Easter II, Cycle C

"Jesus Died for Somebody's Sins"

April 18, 2004

The Rev. Dr. David M. Wendel

Saint Luke’s Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Lessons:  Acts 5:27-32;  Revelation 1:4-8;  St. John 20:19-312

It was last Monday morning, the day after our glorious Easter Sunday celebration.  I was driving to the church, listening to NPR, thinking, "what in the heck am I going to preach this Sunday--the Sunday after Easter, the Sunday after, I'd preached my heart out about the Resurrection of our Lord?"  People sometimes think Easter Sunday would be the more challenging for the preacher--wanting to have a sermon worthy of the big crowds and the Festival of the Resurrection--wanting to have a sermon that will bring them back, the Sunday after Easter.  (Which, of course, didn't seem to happen!)  Most preachers will tell you, though, that it's the Sunday after Easter that's the bigger challenge.  Why do you think most preachers take the Sunday after Easter off?  Pastor Tyg, for example, isn't in the pulpit this morning--he and Shelly are in New Orleans--about as far away from the pulpit as you can get!  Which is where many preachers want to be, the Sunday after Easter--far away from the pulpit. 

     But I resist the temptation!  On the Sunday after Easter, after the crowds of the big festival day, when it's the real faithful who come to church--I want to be here for you--I want to be here with you.  Which is why, I was thinking about today's sermon, last Monday, as I was driving to the church, listening to National Public Radio.  When a feature came on about a singer, from the 70's, who's still going strong at 57 years old--a woman named Patti Smith, known as the godmother--the poet laureate, of punk rock.  Which didn't really spark my interest, till they played a clip from one of her first songs, a re-make of an old Van Morrison song--that went, "Jesus died for somebody's sins--but not mine."  She told the interviewer, "I wasn't trying to record a hit record--I was simply trying to make a record that would make a certain type of person--not feel alone."  She then spoke about being the kind of child, and now the kind of adult, who feels outside of society, outside of acceptable behavior--truly, alone, and isolated.

     And I think the Holy Spirit got me considering, at that point, our Easter celebration, and the Easter celebrations in churches around the world--where people come to services, and really do feel, good, and whole, and healed, and a part of things--you know, insiders.  I thought of all those fortunate to come to Easter services, and leave with a kind of satisfied, pumped up kind of glow, that causes the week to go better, and leaves you feeling, grateful and appreciative of  God, and Jesus, and the wonderful gift of His death and resurrection.  My guess is there were a lot of us who felt that way after last Sunday's Easter services. 

     But it also got me considering the rest of us.  Those of us who came to Easter services, but left still feeling, kind of empty inside.  Those of us who came to Easter services, but left, still burdened, by guilt from the past, shame from our present, or fear about the future.  And of course, those who didn't come to Easter services at all--because they felt, indeed, "Jesus died for somebody's sins--but not mine."  There were some folks who came to our Easter services feeling that way last Sunday, and left feeling the same way.  And there were some folks, who just didn't bother with Easter at all.  Why bother, when you have such a feeling that God, Jesus, forgiveness, is really for somebody else, but not for me?  I got into the office last Monday, the day after Easter, a little down, that there are those, in our church, and in our world, who don't know, that contrary to their thoughts and feelings, Jesus did die for their sins! 

     And as I sat down in my office chair, the first thing I did, was pick up a lesson sheet, to read the appointed Gospel for this morning. Oh, I knew it was about Thomas--doubting Thomas.  The gospel reading the Sunday after Easter is always about doubting Thomas;  since I started preaching, in high school, I guess I've preached on that text about 33 or 34 times--the Second Sunday of Easter--you know, even before I was ordained, pastors were always looking for a supply preacher the Sunday after Easter.  And yet, as I read the passage from John 20 this week,  I was struck by something that I'm sure, I've never preached on before.  I was struck by something that I may have never really noticed before--given that this passage is so focused on doubting Thomas.  And that was, that after the Risen Jesus entered the locked room where the disciples were because they were afraid of what the Jews might now, do to them;  Jesus first, speaks a word, indeed, a command of peace to them, and then, He commissions them for ministry.  He says, again, "Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send 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 retain the sins of any, they are retained."  And then, the focus seems to shift, as the doubt of Thomas takes center stage.

     But the doubts of Thomas, surface after Jesus commands his apostles to be at peace, and after he gives them the commission--the apostolic mission, to go, and, empowered by the Holy Spirit, forgive sins.  And not only does Jesus send the disciples out to forgive sins--he also gives them the power to bind, sins--saying, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."  And it hit me, right away, that I'm not sure we preachers always get that.  In some ways, it's probably because we've been preaching about sin and forgiveness so much during Lent, that it kind of seems out of place during the Season of Easter--especially the week after Easter Sunday!  But after hearing this, anew and afresh, I took a gander at the Second Reading from Revelation, and lo and behold, John writes to the seven churches that are in Asia, "Grace to you and peace from him who is, and who was, and who is to come…to him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.  Amen." 

     There, in our second reading, is that same proclamation, this Second Sunday of Easter--the reminder that by his blood, that it is by His death, for us, on the cross, that Jesus Christ showed us His love, and freed us from our sins--making us, through that forgiveness, a kingdom, indeed, priests, serving his God and Father!  And not only is this proclaimed in our Gospel reading, and in our passage from Revelation, we hear it from St. Peter, in our lesson from Acts, as well, as Peter and the apostles, speaking in front of the high priest and the Jewish council, said, "the God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree.  God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins."  And right there and then, I was reminded, and maybe chastised, that so often, I had neglected to keep repentance, and forgiveness of sins central, not just during the season of Lent, not just when it seemed about time to preach a sermon on confession and forgiveness again--but central, all the time, every Sunday, at every opportunity!  Because, what our lessons are telling us;  what God is telling us today, this first Sunday after Easter Sunday, is that repentance, and confession, and forgiveness, is what the death and resurrection is all about!  What we are to witness to, St. Peter announces, is Jesus' death on the cross, which made Him Leader and Savior, that He might give to us, and to all people, repentance and forgiveness of sins.  When we are witnessing to Jesus, we are proclaiming that in him, there can be repentance and forgiveness!  This, St. John the Divine says, is why Jesus, in love, freed us from our sins, by his blood--that we might be freed from our sins, by his blood, so that reconciled to God the Father, we might not be alienated, alone, outcast, but part of the kingdom of God--and not just part of the kingdom, but priests, serving our God and Father!

     And, for those of us who still feel, alienated, alone, outcast--for those of us who come to Easter services, and leave still burdened by sin;  for those who didn't bother to come to Easter services at all, because they felt that "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine", where do we receive this forgiveness?  On the one hand, of course, Jesus gave this commission to the apostles.  It is an apostolic mission that Jesus gave to his apostles, and to all who have been ordained into the apostolic ministry, as he sent his apostles, bishops, priests and ministers out, saying, "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.  If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them, if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."  Here, Jesus is sending out his ministers on an apostolic mission to forgive the sins of those who are repentant--from which comes the sacrament of confession and absolution.  St. Gregory the great, writing in the last half of the fourth century said in a sermon, "It delights us to see to what heights are they (his apostolic ministers) led who are called to take on themselves such burdens of obedience…for they receive the power of the heavenly Judge, that in the name of God, they may forgive sin…"  On the one hand, it is the role and the responsibility of ministers called and ordained according to apostolic usage, to hear confessions and speak words of forgiveness, in the name of God, drawing on the power of the blood of Jesus, to forgive sins.  On the other hand, it is the role and the responsibility of every Christian who has been freed from our sins by Jesus' blood, to exercise our priestly authority, to forgive others.  Contrary to what most mistakenly believe, Luther's understanding of the "priesthood of all believers", had nothing to do with all people being able to function as priests at the altar, or to preach the Word from the pulpit.  Rather, Luther taught that we are to be priests to one another, by speaking words of forgiveness to each other.  Luther wrote in the Large Catechism, "Thus by divine ordinance Christ himself has entrusted absolution to his Christian Church and commanded us to absolve one another from sins.  So if there is a heart that feels its sin and desires consolation, it has here a sure refuge when it hears in God's Word that through a man, God looses and absolves us from our sins.  Confession, then, consists of two parts.  The first", Luther wrote, "is my work and act, when I lament my sin and desire comfort and restoration for my soul.  The second is a work which God does, when he absolves me of my sins through a word placed in the mouth of a man." 

     Sometimes, that word is placed in the mouth of a man, ordained into the apostolic ministry, ordained specifically, to speak words of forgiveness as from God himself.  Other times, that word of forgiveness is placed into the mouth of a man or woman, who, as an ordinary priest serving our God and Father, is able to speak a word of forgiveness, to a spouse, friend, child, parent, or neighbor, as a witness to Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, to give repentance and forgiveness to us, that we might be freed from our sins by His blood.  Either way, the point is that repentance and forgiveness is available, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and now, no one--no one, who is repentant, need carry around a burden of guilt any longer.  Now, no one need feel that Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not for mine.  Now, all can be reconciled to God the Father, through the sacrifice of His Son, on the cross, so that we no longer need feel outcast, so that we no longer need feel, unacceptable, unloved, alone.  And it is my responsibility as a priest ordained into the apostolic ministry, and it is your responsibility, as priests, ordained into the kingdom of God by the blood of Jesus, through baptism into His death and resurrection--to be witnesses to that fact-- that in and through Jesus Christ, repentance and forgiveness, are available to all!  To be witnesses to the fact that Jesus loves us--all--and that He has freed us, from our sins, by His blood.  And to be witnesses to this, we must not doubt, but believe!  Believe, that Jesus, who died for sins, has been raised to new life!  Believe that Jesus, who was crucified, is risen, that all who believe, may have life in His name.  May we, both believe, and be witnesses to these things!  May we both  believe, and, forgive one another--in the name of Jesus, and by the blood, of Jesus.

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