Let
us pray, Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead, Alleluia! Just as the disciples gathered in the upper
room with fear and doubt of the events of the last week, may we who gather here
this morning understand fear and doubt is overcome by Jesus Christ. For in Jesus Christ offering His life, we can
more fully understand that our freedom is the gift of eternal life You freely
offer to each of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel. AMEN.
The
disciples were afraid and doubted, but He is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
In
the movie “Soul Surfer”, Bethany the main character after losing her arm in a
shark attack, gets back up on the board, because she is a surfer at heart. But reality deals her a cruel blow and the
once champion, fails at the one thing she enjoys most, a surfing competition. At a complete loss, searching her soul and
about to give up, Bethany along the sea shore hears some words of wisdom from
her father in the query of her question, “What do I do?” Her father says, “Listen for what comes
next”.
This
morning we find ourselves with the disciples in the upper room following the
tragic events of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The disciple like Bethany, don’t understand
what to do, their leader, teacher, companion and friend, Jesus Christ was
nailed to the Cross and died. But the
women now are telling them, “Jesus is alive”.
“He is Risen”!
Yet,
in great fear of the Jews and the potential of experiencing the same fate that
Jesus had experienced, the disciples have gathered behind a locked door. But who should arrive, Jesus Christ
Himself. And immediately, Jesus Christ
overcame the disciples fear. The doors
of the disciples hearts that had cowered in fear and ran when Jesus was taken
by the soldiers was melted away like snow on a warm summer day. The disciples who had walked with Jesus
Christ, recognized Jesus Christ, not only His voice, His mannerisms and His
sacred touch, but His mere presence radiated the love He had for His
companions. Jesus Christ overcame the
fear that shackled the hearts of the disciples, because He was physically
present with them in the upper room.
Not
only was their fear melted away, but Jesus Christ overcame the disciples
doubt. Historically from the Gospels and
Jesus miracles, when Jesus would raise someone from the dead, whether the
little girl, Lazarus or the boy being carried to his burial, Jesus to prove
they were not a spirit and were in fact alive, would tell the people, give them
something to eat. But Jesus Christ
proved His being alive and melted the doubts of the disciples by showing His
Hands, His Feet and His Side. Jesus
Christ made very tangible proof that He was not a ‘figment’ of their collective
imagination, but really there with them in the upper room.
And
Jesus first words to them were “Peace be with you”. This Peace offered to the disciples was a
peace of forgiveness. With all of the
disciples fleeing the Garden when He was taken, Peter’s denial in the Courtyard
and now cowering in fear and doubt behind a closed locked door, Jesus saw into
their hearts and forgave them for the doubt and fear and turned it into a
strength for proclaiming, “He is risen”!
You
see, the disciples unlike we today had a tangible Jesus Christ present with
them in a personal way. The disciples
could put their fingers into Jesus Christ wounds, feel the caress of His loving
and forgiving hands and their doubts and fears disappeared. For Jesus Christ offered to the disciples and
to us freedom through His sacrifice. The
freedom they experienced was to proclaim to each other and the entire world the
message of salvation found in Jesus Christ.
The disciples who saw the resurrected Jesus Christ like the women who
went to the tomb early in the morning could now say, “He is risen”! What is so amazing is that the message “He
has risen” frees each and everyone of us this morning from the bonds of sin,
death and the devil, because of what Jesus Christ did on the Cross of Calvary.
The
message of peace that Jesus Christ proclaims to the disciples and which Thomas
wouldn’t believe until he touched Jesus Hands and Side, we believe today here
at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Goodland Kansas on faith. And this faith given to each of us through
our baptism into Jesus Christ life, death and resurrection, emboldens all of us
to overcome our own individual doubts and fears and gives us the freedom found
in Jesus Christ to proclaim the message of salvation for all of humankind. We are emboldened by Jesus appearing in the
upper room to proclaim “He is risen” and enabled to live not bound by our sins,
but freed from our sins because of Jesus Christ. For Jesus Christ clearly told the disciples,
including Thomas, “Because
you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” For this is ‘what comes
next’, our opportunity to share the message of salvation, not only with and for
all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel this morning. But we have the opportunity to spread the
saying, “He is risen” to the ends of the earth since it is the salvation
message won for all mankind through Jesus Christ on Calvary for you and for me
and all of the saints of all time and place.
“He is risen” and we respond with the proclamation, “He is
risen indeed, Alleluia”. AMEN.
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