| Redeemer Lutheran Church 1084 W. Bullard Ave. Fresno, CA 93711 Phone: (559) 439-8500 Fax: (559) 439-8585 office@redeemerfresno.com The Reverend Clarence Eisberg Phone: (209) 725-9082 Cell: (209) 631-3108 pastor@redeemerfresno.com Worship ~ 8:30 a.m. & 10:00 a.m. Family Ministries ~ 10:00 a.m. Holy Communion ~ 2nd & 4th Sundays |
| Connecting People to Jesus and to One Another! www.lcms.org |
The Reverend Clarence Eisberg |
| April 11, 2010 |
“Unless I See. . . .” |
| tells us that God has, in His Son, gives us hope for the most hopeless situations. On Easter night, the disciples were together in a house, hiding behind locked doors. A few of them had seen Jesus alive, and now they were scared. What were the Jewish authorities going to do? Would anyone believe them if they told people that Jesus had risen from the dead? They were hiding from the Pharisees and Sadducees, hoping to avoid arrest. One thing has not changed. People are still afraid. People still worry. We should not be surprised by that. Worry has been part of our psyche since sin entered the world. After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they were afraid to meet with their Creator. Their son Cain was afraid that people might murder him. Jacob was afraid his brother might kill him; Moses was afraid God’s people might not listen to him; King David was afraid his son might overthrow him; Elijah was afraid that he was the only believer left; Christ’s disciples were afraid that the same Jewish leaders that had been so successful in bringing about the crucifixion of Jesus, might now be looking for them. Most children know that a bad report card will not cause mother or father to take their names out of the will and send them off to an orphanage. Still, that doesn’t stop them from fearing the day the postman delivers that bad progress report to the family mailbox. Fear is fear and worry is worry. They come. They are there. And that is the way it was for the disciples, who after Jesus’ crucifixion, locked themselves away. Their fear told them, “Keep a low profile; keep your head down; try to blend into the woodwork and wait for the whole Jesus thing to blow over.” Considering the tragic events of the past few days, the power of the Roman Government and the hatred of the Jewish leaders towards Jesus, their worries were probably well founded. Their plan was probably a good plan. Keep the doors locked. It might have been an effective plan, except for one totally unanticipated, relatively major glitch in their plan: Jesus showed up. They should not have been surprised…. Jesus said he would rise on the third day… but they did not understand. That’s why; when the crucified Jesus showed up they thought they were seeing a ghost. No. It was the living, resurrected Jesus who brushed past locked doors and stood in their midst. Jesus said, “Peace be with you.” When Jesus said, “peace”, he was saying to those who heard him: “Be well”, “be at rest”, “don’t worry”. A number of years ago I heard about a woman who was washing dinner dishes. She got toward the end of the pile and stopped. She stopped with a coffee cup in her hand, and asked herself, “How many times have I washed this cup?” Then she became afraid. She asked herself, “Is this all there is to life? Is this all I’m supposed to be?” The lady set her cup down, went to her bedroom, packed a small suitcase with a few of her belongings, and quietly walked out the front door. That evening, from an undisclosed location, she called her husband and told him that she was physically all right, but she just couldn’t face her life and she wasn’t coming home. Worry and fear had a stranglehold on her. Eventually the husband hired a private investigator to locate his wife. It was easy enough for him to find her. She was holed up, like the disciples, behind locked doors. She was in a budget motel in a city about 200 miles away. The husband, with the investigator’s report in hand, dropped off the children at grandmas and went for a drive. He knocked on the door of his wife’s room, unsure as to how he might be received. He heard the lock turn and the door slowly opened. His wife looked at him in silence, and then fell sobbing into his embrace. She said, “When you called, I heard words. When you showed up, I knew how much you loved me. You had sought me out; you and come for me.” Jesus did the same for His disciples. In love He showed up. “Peace”; when he speaks the same to you, you can be sure that He is not just uttering words and wishes. The love of God is more than ‘sounding brass’. Jesus came from heaven. Jesus went to the cross so that we might be forgiven, so that we might be embraced by God’s acceptance. When Jesus died on the cross, in that moment, God placed on Him all the commandments we have broken or will ever break. Nailing those broken commandments to the wood of the cross….he left them there. The resurrection of Jesus from death guarantees that all who believe in him will possess eternal life. That promise brings peace to one’s heart. What is your worry? I can’t guess. For each of you your worry is unique. What’s your worry? Think about it. Bring it to light. How long has that worry been hounding you? Robbing you of sleep and overwhelming you with guilt? What is your worry that is robbing you of your hope? Worry is not easy to get rid of. Still, Jesus comes and promises peace. He who can ignore locked doors has the power to conquer your worry as well. The Apostle Peter said it, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” The Apostle Paul said much the same thing: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!....do not be anxious about anything… and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your heart and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:4-7) For whatever reason… we do not know but Thomas was not there that first evening. When he returned, the disciples told him that Jesus had just appeared to them. But Thomas didn’t believe: “Unless I see… the nail marks in his hands, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” Thomas was a practical person, He lived in a practical world. He, like the other disciples, was shattered on Good Friday when Jesus died. He knew Jesus was dead. No one in their right mind would doubt it when the Romans said a prisoner was dead. Many in our world today have no problem admitting that Jesus was a great teacher, a great miracle worker…. But they are set on denouncing and disproving the physical resurrection of Jesus. No event has been more documented. In the 1800’s Robert Ingersoll regularly spoke against the Savior and Scripture. At one of his lectures, he took out his pocket watch and said, “I’ll give God a chance to prove that He exists. I challenge Him to strike me dead within five minutes!” People waited. Those minutes crawled by. Those in the last seats said they could hear the ticking of Ingersoll’s watch. When the time was up, Ingersoll smiled and sneeringly said, “You, see!” there is no God! I’m still very much alive!” That’s when a Christian lady stood up and said, “You didn’t prove that there is no God. You just proved that God isn’t taking orders from atheists today.” For number of reasons, I’m glad Thomas said these words. I’m glad because his reaction is so much like people today. I’m glad because his words show us the New Testament narrative is telling the truth. God’s word tells the truth, it shows his people, even his heroes, with everyone of their sins and shortcomings, their doubts intact. The bible doesn’ t whitewash Abraham, Moses or David, or slap a fresh coat of paint on the disciples. The bible shows them falling asleep in the garden, running away when Jesus was arrested. Hiding in the upper room in fear, and refusing to believe the report of the women who went to the tomb. Thomas was not the first to ask for a sign. Over the years others have asked what it would take to make them believe. The Sadducees and Pharisees asked Jesus to show them signs from heaven. Sometimes students say… “Jesus I will believe if you let me pass this test… speeders promise loyalty if the policeman will give them a warning rather than a ticket. What people want is for God to do something so spectacular, so stunning, like rearranging the planets and spell out the words…”I’m here!. Well, He has! He Rose! Have you heard about the discoveries and photographs from the Hubel telescope that reaches into the deepest parts of space? Inside one of the “black holes” in outer space, guess what the Hubel telescope photographs show?! A Cross! Thomas did not want a spiritual showing, a rising in the hearts of men and women. No. Thomas wanted a real, walking, talking, eating, breathing, touchable, ex-dead person. And that is what Thomas got…. Jesus walked into the room. Jesus appeared not in anger, disgust or disappointment but with love. Jesus said, Thomas get rid of your doubt, “ believe”, “trust” come here and check me out. Thomas fell to his knees and said, “My Lord and my God!” I was thinking about these words and the response of Jesus when he said: “You believe because you have seen, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Why did Jesus say these words? Because at the time… seeing Jesus was believing… the Holy Spirit resided “in” Jesus. The Holy Spirit which brings people to faith had not yet been given…. Pentecost had not yet arrived. Today Jesus comes to you and me in an invisible way, through the power of the Holy Spirit, through his word. Either Jesus rose from the dead and he can be absolutely believed, or Jesus stayed dead and can never be trusted. If Jesus has not physically risen from the dead, he is a liar, the Bible is a fraud, and the world has been tricked. Either the resurrection happened in historical time, or it did not. The Apostle Paul summed up this all important truth when he said: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (I Cor. 15:17-18) Did those who reported the resurrection, deliberately, or accidentally, perjure themselves? There are many who said they did… There are some religions today who state that the resurrection was only a spiritual resurrection. Others, like Islam, concedes Jesus to be a great teacher, preacher, and prophet, a man worth of respect; but recoils and rejects The idea that Jesus can be our resurrected Lord. Other world religions do not accept the exclusive claims of Jesus when he says: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Mohammed and Buddha both came up with ideas that millions have found helpful as they live their lives, but no scripture ever promised Mohammed or Buddha would be born, no prophet ever predicted they would remove people’s sins, no holy writing predicted that they would die and rise again. Only the grave of Jesus is unoccupied. Without question or doubt, without fear of contradiction, I gladly say: “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed” It was only a few years ago, a Hindu woman went to visit the missionary who converted her 16 year old daughter. The woman asked, “What did you do to our girl?” The missionary replied, “We did nothing.” To which the girl’s mother said, “Oh, yes you did. My daughter died yesterday, and she died smiling. Our people do not die that way.” Christ is risen! May that truth live in your heart, and remove worry and doubt. |
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