Bible Text: John 20:19-31 | Preacher: Pastor Andrew Richard
On Easter evening the disciples were not feasting and rejoicing. They were afraid and hiding behind locked doors. These same men would later be martyrs and would go to death without fear. This shows that the real cause of their fear was not the Jews, since the Jews never stopped persecuting the disciples, and yet the disciples did stop being afraid. The real cause of their fear was a troubled conscience. They had fled from Jesus, so why would anything good ever happen to them again? They had left Jesus to His enemies, so had not God forsaken them? Now they thought Jesus was dead, and if He who came to save His people from their sins is dead, then there is no salvation from sin. If only they could know that their sins were forgiven, there would be nothing to fear. But when it’s not known whether sins are forgiven or not, then there is only fear. The conscience is terrified, as the Lord describes in Leviticus 26, “the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee; they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues” (Lev. 26:36).
The state of the disciples at the beginning of today’s Gospel highlights that there are two kinds of peace: outward peace, and inward peace. Outward peace concerns your interactions with your fellow men and with the world around you in general. When the weather is fair, that’s a bit of outward peace. When people can plant crops and see them to harvest without fear of war or marauders, that’s a bit of outward peace. When everyone is getting along with each other, that’s a bit of outward peace. On the contrary, tornadoes, wars, and fighting are examples of a lack of outward peace.
Outward peace comes and goes. And we would expect as much since it depends in part on sinful human beings living in a corrupted world. It’s a great sign of God’s grace toward us that we know anything of outward peace. Left to ourselves we would have no idea what it is. As with the majority of mankind we long for a time when outward peace will continue forever undisturbed. And as Christians we confess that that time only comes on the Last Day, and will only be enjoyed by those who believe in Jesus.
Now inward peace is a beautiful and lasting peace, because it does not depend at all on our fellow man or the world. Rather, it depends only on the Word of God. Inward peace is peace in the conscience. There’s no greater storm, no greater war, no greater turmoil and strife than the conscience wrestling with sin. The ultimate unrest is felt by the guilty conscience, as the disciples suffer in today’s reading. But Jesus speaks His Word and creates peace. The conscience that has the peace of Christ’s Gospel can stand against anything. The wicked one can rave and the world rant, the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea and its waters roar and foam, but Jesus has said, “Peace, peace,” and there is peace. When Jesus speaks peace we can look at hateful men or an evil world or the depths of our own sins and say, “What of it? Shall this trouble me since Jesus has given me His peace?” No one can take this inward peace from you. It depends entirely on the Word of Jesus and not at all on sinful man or the corrupt world. It is always yours, and Jesus gives it whether there’s outward peace or outward unrest.
Now it is a deep corruption of our fallen nature that we do not value inward peace rightly, and are even willing to go against conscience in order to have outward peace. Aaron knew it was wrong to make the golden calf, but he did anyway and went against conscience because he feared the people and wanted to avoid conflict with them. Eli knew that his sons were treating the Lord’s sacrifices and tabernacle with contempt, using the things of God to satisfy their own passions, and yet Eli didn’t rebuke them strongly. He didn’t want to push his sons away. He wanted to maintain outward peace with them, and to gain this poor excuse for peace he sacrificed the first three commandments. Nor did he get peace in the end. The Lord cut off his entire family line from the face of the earth. Esau was hungry and his stomach demanded to be satisfied, and he sold his birthright for a bowl of fleshly, earthly, outward peace to make his stomach shut up, and he lost his inheritance, though he sought it with tears. Desire for such peace has led you to go against conscience as well: to be silent when you should have spoken, to say “yes” when you should have said “no,” to overlook what should never be overlooked, to sin because it was easier than enduring temptation.
The Apostle Peter can tell you whether inward peace or outward peace is more valuable, whether it hurts more to be nailed to a cross or to have Jesus look you in the eye after you’ve denied Him three times. On Good Friday he had to go against his conscience in order to escape the world’s death threats, and on Easter evening he had a bad conscience because he denied Jesus, and he still didn’t have the outward peace that the world promised in exchange.
If we sacrifice a good conscience for the favor of sinful man or for the momentary pleasure of sin, we deserve to be stuck in that upper room with our bad consciences and to be left there. We don’t deserve any pity. We brought that on ourselves. Yet it is precisely into that moment Jesus comes, and not only declares peace, but declares peace twice, and not only declares peace twice, but institutes His Holy Absolution in the very moment men deserved it least.
“Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” (Jn. 20:19-20). Jesus comes to the bad consciences of His disciples and He speaks peace. That word of peace from Jesus’ lips is His Word of Absolution to them. And He offers them assurance and proof of this forgiveness, the same assurance and proof we have through the eyewitness testimony of the apostles. First, Jesus is alive! He who bore the sin of the world and died for sin is no longer dead. The resurrection shows that Jesus’ sacrifice for sin was sufficient. No further death is necessary to atone for sin. Second, Jesus still bears in His hands the mark of the nails. He draws the apostles’ attention to them, as if to say, “Do you see these hands? These hands took your sins from you. These hands carried your sins to the cross. These hands were pierced through and bore the wrath of God for sin. These hands bled the holy blood of God and washed away your sins. So do not be afraid, but rejoice and be glad. I do not bring you anger, but forgiveness, not judgment, but peace. Peace be with you!”
This is the sort of Lord you have: one who is merciful and gracious, who passes over iniquity and transgression and sin, who does not clear the guilty, but became the guilty, that we who were guilty might be innocent before the judgment seat. What did it matter in that moment if a thousand Jews broke down the door and arrested the disciples and hauled them off to death? They had inward peace, peace of conscience, and a conscience at peace can bear a hundred crosses. The disciples ceased being afraid, not because the outward threat had ceased – indeed, the outward threat continued, and they would suffer much because of it – but they ceased being afraid because Jesus, the sacrifice for their sin, was alive, and He had spoken to them His peace and pronounced His Absolution. These men became entirely different than they were. Their good conscience made them bold, and they did depart from that room and preach and get arrested. When the Sanhedrin charged them not to preach in the name of Jesus, they boldly answered, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). When they were subsequently flogged, “they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus” (Acts 5:41). If they could have and enjoy outward peace, they would, and they had those moments, but they would never trade peace of conscience for the false peace of the world. It wasn’t worth it. When the rooster crowed, Peter had gone outside and wept bitterly, but when he suffered martyrdom, crucified upside down, he shed no such tears, for he had a good conscience and was at peace.
Jesus did not only give peace of conscience to the disciples on Easter evening, but to all His Christians. Jesus instituted the Holy Absolution that night, and the Church has rejoiced in and lived in that Absolution ever since. “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (Jn. 20:21). Remember that the Father sent Jesus in such a way that Jesus could say in John 14, “the word that you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me” (Jn. 14:24). So also Jesus gives the Absolution in such a way that His own living voice resounds in His Church through it.
“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’” (Jn. 20:22-23). What do you believe according to these words? “I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself” (Small Catechism).
Through His Absolution, Jesus gives you the peace which surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7), that is, a peace which transcends outward circumstances. You’ve experienced this before as a Christian: something frightening or stressful is happening in life, and it seems like you have every reason to be paralyzed by fear and lose all hope, and yet you know your Lord’s care for you, and your conscience is at peace in Him, and you believe that God works all things together for good for those who love Him (Rom. 8:28), and though it might be unexplainable according to the outward circumstances, you can curl up in the stern and fall asleep peacefully in the middle of the storm on the Sea of Galilee (Mk. 4:38).
This inward peace, peace of conscience, is not worth giving up for anything. It’s not worth giving up for a cheap knockoff of outward peace. Jesus will give you true outward peace when He deems it good for you, and when outward peace is lacking, you still have a greater peace that allows you to bear all things. It’s not worth giving up this peace for the momentary and fleeting pleasures of sin. When you’re tempted, remember that the pleasure of a clean conscience is greater than any other pleasure on earth. Don’t trade a treasure for a trifle. Jesus has said, “I forgive you all your sins,” and so you have the greatest peace and the greatest pleasure you could hope for in this life. The Holy Absolution grants you a clean conscience, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Alleluia! Christ is risen! Amen.