Second Sunday of Easter + Quasimodo Geniti
Text: John 20:19-31
“Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
As a pastor, especially in the school, I receive a question: "Who gives you the right to forgive my sins?"
The answer is timeless and never changes - “Jesus!”
It's the best answer and the best place to start for all things theological – the words of Jesus.
Just as we heard Jesus speaking to the Apostles in the Gospel today,
[He] said to them again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
The Word of Christ is the authority granted to the Church on earth for lowly pastors (human men) to announce the forgiveness of sins to the repentant sinner – true words of comfort and peace.
But, I fear our love of self and independence hinders our faith and the churchly order God has established to announce His grace to His Church on earth.
Luther rightly stated in the Large Catechism:
“Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered toward this goal: we shall daily receive in the Church nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs (sacraments), to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here” (LC II 55).[1]
But the conscience that does not audibly hear the peace of Christ Jesus in the absolution of sin cannot know this joy. Remember, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) So, without this hearing of God’s Word of absolution, the conscience remains bound up in the terrors of sin and death.
In other words, one remains intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually locked up behind the doors of sin. The door is only opened when Christ opens it through His peace. He now speaks to His Church through the apostles and pastors He sends to be among those who remain shut up from the sin caused by the fears of this life.
A new phobia I’ve learned of is Cleithrophobia, which is the fear of being trapped or locked in a confined space.
If you recall, the disciples in the Gospel today found themselves locked up behind closed doors – “For fear of the Jews.”
At the root of this locking and shutting of the door for the disciples and those who suffer from Cleithrophobia is κλείω – “to shut or to lock.”
The challenge is that if you have been shut in or locked up in your conscience and heart, you cannot release yourself from what consumes you.
What kept the disciples held up was "Fear."
And guess what the Greek word is for fear? That's right, φόβος. Which means phobia.
Just as the Apostles were fearful of the Jews, the world will tell you today to fear your neighbor, fear the person of the opposite political view, and fear the government.
But are these really the genesis of your phobias in life? Are they really what keeps you trapped and locked behind the walls of your heart? Or is there a more profound fear that has brought disorder to your life? Silencing your confession.
Maybe the greatest fear in life is a loss of control. Perhaps you can't handle others taking the lead.
Or maybe your fear resides in your inability to enter where the seeds of sin and distrust have been sown between you and your neighbor, co-worker, fellow Immanuelite, or family member.
Or do you suffer from bouts of melancholy and anger that have you bound in isolation?
You will never have any semblance of peace if you are unwilling to open your ears and permit Christ’s greeting of peace to pierce your darkness. So, likewise, and in good order, you will never be able to enter and confess this peace to your neighbor in need unless you are willing to enter their darkness with this Word of peace.
Quite honestly, it’s all so frightening, confronting the phobias of your life, the fears that lead you into unbelief – your sin and the people of your life.
As you know, one thing you should avoid online is looking at the signs and symptoms of a disorder or disease. Still, I did anyway, and did you know the signs and symptoms of Cleithrophobia can also be related to the signs and symptoms of sin and a lack of confession:
Chest pain
Chills
Difficulty breathing
Dizziness
Fear of losing control
Nausea
Racing heartbeat
Shaking
Sweating
Isn’t this how you feel when you are at odds with a spouse or a friend? Isn’t this how you feel when you are unwilling to forgive another who stands before you or find yourself trapped in that sin of unbelief?
If so, you aren't alone, and the website is correct when they say these signs may be life-threatening if left untreated. That is why these feelings of sorrow and guilt you experience should drive you to hear and exclaim the Easter message of peace again, “Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
This message of peace frees you, the captive, from the fears and phobias that threaten to paralyze and trap you.
This message is a corporate confession of faith - it confesses with all of Christendom that great Easter message of peace. Or in another way, that the day of forgiveness has arrived.
So, as the introit for this Sunday says, we need to “put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
He is good, kind, and charitable. For even as your faith falters like that of the disciples, Jesus does not leave or forsake you but returns to you again and again and again.
So rejoice as I do that Jesus continues to enter into our lives of disorder to speak the words of absolution through His pastors. And then He opens His wounds to you as you are invited to take the flesh of His body into your hands, and the chalice upon your lips at this rail, and He says to you again, His troubled little lamb, “Peace to you!”
“Peace to you!” - This is why pastors stand not only before you today but are called to crossover into the muck and dwell with you in your homes, your lives, your misery, and personal prisons - to announce the good news they’ve been called and sent to proclaim – the news that frees you from your fears and the imprisonment of your heart.
So rejoice for the incredible ways Jesus continues to reveal Himself to you today, and having heard with your ears and received with your lips, let your heart join Thomas in confessing before Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”
And then depart and confess these words of Easter joy in your lives for all to hear:
“Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
“Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
“Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
There are no truer words of peace! Amen!
Rev. Noah J. Rogness
Associate Pastor, Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church
Alexandria, VA
[1] Luther. (2017). Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation (p. 315). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.
