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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!)
As we heard the Divinely‑inspired St. John continue his account of the risen Christ’s appearances in today’s Gospel Reading, of primary importance was the risen Christ’s sending His disciples, as the Father had sent Him, with a gift of the Holy Spirit in order to either forgive or retain sins. Indeed, as the by-then-ascended Son of Man told St. John in the vision described in today’s Second Reading (Revelation 1:4-18), He died but is alive forevermore, and so, because of His death and resurrection, He has the keys of Death and Hades, that is, of the realm of the dead, of the grave (Brighton, ad loc Rev 1:9-20, p.53, and ad loc Rev 1:18, p.48). And, as St. John writes elsewhere in Revelation, whether opening or closing the way of the dead to either heaven or hell, what He with His kingly authority opens no one else will shut, and what He with His kingly authority shuts no one else will open (Revelation 3:7; confer Isaiah 22:20-22; 9:6). Before Jesus died and rose again, He promised to give His disciples the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:19; confer 18:18), and, after Jesus died and rose again, in today’s Gospel Reading we hear Jesus fulfill that promise (confer Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, 22-30). The apostles exercised, and their successors, pastors today, exercise, the risen Christ’s authority for your benefit. So, as we consider the Gospel Reading this morning, we direct our thoughts to the theme, “The Keys to Heaven and Hell benefit you”.
As we heard in the Gospel Reading, on the evening of that day, the first day of the week when Jesus had risen, the doors were locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. Perhaps like other people during Jesus’s ministry, the disciples feared that the Jews would put them out of the synagogue (for example, John 9:22), or perhaps they feared that the Jews would arrest them, as the Jews later did arrest them. Regardless, Jesus miraculously came and stood among them and gave them the Office of the Keys to themselves put others out of the fellowship of the Church. Notably, the Gospel Reading does not mention any “fear of the Jews” eight days later when the disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. The ten disciples somehow got Thomas there, but Thomas at that point was hardly in the fellowship of the Church, as unbelieving as He was, until Jesus Himself confronted Thomas. Having sins retained, what the English Standard Version of the Gospel Reading translated as “withholding forgiveness”, and what we call “excommunication”, is for people who are open and unrepentant sinners, at least until they avoid the sin and repent (confer Smalcald Articles, III:ix).
As Thomas did not believe that Jesus was risen, you may not believe in the authority of the Keys. To be sure, there were people in Jesus’s day who thought that only God could forgive sins, and apparently they also thought that God could not give that authority to men (Mark 2:7; Matthew 9:8). Or, maybe you are okay with God’s forgiving sins through pastors’ reading and preaching God’s Word but are not okay with God’s forgiving sins through pastors’ baptizing, absolving, or communing individuals, perhaps you indicate that not being okay with those things by not making use of one of more of those Sacraments. Certainly there were people at the time of the Reformation who thought that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther remained too Roman Catholic and did not go far enough in his reforming, for example, by not giving up, private confession and individual absolution. Or, maybe you are okay with pastors’ forgiving sins in all those ways but are not okay with pastors’ retaining sins. Unlike some of the other religious traditions around us, we do not hold that church discipline is a mark of the Church, but a church’s not using the so‑called “binding” key at all can raise questions about a church’s use of and regard for the so‑called “loosing” key.
We may not be as unbelieving as Thomas was in our thoughts, words, and deeds, but we are that unbelieving by nature. On account of our sinful nature and all of our actual sin—including our disregard for, and in some cases in some ways our despising of, the authority of the Keys—we deserve nothing but death here in time and torment in hell for eternity, unless, enabled by God, we repent. When we repent, then God forgives us, for the sake of His crucified and resurrected Son, Jesus Christ. As we heard in the Second Reading, Jesus loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood shed on the cross for us, in our place and for our benefit. Then, Jesus rose from the dead and showed Himself to His disciples as alive, the same God miraculously working through the same human flesh as before, but now exalted as victorious over sin, death, and the power of the devil also for us. In turn, as we heard in the First Reading (Acts 5:12‑32), the apostles fearlessly witnessed to Jesus’s resurrection and to the repentance and forgiveness of sins that God gives as a result. God forgives us by grace through faith in Jesus Christ: as Thomas confessed, our Lord and our God, and, for the purpose St. John wrote, the Christ the Son of God. By believing in Him, we have life in His Name.
We have life in His Triune Name in Which we are baptized with water and the Word and so are rescued from death and the devil. We have life in His Triune Name in Which we are absolved with the pastor’s touch and the Word and so are forgiven by God Himself. We have life in His Triune Name invoked as we in the Sacrament of the Altar eat bread that is His Body given for us and drink wine that is His Blood shed for us and so we receive life and salvation. The Church once literally shut and locked its doors in order to practice closed communion. The Lutheran Confessions repeatedly say that in general people are not communed unless they are first instructed and examined in private confession—examined as to both the content of their faith and the state of their repentance—and then are individually absolved. Baptism, absolution or excommunication, and the Sacrament of the Altar are all closely connected in the exercise of the Keys to Heaven and Hell that benefit you.
In the Gospel Reading, when Jesus gave peace to the disciples, they were glad. Likewise when we receive the peace that comes with the forgiveness of sins, we are glad. We believe and confess faith in the Gospel and all of its articles, including those articles related to the authority of the Keys’ forgiving and retaining sins. We do not despise, but we make use of God’s Word and all of His Sacraments. When necessary, we are willing to say “Amen” even to the excommunication of an open and unrepentant sinner, among other things, for the sake of trying to lead that person to avoid the sin and repent. As we heard in the Second Reading, Jesus has made us a kingdom of priests to His God and Father. According to our vocations, we proclaim the excellencies of Him Who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). Like the ten disciples in regards to Thomas, we reach out to those whom God places in our lives who do not repent and believe, trying to get them to join us here, where Jesus comes and stands among us and gives peace, and we, in turn, praise and glorify His holy Name.
“The Keys to Heaven and Hell benefit you”. Jesus died and rose for you, and He gives to pastors the authority either to forgive your sins and so open the way to heaven for you and close the way to hell, or to retain your sins and so close the way to heaven for you and open the way to hell. By God’s mercy and grace we repent of our sin and are forgiven through the Keys opening our way to heaven. In the words of today’s Psalm (Psalm 148; antiphon: v.13), the Lord has raised up a horn of salvation for His people, for a praise for all His saints, for the children of Israel and for the people near unto Him. Praise the Lord!
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +