The Essence of Easter

Jesu Juva

St. John 20:19-31                                               

April 12, 2026

Easter 2A                                         

 Dear saints of our Savior~

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

        The resurrection of Jesus is too big to be tamed. It can’t be confined to just one day per year.  As most of you know, the resurrection is the reason we gather here on every first day of the week.  Every Sunday is an Easter celebration.  Our Lord’s resurrection appearances continue here in His church, bringing us paschal peace and joy.

        In fact, today’s Holy Gospel reading takes us right back to Easter Sunday.  Last week we traveled with the women to the tomb and listened to an angel with an attitude announcing that Jesus is risen.  We were there at dawn on the first day of resurrection.  Today’s gospel reading takes us to the evening of that same day—to ten men cowering behind locked doors.  Judas was dead and gone; and Thomas was famously absent.  Twelve minus two is ten.

        Ten wounded men were trembling behind locked doors. These were ten terrorized, traumatized men—men wounded by what they had witnessed on Friday.  There they saw the Lord they loved brutalized and tortured and executed.  Or did they see it?  It seems most of them didn’t.  This is why they were wounded with shame and sorrow for what they had done—for their sin—for how they had abandoned Jesus and even denied knowing Him.  These disciples were all faithless failures.  They had treated their Lord with contempt and cowardice.  They chose the path of self-preservation; as Jesus went the way of self-sacrifice.  And so there were ten—ten wounded men.

        But then Jesus came and stood among them!  Had there been a knock at the door?  Did He come in through a window?  No, Jesus simply stood among them and said: Peace be with you.  And with those words, Jesus showed them His wounded hands and side.  Jesus could have scolded them—could have rebuked them.  He could have shamed them for their sin.  Jesus could have said, "See what you did to me!"  But Jesus says:  See what I did for you.  Those are the scars of your salvation.  By those wounds you are healed.

        With His words and wounds the Lord Jesus forgave His disciples.  He absolved them.  He remembered their sin no more.  And then, something totally unexpected: He breathed on them!  Most of us don’t aspire to be breathed on.  I don’t care to inhale what you’re exhaling.  But this—this is the good breath of Jesus.  This is God’s good breath that goes back to the Garden of Eden, when the Lord breathed into Adam the breath of life.  Jesus now breathes on these men the breath of resurrection life—the peace of sin forgiven.

        Receive the Holy Spirit, He says.  If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.  Of all the topics Jesus might have raised that day. Of all the orders He might have given.  The risen Christ has one thing on His mind:  the forgiveness of sins.  This is the essence of Easter.  This is the enduring result of the resurrection—the defining doctrine of Christianity—that those called and sent by the Lord Jesus should forgive the sins of all who are penitent—in His stead and by His command.

        Do you believe it?  Do you believe that the Risen Christ is here to forgive you?  Do you believe that the absolution spoken by your pastor is not your pastor’s opinion—but is from God Himself? And that by it your sins are forgiven before God in heaven?  Your pastor has orders from the risen Christ to forgive sins.  Here I stand; I can do no other.  If we really believed that, we would run to the Divine Service.  If we really believed that, people would be lined up outside, waiting for our doors to be unlocked.  If we really believed that, then we would let nothing stand in the way of confessing our sins and receiving absolution.  For by that absolution, the very gates of heaven are unlocked. 

        Of course, we don’t always or fully believe this.  What we do mistakenly believe is that our sins aren’t really that bad. And that the world is filled with people who are much worse than us.  We believe that we have learned and grown from our sins.  And we only had the best of intentions—and the best possible rationale for doing what we did.  And isn’t the main thing that we learn to forgive ourselves?

        Let me be clear:  No, it isn’t.  Sin is never a teachable moment or a lesson to be learned or an opportunity for growth.  The only remedy for our sin comes from the words and wounds of Jesus.  The only solution for our sin is holy absolution.  Jesus Christ wasn’t crucified and resurrected so that you can deal with sin on your terms!  But if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

        This truth about sin and forgiveness isn’t something that just gets tacked onto Easter as an afterthought.  This is the essence of Easter.  This is the peace brought to us each week by the Risen Christ.  He comes here to heal your wounds by the power of His wounds.  He comes to fill your heart with paschal peace and Easter joy.

        This is what our liturgy teaches us right after the consecration of the bread and wine.  At that exact moment comes the sacred exchange we call the Pax Domini—the Peace of the Lord.  You will see it and hear it in just a few moments.  The pastor takes the bread that is the body of Christ.  He takes the cup which is filled with the blood of Christ.  He elevates that heavenly food and drink and dares to declare:  The peace of the Lord be with you always.

        Beloved in the Lord, that is not a throw-away line.  That’s not filler.  That is the essence of Easter!  Jesus Christ risen from the dead, bringing you His perfect peace and the forgiveness of your sin, which He earned by His suffering and death.  Here the resurrection appearances of Jesus continue.  Here at this altar—here through time and space—the risen Lord comes with His words and His wounds to bring you peace that passes understanding.

        This is why you should never miss church.  Never pass up the opportunity to receive the risen Lord.  Just look what happened to Thomas!  He wasn’t there.  He missed it.  For Thomas there were no words and no wounds, no peace and no joy, no Jesus and no faith.  We call him “doubting” Thomas; but his real problem wasn’t doubt; it was unbelief!  Unless I see it and touch it . . . I will never believe it.  Thomas was the man who missed Easter and the results were terrible and toxic.

        One week later—the next Sunday—the Risen Christ returns for the sake of Thomas—who was dear to Jesus, and loved by Jesus, and precious to Jesus—just like you.  Be not faithless, Thomas; only believe!  Thomas could only conclude that this was the real deal, the genuine Jesus. No ghost.  No apparition.  Flesh and bone, body and blood:  My Lord and my God!

        On that very first Sunday after Easter, Jesus came back for the sake of Thomas.  On this Sunday after Easter, Jesus comes back for your sake.  He comes for you with His Words and His wounds.  His wounded hands and side for Thomas; His holy body and blood for you in the Lord’s Supper.  This is the ongoing, enduring, unending essence of Easter.

        Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.  That’s you!  Blessed are you on this second Sunday of Easter, that you believe Christ is risen from the dead.  Blessed are you, for you will see soon enough.  The peace of the Lord be with you always!

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

Trasformed at the Tomb

Jesu Juva

Matthew 28:1-10                                                 

April 5, 2026

The Resurrection of Our Lord-A

 Dear saints of our Savior~

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

        That Easter greeting never gets old.  It’s one of my pleasures as a pastor to lead that refrain every Easter.  I’ve really missed those alleluias.  It’s like we’ve been holding in a big sneeze for six weeks.  Finally, today, we get to let loose, loud and proud.

        Jesus has done it.  He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Rom. 4:25).  As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. 15:22).  When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:4).  What comfort this sweet sentence gives: I know that my Redeemer lives!

        But on a day dominated by joyful alleluias and resurrection celebration, it’s worth remembering that Easter begins in the cemetery—with a trip to the tomb.  Matthew tells us that two Marys made their way to the grave early that morning.

        Most of us have walked that road before.  We’ve made our way to the cemetery to lay to rest the earthly remains of our loved ones.  Dust to dust.  Ashes to ashes.  Those trips to the cemetery are always painful and profound.  Flowers and plastic green astroturf cannot hide the truth about life in this fallen world:  The wages of sin is death.  I remember being in the cemetery to bury my dad in 1986, the burial of my in-laws, and the burials of numerous saints of our Savior who now rest from their labors.  We remember them all with fondness.  But we always feel cheated by death.  The cemetery always screams:  You lose!

        That’s surely how it was for the women who went to the tomb of Jesus.  So many hopes and dreams were now dashed to pieces.  Jesus had cared deeply for these women.  He cared about that wreck of a woman—Mary Magdalene—cleaned her up and delivered her from misery.  Jesus had made these women precious with His love.  Their sin and guilt had melted away as Jesus accepted them and forgave them.  But now this Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried.

        But that trip to the tomb quickly took a turn that no one saw coming!  Behold, there was a great earthquake.  Now, we hear “earthquake” and immediate think of tectonic plates and fault lines.  But this Easter earthquake is not natural; it’s supernatural—just like the tremor on Good Friday had been.  These shakings and quakings were real.  Richter scales were rumbling.  These two quakes go together, but not as in shock and aftershock.  Calvary earthquake and Easter earthquake show us that the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus are inseparably connected.  These events together form the divine hinge on which hangs all of human history.

        You’ve probably heard how geologists think they can still detect vibrations from when the universe was first created.  I don’t know about that.  I don’t know much about geology.  Theology is my forte.  But I think this old world might still shaking from that Easter earthquake.  I think there’s a divine fault line that runs from the tomb of Jesus, through time and space to every hallowed resting place on planet earth.  And I’m here to tell you it’s just a matter time before the “big one” hits, and the dead are raised, and the life of the world to come commences.

        In fact, if you look and listen through the eyes and ears of faith, there are Easter aftershocks that rattle beneath our feet—right here, on every first day of the week, when the risen Christ comes to wake up and raise up all who have been deadened by sin and guilt.  The ground beneath our feet is shaking and quaking in every splash of Holy Baptism.  Easter aftershocks reverberate here as the Words and wounds of the Risen Christ are preached and proclaimed—and as the Risen Christ descends from heaven to earth with His body and blood, for His saints who wait in expectation.

        That there might be no doubt about what’s going on, God sent an Easter angel to set the whole world straight.  But this is no ordinary angel.  As bright as lightning.  White as snow.  Strong enough to roll the stone away and sit on it.  Look at that angel!  Casually camped out on that stony slab of death.  That angel’s got attitude!

        And notice now who’s more dead than alive!  The elite guards that Pilate and the Chief Priests and Pharisees had assigned to keep that tomb sealed tighter than Fort Knox—those guards became like dead men!  They were so scared, they played “dead.”  The paralysis of rigor mortis took those soldiers completely out of commission. 

        See how people are transformed at the tomb of Jesus.  Those guards were at the tomb only because they were unlucky enough to be assigned to work the third shift that Saturday night.  They likely came to the tomb full of anger and unbelief.  They appear in the Easter account only from a sense of duty.  Yet they who were most alive become like dead men.  They became the corpses at the tomb.

        Beloved in the Lord, don’t become a corpse this Easter.  Don’t be deadened by unbelief.  Don’t come to this Easter out of a sense of duty or routine or tradition.  Don’t trust in your own strength or skill or dedication to duty.  Do that, and you’ll end up more dead than alive.  Try to do Easter on your terms, and sin will have its way with you.

        But step into the sparkling dawn of Easter like the women did.  Come to Easter with a heart of love for Jesus, who loved you first—and who gave Himself for you.  Come with faith—faith that Jesus can transform your tears and sorrow—faith that Jesus has made you precious by His love.  Come with open ears to hear and believe the news that has transformed this old world for good:  Be not afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. 

        Death has done its damndest and failed.  Death has been defeated by Jesus.  The crucified corpse of Jesus went into the tomb.  But death could not hold Him. The  Lord’s tomb was temporary.  And so it will be with your tomb.  So, join the angel sitting on the stone.  Be not afraid.  Take a load off.  Sit a spell.  Rest and relax in the joy of Jesus’ resurrection.     

        That Easter angel reminds us that Jesus rose from the dead—Just as He said.  It’s a reminder to remember what everybody else seemed to forget:  Jesus predicted His resurrection—that He would rise again on the third day.  But nobody remembered those words—or worse, nobody believed them.

        We have the same problem.  We don’t remember the words of Jesus.  On our best days, we don’t give those words the attention and respect and reverence they deserve.  And on our worst days, we simply don’t believe what Jesus has promised.  Beloved in the Lord, your transformation at the tomb won’t be complete until you stake everything—on every Word—that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.  Because let’s face it—if Jesus got His own resurrection right—if He is risen indeed, just as He said—then there’s nothing Jesus says that you can’t believe.  You can trust Him in your living and in your dying.

        With a mix of fear and joy the women take their leave of the angel, only to be met by Jesus Himself.  “Greetings,” says Jesus.  That sounds a bit stiff in English.  That’s because modern translations fail to capture the deeper meaning of what Jesus actually said.  A richer translation might be: Be ye glad, or, simply, Rejoice! 

        And so, my friends, on this Easter day, do what Jesus says:  Be ye glad!  Rejoice!  Go and tell!  For like those lowly women, the love of Jesus has made you precious.  In Jesus, your sin is paid for.  In Jesus, you will live forever.  At His greeting, the women bent their knees and knelt down in worship, and took a hold of Jesus.  That’s the same posture we assume as we worship Jesus at this altar, taking hold of His true body and blood, for the forgiveness of Jesus.  Like those women, you have been transformed.  Easter changes everything. 

        The Lamb who was slain has begun His reign.  Alleluia! Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!