St. Luke 24:36-49
Divine Service
Easter 3

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah!

I used to have a dog that was scared to death of thunder.  At the first flash of lightning, this dog would hide – under a table, under the bed, in the bathtub – and he ALSO hated a bath!  Psychologists theorize that each and every person also has a particular, personal, fear.  For many, fire is that fear.  For others, water.  For still others, they fear being in a crowd.  These are all very real and very personal fears.

In one of the episodes of the television show “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Wesley Crusher is being tested for admission to Starfleet Academy, and as part of that testing he is to face the so-called "psyche test," which will expose him to his deepest fear.  While talking to the seemingly fearless warrior named Worf, he wonders how they'll even know his deepest fear if he doesn't.  Worf tells him that they analyze the psychological profile – and thereby had correctly identified Worf’s fear. Wesley doesn't see how Worf could fear anything, to which Worf replies; “Only fools have no fear.”

The disciples in our Gospel lesson today are certainly aware of fear!  They had a very real and personal fear.  Jesus, their teacher, had just been crucified!  They had scattered when He had been arrested, but the authorities – the chief priest, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees would certainly remember them – probably by name!  They could only assume that they were the next to die – the same way that their teacher had died – a slow, painful, HORRIBLE, death by crucifixion.  They had Very valid reasons to fear. 

So here they were on the first day of the week – Sunday, sitting in a room where they had locked themselves in.  We can assume that no one but their closest and most trusted friends knew where they were.  They had locked themselves in, but they couldn’t lock the fear out.  They carried that fear with them into the locked room.  Even as they felt somewhat safe and protected by the locks, they continued to fear.  Almost paralyzed by fear, like that dog that I used to have!

Then Jesus appears in their midst.  The text is very silent about how Jesus entered the room.  It simply says, “While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them.”  They were certain of who this was – it was Jesus HIMSELF.  This miraculous appearance seemed to make their fear worse!  The very thing that they were hoping for – the miraculous restoration to life of their beloved teacher had actually happened – and they were even more afraid!  They thought they were seeing a ghost!  The events of the past three days had certainly played with their imaginations – they thought that they were seeing something that didn’t – and still doesn’t – exist.  Yet, the superstitions of the day will play heavily on the mind of someone who is both afraid and grieving.

These men certainly believed in Jesus as both man and God.  They had traveled with Him and learned from Him for the previous three years.  They KNEW that no man could accomplish all that Jesus had done.  Yet they grieved.  They had seen Him crucified and had watched – from a distance, we assume – as Jesus had died upon that cross.  They knew the reality of His death.  They also knew the promises that He had made concerning His resurrection.  They were – at that very moment – talking to the two disciples who had had dinner with the resurrected Jesus on the road to Emmaus.  The promise was apparently fulfilled!

We also live in some of the same kind of fear that those disciples had.  We want to take our faith and hide it away in the locked rooms of our selves.  We know the truth of the death and resurrection of Jesus, but like those disciples, we would love to have some more concrete proof of it.  We know that the Bible is true, but we fear to proclaim it.  We justify this fear of speaking our faith by using the modern catch phrase “It’s not my job.”  And just like the disciples, some of that fear is justified.  The faith that we have, the faith in that crucified and resurrected God-man, Jesus the Christ, is not what the world, the fallen man with itching ears to hear what he wants to hear – this is not what they want to hear. 

Man wants to hear that he has earned eternal life.  The fact that it is simply a girt of God through the faith given by the Holy Ghost is not enough for most men.  It is foolishness.  No one can receive a gift of that value without earning it!  No one gives something that valuable, that precious away!  Man, in his natural state, wants to contribute to his salvation.  He wants to at least try to be good enough to earn God’s favor.  He wants to take that step to the front of the church and declare his “decision” for God.  Man, on his own, cannot recognize that faith is truly and simply a gift of God, through the hearing of the Word.

Jesus greets his disciples on this Sunday night recorded in our lesson with a comforting phrase: “Peace be with you.”  This is not the standard, commonplace greeting of “Shalom,” which also means peace.  This is “Peace be with you.”  This is more.  This is special.  This is specifically to calm the fears of the disciples.  This is the same peace that Jesus gave these disciples on Maundy Thursday (John 14:27).  The peace of God which passes all understanding – that is the peace that Jesus gives here.

Jesus has a sure-fire method to calm their fears.  He shows them His wounds caused by the crucifixion.  He allows the disciples to touch Him, to prove to themselves that He is real – he is not a ghost – He is not a spirit, neither good nor evil, but He is truly their friend, their teacher, their Lord and Master – He is truly Jesus and He is truly the Messiah.  He has proven to these men that all the scriptures that prophesied to the Messiah were prophesying to Jesus.  Not only was His physical presence was so calming, but also on this night “He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”  They now could understand what Jesus had been keeping them from seeing.  They had had the veil which covered the mysteries of the Scriptures removed.  They now fully understood all of the prophecies, all of the references to Jesus coming which to that point Jesus, as God had prevented them from understanding.

The understanding of the Scriptures has never closed.  We still look to those 39 books that we call the Old Testament and we marvel at the accuracy of the predictions.  And what did Christ Himself point out to the disciples in these Scriptures?  Not the creation of a new kingdom on earth, either at that time nor at any future time.  Not anything grand and glorious.  He shows them “what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.”  That part had happened.  These disciples had lived through Christ suffering and were now witnesses to the resurrected Lord.  He now tells them what will happen: “and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”  This is the peace of God!

The peace of God that Jesus bestowed that on those disciples: the repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name.  And this continues to be bestowed upon His church continually.  That peace is given to each of us each time we hear – or read – His Word.  It is bestowed each time we remember our Baptism, and the comfort that we have knowing that through that Baptism, we have become a part of this same Jesus; that we have been baptized into Him – His life, death and resurrection.  It is given each and every time we hear the words: “I forgive you your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” 

Only fools have no fear.  We fear.  We should fear.  We live in an imperfect world, where evil truly does exist.  We fear for our life. We fear for our health.  We fear for these same things for the people that we love.  These are valid fears – for this life – which we know is so very transient.  We fear for our eternal salvation.  We need not!  That has been won for us by that resurrected Jesus!  He took all of our damning sins with Him when He ascended the cross.  He made known His victory over death when he proclaimed his victory to “the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago.” (1 Peter 3:19b-20a)  His victory over death assures the resurrection for those of us who have been given faith in Him.  These assurances relieve our fears.

This is the comfort that Jesus provides:  He has given us His peace.

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

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