Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter – April 27, 2025

by Jeffrey Spencer | Apr 30, 2025 | Sermons

CLICK HERE for a worship video for April 27

Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter – April 27, 2025

John 20:19-31

Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our risen Lord Jesus Christ.

When we think of peace, often the first thing that comes to mind is global politics. We think of peace primarily as the absence of war, the cessation of hostilities, the laying down of arms, the end of fighting. We rightfully pray for peace between and within nations.

If we don’t think of peace in political terms, we often think of it instead in psychological terms. Peace is thought of as a feeling, as a sense of calmness or tranquility or relaxation which one might attain through a variety of means – some better than others.

These aren’t wrong definitions. “Peace” is a multifaceted word. It means lots of different things depending on context.

“Peace” was the first word Jesus spoke to his disciples after his resurrection. On the evening of the first Easter, Jesus appeared to them. “Peace be with you,” he said to them. He came back the next Sunday too, a week later, just as we are meeting a week after Easter here today, and again, his first words were, “Peace be with you.” What did Jesus mean? What exactly is this peace?

The Hebrew word is shalom, and it is just as multifaceted as the English word peace. It can be a casual greeting. If you go to Israel today, or to any Jewish community anywhere in the world, you will hear Jewish people greeting each other with the words shalom aleichem, which means, “peace be upon you.” The common response is aleichem shalom, which means, “upon you, peace.” It can be as simple and common as people saying, “Good morning,” or “Have a nice day.”

But the context in which Jesus uses this greeting is fraught with much, much deeper significance. When the risen Lord Jesus said, “Peace be with you,” to his disciples after his resurrection, this was much more than a casual greeting. You see, the word shalom, or peace, can also mean restoration. It can refer to a reordering of things, or a repair. It can refer to a realignment, to a restored relationship.

Pastor Dan Erlander of blessed memory once shared a story from one of his trips to Israel. The car he rented had some engine trouble, so he pulled into a mechanic. The mechanic got under the hood and started making adjustments. He swapped out a spark plug and tweaked the carburetor. When the engine started humming smoothly, he looked up at the pastor from under the hood, smiled, and said, “ah, shalom!” Here the word was used to describe restoration. Everything was right again. Everything was rightly ordered. Everything was aligned, restored to right relationship.

When Jesus greeted the disciples with the words, “Peace be with you,” he wasn’t just saying hello. This was not merely a greeting; it was a proclamation! Jesus was assuring them that they were in right relationship with him. His resurrection meant that everything had been fixed, everything had been restored. This peace meant peace with God, and with it came a new life.

This peace Jesus proclaimed gave them a life beyond their sin, beyond their failures. This is no small thing. The disciples had just failed Jesus in some profound ways. They all deserted Christ. While Peter denied Jesus publicly and repeatedly, they all denied him in their own way. They all either doubted or forgot his promises. Jesus had told them repeatedly that he would be arrested and crucified and then be raised on the third day, but when the third day came, even after the women told them the tomb was empty, they initially thought it was an idle tale. They weren’t watching for him to come out of the tomb. They were huddled together behind locked doors.

You wouldn’t blame Jesus one bit if, when he appeared to these disciples, his first words had been, “Really guys? Did you not listen to anything I said?” You wouldn’t blame Jesus if he scolded them a little bit, right?

But no. The first word Jesus had for these failed disciples was, “Peace be with you.” This is akin to saying, “All is well.” At its heart, these words are words of forgiveness. They are words of restoration. We know this from the fact that Jesus immediately goes on to tell them to go and do the same. He tasks them with going out into the world to forgive sins in his name.

This is what the resurrection has accomplished. It has brought about the forgiveness of sin. It has restored sinners to a right relationship with God, beginning with the disciples and continuing to this very day as his word of forgiveness is announced to us. The peace Jesus proclaims is peace with God. It means our relationship with God has been reordered, it has been aligned through Christ’s saving death on the cross, it has been ratified by his resurrection, and now we are forgiven. Our relationship with God has been restored forever. It hums along now, fueled and well-lubricated by the grace and mercy of the risen Lord.

This peace Jesus proclaimed, this peace with God, gave them a life beyond their fear. The book of Acts is full of stories of how the disciples were transformed by the resurrection, how they were emboldened by the peace of Christ. They came out from behind those locked doors and became bold preachers and witnesses to the resurrection. Instead of hiding away behind closed doors for the rest of their lives, they went out into the world to share the Good News of the gospel, even when it meant being ostracized or persecuted or even killed, which it ultimately did for most of them. Even when their lives, their circumstances, were anything but peaceful, they had peace with God, and that was what mattered most.

This peace Jesus proclaimed, this peace with God, gave them a life beyond their doubts too. This gospel reading is often referred to as the story of “Doubting Thomas,” which is unfair to both Thomas and to John, the gospel writer, who is trying to make the exact opposite point. It is true that Jesus is exceptionally patient with Thomas. From this we can be assured that Jesus is patient with people’s struggles to believe and to understand. We, too, should be patient with people’s doubts. We should make room for their questions and respond to them with grace. But we’ve almost made a virtue out of doubt in our time, and we shouldn’t. In the Large Catechism, Luther describes doubt as a close cousin to despair. Jesus didn’t want to leave Thomas in that confusion that leads to despair. Jesus didn’t leave Thomas in his doubts. He moved Thomas from doubt to faith. Jesus wanted Thomas to know the peace that comes from believing that he had truly risen from the dead.  And so Jesus came back the following week, just for Thomas. He came to him specifically, and said, “Peace be with you.” He invited Thomas to touch him, to put his finger in his wounds. “My Lord and my God!” Thomas said. The story John is telling us is not about a Doubting Thomas, but a Confessing Thomas, a believing Thomas – a Thomas who was moved from doubt to faith in the risen Christ.

“Have you believed because you have seen me?” Jesus continued. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus is talking about us! Now he is talking about you! At this point John, too, tells us that he has written all these things so that you, the reader, you, the hearer, you, the person listening to this right now, may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. You see, through the resurrection of Jesus, you too have a new life!

We are right to be concerned about global politics. We are right to pray for and work for peace in our world. But even when earthly peace is lacking, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a peace the world can never give us.

It is understandable to desire and look for inner peace. It is wise to look for healthy ways to ease anxiety. But even when our inner peace is disturbed by circumstances beyond our control, even when we are restless, unable to relax, even when we can’t stop the rush of cortisol flooding through our veins because we are worried or stressed, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This peace is more than a feeling. This peace is not so much a state of mind as it is a state of being. It is an assurance. It is a strength that comes from being centered in his promises. It is a peace which passes all understanding.

Through our risen Lord, God has ultimately fixed everything that was spiritually broken so that our lives would begin to hum with Easter hope and joy. Through his death and resurrection, we have peace with God, which he bestows upon you anew today through the power of his living Word.

Peace be with you. Do not doubt, and do not despair. Believe! Put your trust in the Christ Jesus, who is risen from the dead, and you will have life in his name.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church

Sermon for Easter Sunday – April 20, 2025

by Jeffrey Spencer | Apr 23, 2025 | Sermons

CLICK HERE for a worship video for April 20

Sermon for Easter Sunday – April 20, 2025

Luke 24:1-12

Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

The women came to the tomb carrying spices. These were not tiny cannisters of cinnamon, like we find in our cupboards. These were more like sacks of flour, several pounds worth of granulated aloe and myrrh – enough to encase an entire human body from head to foot according to the burial customs of the Jewish people. Early in the morning on the first day of the week, the women carried these spices to Jesus’ tomb.

But this wasn’t the only thing these women carried. They also carried the weight of grief and sorrow. They had watched their Lord suffer and die on a cross. No doubt there were images from that horrible day that kept running through their minds. Maybe that’s why they were up so early. Maybe they couldn’t sleep.

They also carried the weight of fear, fear for what might happen next. If they did this to Jesus, what would they do to his followers? There was a reason the disciples were hiding out! What would happen to their friends? Their loved ones? Were they next?

They also carried the weight of hopelessness. Jesus had brought light and life and love into their lives, and now the cruelty of the world seemed to have snuffed it out. What hope was there in a world that crucified someone who brought healing and restoration and the forgiveness of sin?

The women were carrying all these things to the tomb because they assumed that Jesus was dead. They carried them because they had forgotten what Jesus had told them. And so when they came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away, they were confused. When they entered the tomb and saw that there was no body there, they were perplexed.

Then they saw two men in gleaming white robes who said, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” There is a sense here from these men that they should have known this! They are essentially saying, What are you doing here? Why did you think you’d find Jesus here, in the tomb? Don’t you remember what he told you? But that was the problem – they didn’t remember! And so the men had to remind them. “Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”

Jesus had told them exactly what would happen. He told them he would suffer, and die, but then rise again on the third day. He told them multiple times. It was now the third day, but they completely forgot what he had said, and so these women were carrying things they didn’t need to be carrying.

I think this account of Christ’s resurrection in the Gospel of Luke bears an uncanny resemblance to how we live so much of our lives. We go through life carrying things we do not need to be carrying, and it is because we forget what Jesus has said. We forget what Christ has done. We forget the promises our Lord has made to us. We forget what happened on the third day. We forget that he has conquered sin and death and promises to share that victory with us.

We carry so much grief and sorrow. This is entirely understandable. I’ve had seasons when I’ve felt buried under it too. But because Jesus has been raised, we don’t need to be crushed by this weight. His resurrection lightens that load by showing us that the crosses of this life will not have the last word.

We carry so much fear – whether it is low grade anxiety or full-blown panic. We worry about the future. We worry about our loved ones. We worry about what will happen next. Much of this is understandable, but again, we let it weigh us down more than we need to. The resurrection lightens this load too. Fear is constantly saying, “What if? What if? What if?” while resurrection faith says, “Even if….” Even if my greatest fears are realized, Jesus has been raised, and so there is a future beyond that worst thing that can happen.

We often carry a burden of hopelessness. We often look at the world around us with its never-ending problems, with its steady stream of tragedies, with its conflicts and its callousness, and it is easy to lose hope. What hope do we have in a world where God continues to be driven out and put on a cross?

Well, our hope comes from the one who endured the cross and rose again! There are very real troubles, yes, and we shouldn’t ignore them or resign ourselves to them, but I love how St. Paul describes these troubles in Second Corinthians. He calls them “slight momentary afflictions.” In light of the resurrection and the eternal weight of glory being revealed to us, they are merely “slight momentary afflictions.” We can live in hope because Jesus has been raised as the first fruits of a kingdom yet to come, as the Apostle says in our epistle reading for today. Our hope is in him!

We carry so much that we do not need to carry because we forget what Jesus told us. We forget was he has done. We forget what he has promised. Well today, dear friends, is the day we go from carrying burdens to remembering promises.

We can set down those burial spices because Jesus has ultimately defeated death and promises to share that victory with us. “I am the resurrection and the life,” he has promised us. “Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.”

“I will not leave you orphaned,” he has promised us. “My peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

“In this world you will have troubles,” Jesus says, “But take heart; for I have overcome the world.”

“Come to me,” Jesus says, “all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

All of these promises are true and trustworthy because of the resurrection. Jesus wasn’t just some ancient teacher spewing flowery platitudes. He wasn’t just a man who was wise and compassionate but is now long dead. Jesus is our living Lord, and because he has been raised, we can trust that he has the power to keep every promise he has made to us. Because he has been raised, his ministry of healing and restoration and the forgiveness of sin can and does continue.

Are there things you are carrying today that you don’t need to be carrying? Are there assumptions about this world and about your life that are weighing you down? Is there something you may have forgotten? Like the women at the tomb on the first Easter morning, there are things we all need to remember. There are things we all need to be reminded of. I know I do.

Not long before his death from cancer in 2023, pastor and author Timothy Keller and his wife Kathy did an interview for a show on YouTube. Timothy Keller served for many years as pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. He was the founder of the Gospel Coalition. He wrote many well-loved books about Jesus and the gospel. In this interview he talked about how in the midst of all of his suffering from cancer, he and his wife kept reminding each other that Jesus had been raised. Even the great Timothy Keller needed to be reminded! At that point in the interview, he then looked directly into the camera and said, “If Jesus Christ was really, truly, raised from the dead – you know what? – everything is going to be alright. Whatever you’re worried about right now, whatever you’re afraid of, everything is actually going to be okay.”

Dear friends, on this Easter Sunday God invites you to set down those things you don’t need to be carrying. On this day of joy and hope and celebration, God reminds you of what Jesus has said, of the promises he has made to you. On this day of resurrection, God reminds you of what happened on the third day. Jesus rose again, just as he said he would.

So set down those burial spices and be reminded of this: Jesus was really, truly raised from the dead – and because of that, everything is going to be alright.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church

Sermon for Palm Sunday – April 13, 2025

by Jeffrey Spencer | Apr 16, 2025 | Sermons

CLICK HERE for a worship video for April 13

Sermon for Palm Sunday – April 13, 2025

Luke 23:39-43

Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

It was early enough in his crucifixion that he was able to get the words out. He still had enough breath that he could speak. There had been the lightning-sharp pain screaming between his middle and ring fingers as the nails were driven through the median nerves in his wrists, contorting his hands. After his cross had been raised, there was the heavy weight of gravity relentlessly pulling on his body, straining his lungs. His heart pounded with effort, making his head throb. But he still had some breath in him, and he used that breath to address the man being crucified next to him: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

It was a prayer, really. Not that he was a religious man. He had abandoned God’s ways long ago. He knew he stood condemned. He readily admitted it. He knew he was getting what he deserved. He had violated the law – not only Roman law, but God’s law. He had broken God’s commandments. The bad choices he had made flashed before his eyes – the people he had hurt, the disappointment in his father’s eyes, the tears in his mother’s. His life had come to this, being nailed to a Roman cross and put on humiliating display as a deterrent to the public, as an example to others of the consequences of sin.

Somehow he knew that the man next to him was not on the cross because of his own sin. Somehow he knew that Jesus was not similarly guilty. When his partner in crime started taunting Jesus, he rebuked him, saying: “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Maybe he was familiar with Jesus’ ministry in the region. Maybe he heard about him in prison in the hours before being brought out for crucifixion. Maybe he heard the women wailing his name at the foot of his cross. Maybe he heard Jesus forgiving the very men who nailed him to his cross. Whatever it was, he knew that Jesus was innocent. He did not belong on that cross. He was not guilty of anything. He was there for some other reason.

Some had been calling Jesus the King of the Jews. There was even a sign over his head with those very words. It had been put there as a cruel joke, but this criminal somehow came to believe that in some strange way it was actually true. And so, as his lungs bore the crushing weight of sin and death pulling on him, weighing him down, he managed to breathe out these words: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And when he did so, Jesus turned his face to him and said, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

What Jesus was promising this man was more than an umbrella drink under a palm tree, which is how many of us picture paradise.  The word “paradise” is the same word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to refer to the Garden of Eden. In Greek version of the Old Testament, the world in which Adam and Eve lived before the fall is literally called “the Paradise of Eden.” What Jesus was promising this man was a return to Eden before it had been ruined by sin. He was promising him a return to the paradise of that garden where everything was declared by God to be very good. Jesus was promising him a return to that state of being wherein human beings lived in right relationship with God, and each other, and creation. Jesus was promising him that he would be in that garden where sin does not exist and so mourning and crying and pain would not exist either. Jesus promised that he would be there with him. “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

This brief, two-sentence interaction between this criminal and Jesus shows us what this whole bloody mess of Jesus’ Passion is all about. We have a prayer, and we have a promise, and taken together, they get at the very heart of the gospel.

In the criminal’s prayer we have a repentant sinner turning to Jesus in faith and trust and hope, and his prayer is immediately answered with a promise, the promise of a return to paradise – the paradise of the Garden, the paradise of a life free from the weight of sin and death, the paradise of a life restored to right relationship with God.

In crucifying this criminal, the Romans gave us an example alright – but it was not the example they were expecting. By turning to Jesus with his prayer, this criminal gives us an example of faith. By placing his trust in the man being crucified next to him, this criminal went from being humiliated to being heaven-bound. He went from the consequences of sin to the forgiveness of sin. He went from pain to the promise of paradise. He is remembered two thousand years later not only for his crime, but for his prayer and for the promise he received.

We come to worship week after week bearing crosses of our own. We come with prayers of our own. The gravity of sin and death weigh heavily upon us. The consequences of sin – whether our own or that of others or the fallenness of creation itself – has us all gasping for air at times, trying to catch our breath. There are times when the pain of life in a fallen world seems like too much to bear. With all of the mourning and crying and pain in and around us, we are reminded on a daily basis that we do not live in Eden.

But as we lift our eyes to Jesus on his cross, we find a savior who is still answering the prayers of those who turn to him in repentance and faith. As we turn to our crucified savior in faith and trust, we too receive a promise from him. “Your sins are forgiven,” he says to us. “This is my body, my blood, shed for you,” he tells us. Even now we are with him. Even now we begin to live into the reconciliation he has won for us. Even now he is beside us, speaking his word to us.

“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise,” he says. The promise our Lord Jesus made to the dying criminal is the same promise he made to us in our baptism, when we were marked with his cross and joined to his saving work.

And so today we are no longer under a sentence of condemnation. Instead, we live in the promise of paradise.

Today we can live in hope and in peace, trusting that sin and death will not have the last word over us. Jesus will have the last word, and he promises us that we will be with him, in Eden, forever.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church