Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter - Jubilate: Isa 40:25-31

                                                                                               Easter 4
                                                                                               Isa 40:25-31
                                                                                               4/17/16

I wish I had just half his energy!  If only you could take that energy and bottle it!  Most likely you have heard people make statements like this, or you have said it yourself.  We say things like this when we are around young children – especially little boys – because they just seem to keep going and going.  They are busy and active, always moving around and doing something.

This can be a challenge because as parents we don’t have boundless energy. Our lives are not only about play. We have a host of things that have to be done – tasks that we must take care of in addition to keeping an eye on a young child. Throw several children into the mix and it can wear you out.

But of course, even young children do not have endless energy. They too eventually become tired. And usually in the afternoon that leads to the parent’s best friend: the nap. Little children go and go, until finally, they are tired and need to rest.

In our Old Testament lesson today, Isaiah is contrasting Yahweh with human beings. He says that Israel’s God is the One who has created all things. He has all understanding. He also has all strength and power. Yahweh is completely different from human beings, who do become tired, weary and exhausted. After all, even young men become tired, faint and weary. Yet because God is the One who loves and cares for his people, he is also the One who renews the strength of those who trust in him.

In the Old Testament lesson this morning, Isaiah writes words of comfort for an event that hadn’t even happened yet. Isaiah lived in the eighth century A.D. In his day the Assyrian Empire was the great super power of the near eastern world that threatened both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. In 721 B.C. God used the Assyrians as the instrument of his judgment against the idolatry and unfaithfulness of the northern kingdom. Israel’s capital, Samaria, was destroyed and the people were taken into exile. In their place, the Assyrians brought in conquered peoples from other areas.

However, in our text Isaiah isn’t talking about what is happening in this own time – in the eighth century. Instead he is speaking comfort for a disaster that has not yet occurred. He writes words that address the people of Judah in the sixth century B.C. Another empire will arise, the Babylonians. They will overcome the Assyrians and become the new ruling power in that part of the world. The Babylonians will be the instrument that God uses to punish Judah for her idolatry and unfaithfulness. They will destroy the temple and take the people into exile in Babylon. 

That disaster is still in the future as Isaiah writes in the eighth century. But already, God speaks a word of comfort and hope that will be true for Judah. God will act to bring back the people from exile. He will return them to their own land. Isaiah begins this chapter by writing, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.” God promises that he will act on behalf of his people. Isaiah announced, “And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” The prophet goes on to say, “Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.”
 

The temptation in exile would be to give up hope. Even though it was their own sin that had brought this punishment upon the nation, there would be some who would want to blame God. There would be those who wanted to criticize the way God was doing things. Isaiah asks the question, “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”?
 

So often that is where we find ourselves as well. The circumstances of life as fallen people in a fallen world challenge our faith in God. They threaten to squelch hope as we face unexpected – and unwanted – challenges. We see life going in ways that don’t fit our plans and we want to criticize the way God is doing things.
 

God’s answer through Isaiah is to say: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” On numerous occasions the book of Isaiah calls attention to the fact that Yahweh is the Creator. The fact of the matter is that there is no one else like him. God begins by saying in our text, “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.”
 

If you want proof, Isaiah says to look up at the stars. He writes, “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.” God has no lack of understanding. He has no shortage of power.
 

And the good news is that God uses this on our behalf. He uses it for the sake of those who struggle with all of the ways that sin manifests itself in our lives. Isaiah says, “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
 

God does this for those “who wait for the Lord.” Judah had to wait some seventy years in exile. And then, rather suddenly, the Persian empire under King Cyrus arose and conquered the Babylonians. In 538 B.C. Cyrus issued an edict that the Judahites could return to their own land and rebuild the temple.
 

This act of rescuing his people was a type. It was an event that pointed forward to an even greater rescue that God was going to provide – a rescue that he has now provided in the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ. Through Jesus’ death on the cross God has released us from the burden of sin. By his resurrection from the dead he has freed us from the slavery of death. Buried with Christ in baptism we now live as the forgiven children of God. And because we have shared in the death of the risen Lord, our baptism provides the certainty that we will share in his resurrection as well.
 

This does not mean that the struggle against sin has ended. It does not mean that the hardships of a fallen world have ceased. But now the risen and ascended Lord Jesus continues to do that same thing that Isaiah describes in our text when he writes: He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
 

Jesus gives us strength through his Means of Grace. He feeds us with his Word, and his true body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. He refreshes us with the good news of forgiveness in Holy Absolution. Through these means the Holy Spirit strengthens us in faith. He nourishes the new man in us.
 

And as he does so, something else happens. We who were faint and weary become the means God uses to support those around us who are weak. We become God’s instruments whereby he cares for those exhausted by life. You don’t have to look very hard to find the people who need this. They are there in your family, in this congregation, or next to you at school or work. The undeserved and unmerited love which you have received in Jesus Christ becomes something that you pass on to others by being there to help and assist them.
 

Until our Lord returns in glory, there will always be the temptation to give up hope; to surrender to sin; to question God. At those times we return to Isaiah’s words: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”
 

The God who created all things has now acted in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to bring renewal and re-creation. He has given us new life through the work of the Holy Spirit in water and the Word, and in Christ we are already now a new creation. Through his Means of Grace our Lord Jesus continues to renew and increase our strength so that we can live in faith toward God and love for our neighbor.

Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter - Misercordias Domini

                                                                                     Easter 3 
                                                                                     1 Pt 2:21-25 
                                                                                     4/10/16

It should be obvious that we find today to be meaningful. The Scripture readings for the Third Sunday of Easter – Misercordias Domini – have caused many to call today “Good Shepherd Sunday.” In the Old Testament reading God says, “Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.”

 In our text, the Epistle lesson, Peter says, “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” And of course, in the Gospel lesson Jesus declares, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
 

This theme catches our attention because we are, after all, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. The defining feature of this congregation is the window behind me that depicts Jesus lovingly holding a lamb in his arms. It is now illuminated at night so that those at evening services and those driving by on Westminster Drive can see it. This image appears on our church stationary, on our t-shirts and even on my business card.
 

And in fact, the Good Shepherd connections don’t stop there. In a timing that almost seems to have been scripted, I officially announced my acceptance of the call to Good Shepherd on Good Shepherd Sunday in 2006. Now almost ten years later, it appears that it was meant to be.
 

Good Shepherd Sunday has a warm and fuzzy feel – kind of like that lamb Jesus is holding in our window. The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd calls to mind the tender and caring love of our Lord. He is the one who like a shepherd gathers in his sheep and cares for them. Or as our text says, “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
 

Now this is certainly all true. And more than that, Jesus is the Good Shepherd who has done the unthinkable. As our Lord says in the Gospel lesson, “I lay down my life for the sheep.” Jesus is the One who has given himself as the sacrifice for our sin. That is what almost all of our text today is about.
 

Peter tells us that “Christ also suffered for you.” And then he goes on to use the words of that Old Testament text the proved so crucial for the early Church’s understanding of what had happened on Good Friday. Weaving in the words of Isaiah chapter 53 about the suffering Servant, Peter tells us, “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
 

Jesus Christ the sinless One bore your sins in his body on the tree. Sinners who sin cannot live with the holy God. And so Jesus became the sinner in your place. He received the judgment that you deserve for all of your selfish actions. He received God’s wrath for all of the angry words you speak. He died for you, and then on the third day God raised him from the dead. Because of this Peter can says, “By his wounds you have been healed.”
 

Not long ago we had gone out to take care of some errands. We usually go out through the garage to the van. The door into the house from the garage has a glass screen door that has the usual mechanism to close it. To be honest, ours causes the door to close very slowly.
 

We left the house and returned more than an hour later. As we pulled up to the house we saw an unexpected sight. There, sitting next to the garage door, were our two dogs, Luther and Noel. What had happened is that sometimes, the last person out forgets to shut the door into the house as they walk out into the garage. The screen door closes slowly, and the dogs who have followed us to the door slip out before the screen door closes. In this case we must have been in such a hurry that not only did we not notice this – we also didn’t realize that the dogs had gone outside the garage.
 

The dogs were outside the house, unattended for an extended period of time. But when we returned, there they were, sitting next to the garage door. Luther and Noel are not dumb. They know where home is. They know they have it really good. They didn’t wander off.
 

While the dogs were too smart to wander off, you and I are too dumb not too. Jesus is the shepherd and we are the sheep. Sheep, as you have heard many times, are proverbialy dumb. They wander off. Though we had wandered off into sin, by his death and resurrection and through the work of the Holy Spirit in the Means of Grace, Jesus has brought us back to himself. And even when we stumble in sin, he continues to bring back repentant sinners.
 

That’s all good stuff. It’s all true stuff. It’s the kind of stuff you expect to hear on Good Shepherd Sunday. But our text from 1 Peter also contains a surprise. There is something here we probably don’t expect.
 

Peter begins our text by saying, “For to this you have been called.” “This” refers to the previous three verses in which Peter has said, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”
 

Our translation says “servants,” but Peter here is clearly talking to slaves. Peter says it finds favor in God’s eyes when a Christian slave suffers unjustly because he or she is mindful of God. The apostle says that it finds favor in God’s eyes when a Christian slave does good and suffers because of it.
 

And before you think that these words and this idea do not apply to you because they are addressed to people in the situation of ancient slavery, consider what Peter says in the next chapter. There he writes, “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.”
 

Peter says this and then adds, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” It is the exact same argument as in our text where the apostle explains, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you.”
 

Jesus Christ’s suffering and death for us has not only provided our salvation. In our text Peter declares, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” When Jesus suffered unjustly, yet continued to trust the Father’s will he was providing the model for us to follow. When he was reviled yet did not respond in kind he was showing us how we are to live. And so Peter can say in the next chapter, “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.” You are called to follow Jesus in doing what is right even in the face of suffering, “because,” Peter says, “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”
 

Jesus’ suffering and death is an example for us. Yet we would be in trouble if that was all there was to it. After all, we would simply be cast back on our own resources. However Jesus did not just die. As we have been celebrating since Easter, he also rose from the dead. And this fact has changed everything for us. Peter begins this letter by announcing, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
 

The new life of the resurrection has already begun in us. Peter says we have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus. How did this happen? The apostle explains this as he talks about how Christians are to treat one another. He writes, “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.”
 

The Holy Spirit has given you new life through the Word. You know that you have new life because you have received rebirth through the washing of water and the Word in Holy Baptism. Now through the work of the Spirit, the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives you hope. We know how the story turns out. We have already gotten to peek at the end of the book. The resurrection of Jesus Christ has shown us where we are heading, and the Spirit who raised Jesus is at work in you. He will do that same thing for you on the Last Day, and already now the Spirit provides the means by which you can follow in Jesus Christ’s steps.
 

Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd who has given his life for us his sheep. He suffered for us as he bore our sins in body on tree, and by his wounds we have been healed. His trust in God the Father as he faced suffering and his willingness to suffer for doing what is right in God’s eyes provide an example to us. Peter says in our text, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”
 

But Jesus is the One who rose from the dead. And we are enabled to walk in his steps through the work of the Holy Spirit. We have been born again to a living hope through Jesus’ resurrection. The Spirit has caused us to be born again through the Word and now we can follow in Jesus’ steps because we know where they lead – resurrection and eternal life with Christ.

Mark's thoughts: Forty days

Unlike Christmas, the world devotes little attention to the time leading up to Easter. A few bunnies go up as decorations and the stores put out Easter candy in the week or two leading up to the day, but otherwise there is not all that much to mark its approach. Like Christmas, as soon as the day has passed, the world moves on to other things.  

In the Church we spend four weeks during Advent preparing for Christmas and then twelve days celebrating Christmas itself. And while the Church’s celebration of Christmas differs from the world, our celebration of Easter differs even more. We spend five and a half weeks during Lent preparing for Easter. And then we spend forty days celebrating the presence of the risen Lord with his disciples up until the day of his ascension. Eastertide itself extends for fifty days until the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
 
These forty days between Easter and Ascension are important for our understanding of the Christian faith. Luke begins the book of Acts by saying: 

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:1-3 ESV). 

The appearances by the risen Lord were not a one day event. Instead, they extended over the course of forty days. These days were the occasion when Jesus Christ provided many proofs that he had risen from the dead, and during this time he engaged in teaching the disciples.
 
These appearances occurred at (John 20:11-18) and near the tomb (Matthew 28:7-10 ). They occurred in Jerusalem itself in a room twice (Luke 24:36-49; John 20:19-23; 20:24-29). They occurred on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). They occurred in northern Israel on a mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:16-20) and at the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1-14).

Encounters with the risen Lord were not limited to the twelve, or even to a small group. The apostle Paul told the Corinthians: 

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallenasleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8 ESV)

Forty days of appearances to different groups of people in different places. Why were the disciples willing to suffer imprisonment and even death? They knew that the crucified One had risen from the dead! They knew because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that the message they preached was true, and so nothing else mattered.
 
From the beginning, Christians were very open about the fact that the faith they proclaimed stood or fell with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul told the Corinthians:

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:14-19 ESV)

Yet the disciples knew for certain that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. They didn’t have to wonder whether they were mistaken about something they had experienced one Sunday. Instead, they had encountered the risen Lord on multiple occasions in different places during the course of forty days. As Paul went on to say, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:20-21 ESV).
 
The disciples bore witness to what they had seen and heard by their lives … and their deaths. They travelled around the Mediterranean world and proclaimed Christ in the midst of great hardships (2 Corinthians 11:23-29). They even gave the ultimate witness by dying for Christ – by being martyrs for Jesus (a Greek word that means “witness”).
 
Only the Holy Spirit can create and sustain faith in Jesus Christ. But as we share the good news about Jesus with others and as we face the assaults of the devil against our own faith, the events during the forty days during between Easter and Ascension provide comfort, strength and encouragement that we need.

Sermon for Second Sunday of Easter - Quasimodo Geniti: Jn 20:19-31

                                                                                         Easter 2
                                                                                         Jn 20:19-31
                                                                                         4/3/16

Well that must have been an awkward week! As we listen to our Gospel lesson this morning it is easy to overlook the implications of the fact that the text moves from events on the evening of Easter Sunday to those that occurred on the evening of the first Sunday after Easter. 

It is, of course, an account that we know well. Thomas is not present with the disciples on the evening of Easter. The risen Lord appears to the disciples. But when they report this good news to Thomas he says, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Then we hear about what happened a week later on the next Sunday evening when Thomas is present and the risen Lord appears to the disciples again.
 
But in between these two events is a week. For a whole week Thomas was living in the midst of the disciples. They were filled with joy. After all our Gospel lesson tells us that on the evening of Easter the “disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” – a statement that can also be translated as “they rejoiced when they saw the Lord.”
 
Certainly they did not yet understand all that the resurrection of Jesus Christ meant. But their Lord who had been crucified had risen from the dead! Already now they were beginning to think back on what Jesus had said and done. As I mentioned last week, at the beginning of his ministry Jesus had visited Jerusalem and cleansed the temple. When the Jews challenged him to do something that proved his authority to do this, Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The answer seemed to make no sense. Yet John tells us, “But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.”
 
Thomas on the other hand clung to his rejection of the very thing that now shaped and formed their life. Imagine what that was like during the course of the week. In our text we hear the disciples report to Thomas what had happened. But it seems unlikely that the disciples only mentioned Jesus’ resurrection appearance once to Thomas. Surely they tried to persuade him during the course of the week as they bore witness to what they had seen and heard.
 
Why did Thomas reject what they said? Our text doesn’t explain his reasons. It only reports his demand for physical confirmation – to put his finger in the mark of the nails and put his hand into Jesus’ side where the spear had pierced him. It surely wasn’t because he didn’t think a resurrection was possible. After all, apart from the Sadducees this was a common belief in first century Judaism. It was something that was a regular part of Jesus’ own teaching.
 
Perhaps the crucifixion of Jesus had just been too jarring for him. We now know that there was a fairly wide diversity of messianic expectation in first century Judaism. But one thing that tied all of these expectations together was that the Messiah would be a powerful and mighty figure who would defeat evil and bring rescue to God’s people. And for all of these expectations there was one absolute proof that an individual was not the Messiah: When the Romans killed him. A dead Messiah was no Messiah.
 
In our own day too, there are reasons why people reject the resurrection. For many the cause is a pseudo-scientific view of science. This week I sent out the link for a fascinating piece by Ian Hutchison, a professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT. He is also a Christian who believes in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
 
He addresses the fact that many people today believe that anything that does not conform to the laws of science is impossible. And he comments, “Today’s widespread materialist view that events contrary to the laws of science just can’t happen is a metaphysical doctrine, not a scientific fact. What’s more, the doctrine that the laws of nature are ‘inviolable’ is not necessary for science to function. Science offers natural explanations of natural events. It has no power or need to assert that only natural events happen.”
 
Unbelief is the basic challenge in our lives. The devil, the world and our own sinful nature want us to doubt. It is the resurrection and the Holy Spirit poured forth by the risen Lord that has powered the Christian faith. What sent the apostles out into the Mediterranean world and beyond in order to share the Gospel? What prompted them to bring a message to a world that sounded like foolishness – the message of a crucified Savior? It was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus had died on the cross for the sins of all and had defeated death in his resurrection. The resurrection of the Last Day had begun in Jesus!
 
It is the resurrection of the crucified Savior that plays the same role in our lives. Why can we be sure that our sins are forgiven? Because the crucified Lord rose from the dead. Why can we trust that God is still in charge in the midst of circumstances we don’t understand? Because the crucified Lord rose from the dead. Why do we face illness and death in confident trust in God? Because the crucified Lord rose from the dead.
 
This is not what the devil wants. And so he works through the world and our own sinful nature to cause us to doubt. He works to create a disconnect between what we believe about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the way we live our lives.
 
Thomas didn’t just doubt. He rejected the witness to the resurrection that other disciples were providing. And so we learn in our text that eight days later, Jesus’ disciples were inside again, and this time Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and just as on the previous Sunday he said, “Peace be with you.”
 
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” The risen Lord stood in their midst and called Thomas to believe.
 
Several years ago I mentioned in a sermon that there is a great irony about Thomas. We all know the phrase to which this text has given rise: “doubting Thomas.” John’s Gospel begins by telling us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John then goes on to describe incarnation as he says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
 
John begins the Gospel by telling the reader that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. Then we wait in the Gospel for someone to confess this. We wait and wait until finally we hear it on the lips of … Thomas. The risen Lord called Thomas from unbelief to faith – a faith that confesses Jesus as Lord and God.
 
In response Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Our Lord’s words express a basic distinction that we can’t get around. Thomas and the apostles were there to see Jesus crucified and then to encounter him for forty days after his resurrection. We were not.
 
The Word became flesh and acted in a particular place and time in human history. That’s actually very good news – it is Gospel. It means that God has acted in our time and space in order to give us forgiveness and salvation – people who live in time and space. Because of his great love, in the incarnation God entered into our world and existence in order to suffer and die for you. It really happened and so it really has meaning for you.
 
Now it true that we don’t live there and then. But Jesus says in our text that the status of being blessed – of enjoying God’s end-time salvation – is open to us as well. It is open to us in the same way that it was to Thomas. It is available by faith.
 
And the last verses of our text tell us how God bears witness to the resurrection of Jesus and calls us to faith. John writes, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
 
John’s Gospel focuses our attention on the signs that Jesus did – signs that reveal his saving glory. After Jesus turns water into wine, John tells us, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” Jesus’ signs reveal his glory and call forth faith.
 
Immediately after reporting Jesus’ interaction with Thomas John says, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.” The appearance to Thomas is itself a sign. And John tells us about it so that it can do the same thing it did in Jesus’ day. He goes on to add, “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
 
We see the signs in the inspired Scriptures – words provided by the Spirit of God. On the night when he was betrayed Jesus promised to send the Spirit – the Helper. He said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
 
In the inspired word of God we continue to see the signs of the risen Lord – signs that reveal his saving glory and call forth faith. Yes the signs can be rejected. But it was no different in Jesus’ day. As John tells us about Holy Week in Jerusalem, “Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.” But just as it was in Jesus’ day, so it is now. They are signs that reveal Jesus saving glory “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”