whom they wrote would embrace the gift of God’s grace (that is His unmerited forgiveness and favour) and so have peace (that is the calm feeling that whatever their circumstances might be, God loves and cares for them and will be with them in every situation).

 

This is not a casual Shalom or Salaam, the universal polite greeting in the Middle East of both Jews and Arabs. It is not a piece of slang from the seventies, a passive rebellion against war and hostilities. By the time that St. Paul and St. Peter include it in their letters, it already has unique meaning to Christians, and that is because of the use that Jesus made of it when He rose from the dead and greeted His disciples.

 

In the Gospel reading for today, the Second Sunday of Easter, Jesus came to His gathered disciples. Although He had been beaten and crucified by the Romans, although He had been taken down dead from the cross and buried in a tomb, although a few of the women and a few of the men had briefly seen Him alive again, although “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.’” (John 20:20).

 

This is a peace that is not just extended to family, friends, and respected acquaintances on polite occasions. It is a peace extended to men who are hiding in fear from those who had executed their teacher. It is a peace extended by a Man whom they knew had died and was now standing alive in their presence.

 

It is a peace extended by the One whom they had abandoned at His arrest and allowed to be abused by the authorities. It is a peace extended by the One whom they did not defend at His trial. It is a peace extended by the One whom they denied knowing lest they be accounted His accomplices. It is a peace extended by the One some of them had seen alive and the rest did not believe what they were told.

 

Peace is what they needed from Him precisely because they felt there could be no peace for the rest of their lives. They were sure that those who arrested Jesus were coming for them, too. They were convicted in heart for letting this innocent man be executed without a word of defence. That guilt was going to dig at them at every moment. They wondered how they could live with themselves for letting the One they loved so dearly, the One who loved them so dearly, be taken from them. How could they face each other? How could look any of the other disciples in the eye if they passed them on the street?

 

And what of their relationship with God Almighty? They had run away to let His innocent and holy Son be condemned and humiliated by the chief priests and elders. They had hidden themselves away while He was in agony and died upon the cross. How could they ever expect anything but wrath and anger from God, Him sending adversity and affliction upon them every day so that they would know His vengeance and the just punishment that they deserved?

 

So Jesus, risen from the dead, having paid the punishment price for all of their sins through His suffering and death, came to them and He said, “Peace be with you.” This is not “Hello, how are you doing.” Jesus knew how they were doing—not very well at all. “’Peace be with you.’ And having said this He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” (vv. 19-20).

 

It was not a gesture of condemnation, but a gesture of love. “Look, here and see. There is no reason to be afraid. These wounds show My love for you. These wounds show that your sins have been paid for in My death and resurrection. These wounds show that I have conquered sin, death, and hell for you. These wounds show that I have made peace with God the Father for you.” They were glad. Their fear and guilt and shame and grief and sorrow and pain were all turned to joy.

 

And that was not the end of it. “Jesus said to them again, ’Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you’” (v. 21). How fearful this responsibility would be for them without knowing the peace of God in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They were being sent out like Jesus had been sent by God the Father. They were to speak the message that Jesus spoke. They were to show love to others like Jesus showed to them. And so they were going to suffer the hostility of the Jewish leaders and the rejection of the world, like Jesus suffered.

 

But all of it would happen under the peace of God: the peace of knowing that the enemies of Jesus do not win; the peace of knowing that not even death can take their life away; the peace of knowing that God’s love for them was ever-flowing through His Son. Their sins are forgiven and they have that message of forgiveness to proclaim with the authority of Christ Himself, the source of eternal peace.

 

And as Jesus affirmed His peace by showing them His hands and side, so He affirmed it again for their mission by breathing upon them the Holy Spirit. The breath of Jesus speaking His words of peace, forgiveness, and authority dispelled their fears and anxieties of the future and what might happen as they lived out and spoke out their faith in the peace of Christ before the world.

 

Jesus knew their fear of the Jews, their guilt over His death, and their shame before one another. He knew their worry that God the heavenly Father was going to punish them under His wrath and affliction, and so He came to them with words of peace. And Jesus knew that when He told them that they were being sent out with the message of forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus risen from the dead, that they would have fear of hostility, rejection, and persecution, as well as fears of their own incompetence and weaknesses.

 

These are things to which Jesus brings the peace of His resurrection. And along with the bestowal of His peace He presents to His disciples tangible signs of that peace. He showed His pierced hands and side for the gathered group of disciples so that they would know that what unites them together is the reception of God’s peace in Jesus Christ through tangible signs that He connects to the giving of His peace. The peace of God in Christ Jesus is given to all those who are gathered to receive His grace.

 

This is why the apostles could confidently begin their letters to Christians with a bestowal of God’s grace and peace. When these letters were read to the believers, they were gathered together to receive the peace of God through the powerful words of Jesus being read and preached in their gatherings. They lived together in this peace. They shared this peace with one another. And they were strengthened as the people of God against the hostility of the world with this peace.

 

And what happened when one of the disciples was absent from Jesus’ bestowal of peace? Thomas could find no peace for himself in what only the others received. All of the fear and doubt and grief and sorrow and guilt and shame still overwhelmed him. He could not forgive himself and could not believe that God the Father would forgive him for what he had let happen to Jesus His Son. And there seemed to be nothing that could give him comfort or assure him that there could be peace.

 

So Jesus came to say the words again. “Eight days later, His disciples were inside again, and [this time] Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you’” (John 20:26). He came again for the one who needed His peace. So, if you feel that you are the only one who does not share in the kind of peace that others seem to have, a peace with God, knowing that you are forgiven in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, don’t think that peace is not for you. Rather, be assured that Jesus Himself wants you to have what He has given to so many others. He wants you to have peace in knowing the grace that God has shown to you in His Son.

 

Thomas was also presented with a tangible of sign of God’s peace, not just being shown, but being encouraged to reach out his hand and thrust his fingers in. “Peace be with you.... Put your finger here, and see My hands; and put out your hand, and place it in My side. Do not disbelieve, but believe” (20:27-28). Have peace by what you can see, and touch that to which Christ has attached His word of peace.

 

So what about you? Would Jesus ever speak these words to you and give you along with them a tangible sign of God’s gracious love to you in Christ? Remember what Jesus said to His disciples when He first came to them, before Thomas was with them? “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you” (20:21).

 

Jesus sent them to speak His words of peace to the world. And so Peter and Paul and the other apostles, too, began their epistles with the words “Grace to you and peace.” And in those epistles they expounded on the peace of God given in the knowledge of Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead for the forgiveness of sins, providing complete reconciliation with God. There is peace in their words.

 

Those words are written and preserved and handed down to you, so that you have them in the form of the very same letters that the peace of Jesus was bestowed upon Christians living in a time when the Jews were hostile against them, and the Romans were hostile against them, and they were being ridiculed and persecuted on every side. But they had peace, because they gathered together to receive this peace of Jesus in the words of those whom He had sent to bestow it upon them.

 

And so it comes to you, in whatever kind of situation you are living through, with grief and pain and guilt and shame and sorrow and fear and all of that. Jesus has sent His bestowal of peace upon you, and He has even attached it to something tangible that you can see and touch.

 

“The peace of the Lord be with you always” (Lutheran Service Book, 163). It is not a greeting. You don’t respond with “And also with you.” It is a gift to be received. And so all you can say is “Amen.” Christ is giving to you the same peace that He granted to the disciples in the upper room, and through those whom He has sent to Christians throughout the world and throughout history. This is the peace of knowing that your sins are forgiven through His death and resurrection. This is the peace of knowing God’s full love for you. He has reconciled you to Himself through His own Son. He forgives you and blesses you and has secured for you to live forever with Him.

 

And the tangible sign is held up before your eyes to see and you come forward, not reaching out your hand to thrust it in, but opening your mouth so that He may enter you. The body and blood of Christ are given to you with the bestowal of His peace. It is for you, so that your fear and guilt and shame will be dispelled and you can live with confidence in the forgiveness that Christ has secured for you through His death and resurrection.

 

“The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).