Easter 2
April 11, 2010
Acts 5:32; Rev. 1:17-18; John 20:31
A Living Gospel

In the name of our risen Savior Jesus, amen. It is all over the wonderful lessons for this Sunday. Could you hear with your ears the focus on the eyes? Could you feel how important the sense of sight was, and is? Throughout the Easter season, there will not be an Old Testament lesson, but rather a First Lesson, from the Acts of the Apostles, as we see God’s church in action following the resurrection and ascension of Christ. In the lesson from Revelation, John mentions what he is blessed to see with his two eyes. And that beautiful gospel lesson from John informs us that many other signs were done by Jesus in the presence of the disciples that are not written down, yet were performed. But these things are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

The resurrection of Christ was no secret thing. For that matter, the crucifixion was done out in the open. Archaeologists believe that Calvary, Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, was located along a well-traveled road. Simon of Cyrene would have been traveling, and would have been pressed into service to carry Jesus’ cross. Citizens of Jerusalem would have seen what was done to criminals, and they would have known that the government doesn’t mess around. So nothing was done clandestinely, in secret, under a shroud. The death and resurrection of Jesus was done in plain sight.

The Good News of humanity’s salvation was lived out in plain sight through the activities of the followers of Jesus. Sent from the Father for the salvation of the world, Jesus then sent out His followers to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The apostles taught. The apostles healed. The apostles were arrested, hauled before the authorities, were jailed, were told to stop, and when they were released from prison, they went on proclaiming the name of Jesus, teaching, praying, healing. “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

The followers of Jesus were living out the Good News life of the forgiveness of sins. The followers were meek. They all ran away. Some women watched the crucifixion from a distance because they didn’t want to get too close. Only John the Beloved was at the cross. Doubting Thomas wouldn’t believe until he saw the sacred scars. But yet the followers of Jesus were sent and strengthened to be agents of the Good News for the world. They were doing the very things that Christ Himself had done while He was still present on this earth. With tremendous power the apostles were healing all that were brought to them. People laid the mats that the sick and diseased were laying on down in front of the disciples in the hopes that the shadows of Peter, Andrew, James, John, Thomas, or Bartholomew would fall on them.

By the grace of God the apostles were a living Gospel. By the grace of God, Mary Magdalene was a living Gospel as she obeyed the command of Jesus to go to his brothers and tell them that she had seen the Lord. By the grace of God we are a living Gospel. Freed from our sin by the blood shed on the cross we have been made into a kingdom, priests to our God and Father. The kingdom of heaven is visible on earth as God’s people, redeemed sinners, gather to hear the Word, to receive all that Christ is when we receive the body and blood of Christ in the communion meal. The kingdom of heaven is then dispersed with the blessing of the Triune God to go out into this world to be a living Gospel for people who are hungering and thirsting for some solid food, for some refreshing drink.

God strengthens us and fortifies us to be a living Gospel, agents of grace, bestowers of peace to a world that is dying in a false hope, to a world that treats grace as weakness, that believes that peace can be manufactured by human means.

Even though the doors were locked, and the disciples were huddled together pondering the future, perhaps pondering their own demise, Jesus came and stood among them, bringing His peace. He stretched out his hands, showing his scars. He spoke directly to Thomas, “Put your hands here. Put your hands into my side.”

Did you examine the bulletin cover this morning? The wide eyes, the open mouth, the hand stretching forth.

There is Jesus, calmly looking at Thomas, offering the peace that only God can provide. Jesus was living, risen from the dead just as he told the disciples he would. The cross was real. The blood was red. Jesus was dead. Now in front of his beloved disciples, Jesus was standing, living, breathing on them the Holy Spirit and sending them out to be gospelers, good newsers, forgivers, lovers, teachers, mercyers. The weak apostles of God were sent by God to stretch out their hands and point: to the cross, to the empty tomb, to the Word, to the altar.

Jesus is still living and Jesus is still sending. God calls and gathers us and God dismisses us and sends us with his blessing, with the authority of Christ. In our family, we exercise the authority of Christ to forgive the sins of those who sin against us. We teach our children, we demonstrate in our relationships with neighbors, coworkers, and strangers.

God has made us living Gospels for the sake of the world around us because, and only because Christ is living. The Good News of God is that our sins are forgiven and we are set free because of the cross, because of the empty tomb. We are set free to be a living Gospel that can be seen, heard, felt. Christ is living and we have life in His name. SDG