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This Week's Sermon THE SECOND SUNDAY of EASTER 19 April 2009 "Absolution" John 20:19-31 LSB Series B Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

On the Second Sunday of Easter the Holy Gospel is always this reading even though all of the other readings and propers change. If I were using my catechetical marking system, this would be a double starred question. Our catechumens-and their parents-will tell you that double starred means that if you do not reproduce the answer exactly as written you will not simply get the question wrong, you won't pass the test, or as I sometimes say, "you don't pass go; you don't collect $200." Whatever else you have answered won't matter because I'm not going to read it. That's how important this question is.

This reading is that important and we might even miss it because of Thomas. While the second half of the account about Thomas seeing the risen Christ and making a wonderful confession of faith is important, something more important is happening. There is "Absolution." And what Jesus does is of critical importance for every Christian since because Jesus gives his Apostles the Holy Spirit and sends them out with this "Absolution." "Absolution" is another word for the forgiveness of sins. "To absolve" means to "pardon, forgive, release, free."

The very first word from our Lord's mouth when he meets the disciples on the evening of his resurrection is "Peace." "Peace be with you." "Peace" is an "Absolution." And Jesus repeated it again a second time. We sometimes forget why this should be necessary but a quick review of Holy Thursday through the Sabbath reminds us that the ten disciples had all fled the scene, except for John. Yet, all of them together hid themselves behind locked and bolted doors. Most obviously, they had been guilty of denying Jesus, of wanting nothing to do with him as he was being crucified. Yet, at the real heart of things was their sin. That sin was not the sins that they had committed during this week, but their sin, that is, their sinful state, of being in the condition of sin since birth.

First, it is just as Paul wrote to the Romans about Jesus

"who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:25, ESV)

You know this because you have heard this placed into your ears. It has been placed there by the explicit command of Jesus:

"Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending 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 withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld."" (John 20:21-23, ESV)

Something curious happens as Jesus speaks these words: he breathes on his disciples and conveys the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the breath of God, the third Person of the Holy Trinity. He is "the Lord and Giver of life," the one "who spoke by the prophets." The work of the Holy Spirit is to take what belongs to Christ and to distribute it to the world, that is, he takes Christ's work on the cross and distributes into the ears of world. Did you ever notice that when you confess the Creed "the forgiveness of sins" is under the Third Article, not the Second. You might expect to find it under the article about Christ, but it is under the article about the Holy Spirit.

God forgives you through Christ by means of the Holy Spirit's ministry. This is carried out through human beings called and ordained to do this very work, namely, pastors. What this wonderful reading contains is the creation of the Office of the Holy Ministry to do just that.

In the Old Testament Levitical sacrificial system, the high priest did not offer the sacrifices for the sins of the people on the Great Day of Atonement until he had first offered the sacrifice for his own sins. That helps explain why Jesus absolves the Apostles before he sends them out. Thomas received his absolution a week later when Jesus spoke the same absolution to him, "Peace be with you" [v. 26 b]. While much is made of his doubting, he too, needs absolution. It's really all about "Absolution," forgiveness.

Indeed, the whole New Testament is about forgiveness. The Lutheran Confessions call "Absolution" the heart of the New Testament. Listen to this definition from the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, a double-starred question for our catechumens, by the way!

If we define the sacraments as rites, which have the command of God and to which the promise of grace has been added, it is easy to determine what the sacraments are, properly speaking. . . Therefore, the sacraments are actually baptism, the Lord's Supper, and absolution (the sacrament of repentance). For these rites have the command of God and the promise of grace, which is the essence of the New Testament.¹

"The promise of grace, which is the essence of the New Testament" is another way of say "Absolution," or the forgiveness of sins. That also defines the work of Christ's Church. His Church is to distribute the forgiveness of sins to the world. She exists for no other reason than to carry out his divine mandate. The Church exists to do this work that no one else can do.

While all of this is quite glorious, there is a part that is not so glorious:

". . . if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld." (John 20:23, ESV)

In the epic novel The Pillars of the Earth, William Hamleigh, one of the evil people in the novel, comes to bishop Waleran, with whom he is in cahoots in doing evil, and William admits that he is about to commit murder:

"There may be bloodshed."
Waleran raised his black eyebrows. "Indeed?" he said.
"Then I shall give you absolution." [The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. p. 470]

Not all repent. Not all repentance is genuine, like that of William Hamleigh. Sometimes there is merely the outward appearance of repentance. In such cases, when it is known, the called and ordained servant of Christ must not grant Absolution, but must withhold it from that person as long as that person does not repent. That person does not have forgiveness because he continues in an impenitent state. He places himself outside of Christ and the forgiveness that Christ wants to bestow. We call this the Office of the Keys after the term our Lord used to describe it to Peter and the others [Matthew 16.19]. There are two keys, one which unlocks, or forgives, and one which locks, or binds. Those whose sins are bound to them do not receive "Absolution," but condemnation.

God does not forgive your sins because of how you feel about them because, chances are, you don't feel badly enough about them! That feeling you might have never caused God to forgive you, but God absolves you because he is merciful, because of what Christ has done for you and for every other sinner by going to the cross for you. God absolves you because he has promised to do so for the sake of Christ. And this word of Absolution he places in the mouth of pastors who speak it into your ears. So it is that when you come before your pastor and confess your sins he will ask you:

"Do you believe that my forgiveness is God's forgiveness?" [Individual Confession and Absolution, Lutheran Service Book, p. 293].

These are precious, divine gifts, because they come from our Lord Jesus Christ himself. That is what he is giving on the same day he rose from the dead, the gift you need most-"Absolution." And when you have this absolution then you have peace with God.

Dear friends, that "Absolution" is distributed in every Divine Service and at every Private Confession and Absolution. Here in the Sacrament of the Altar it reaches its apex, its high point. Here the "peace" of Christ is spoken into your ears and into your mouths. Here the same risen Christ who appeared to his disciples appears again to you. He is here with his "Absolution"-for you!

¹Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord : The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 219 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000).