Pastor's Sermon - April 5th 2026 - Easter Sunday
John 20:19-31
On the evening of Easter, the disciples are locked behind doors, fearful and uncertain, even after the resurrection has been announced. After all, it is one thing to say something or hear it, and an entirely different thing for it to be true. After all that they had seen, it would be very difficult to believe that what the women had said was true: that the dead Jesus was alive again.
They had seen the arrest. They’d seen the beatings and the mockery. The gauntlet and the crucifixion. They’d seen the spear and the burial. They knew how the Jewish leaders had demanded innocent Jesus be crucified and they reasoned that His followers would be next, lest the movement continue on with any momentum.
Jesus was dead. They’d seen it. And with His death went their peace as well. Now they were wanted men without a leader…without a hope.
Yet, peace is restored in a most marvelous way. Christ appears before the disciples, even in a locked room, and proves to them He is really resurrected. The women were right. Death could not hold Him and therefore, their faith has not been in vain, nor has their hope been dashed. Rather, everything that had been taught them was true. All the promises made to them by God are fulfilled.
And so Christ gives them exactly what they need. In the midst of all that would torment them: the beatings, the accusations, the “Crucify him, crucify him!” and the fear of meeting the same fate, Christ gives the gift simply. “Peace be with you.”
This peace is not sentimental comfort… this is not just Jesus’ holier way of saying “There, there…keep a stiff upper lip.” This isn’t Jesus suggesting that they just ignore the realities of a sinful world around them. This is real peace and it has meaning. This isn’t a cheap and empty peace, but is a peace bought with a great price.
Jesus shows them His wounds—the marks of the cross now transformed into signs of victory, the very proof of the peace won. Easter doesn’t erase Good Friday nor does it pretend that the sufferings of the world don’t exist. Jesus’ disciples would face hostile enemies. They would suffer. But now, because of what Christ has accomplished on the cross, his wounds, all this suffering could not steal their peace.
For the peace that Christ won on the cross is not peace with the world. It’s not peace as the world could ever give. It is a greater peace—an eternal peace. Christ’s wounds are the sealed declaration of peace with God. The risen Christ brings forgiveness, life, and salvation, grounding faith in what He has done—“It is finished.” And forgiven, the relationship between God and His Church has been made right again. They have nothing to fear.
By His presence with them, the disciples receive the Holy Spirit who will keep them in faith and keep them in this peace, that they would be equipped to face all that the world would throw their way and they would face it all at peace. For nothing the world can do can rob the Church of peace with God. What a blessing that is!
Yet, Thomas is absent. His doubt mirrors our own doubts. This world is big and strong. Satan is clever and fierce. You want to claim I have peace, but how can I have peace when I have these weights upon me? The struggles of broken relationships, of financial burdens, of medical conditions, of loneliness and need, of pain and sorrow, of grief and death. How can I be at peace when the world seems to be deeply committed to causing me suffering?
Christ does not leave Thomas in doubt. Nor does He leave us.
He comes to speak to Thomas. Not empty words. But to invite him into His presence. Come and touch. See that I am real. See the proof of the peace I have won. And by Christ’s Word and by His presence, Thomas is blessed to believe, “My Lord and my God!”
So, too, are we blessed. The world is bad now as it was bad then. Yet, our Lord still provides peace. He continues to come to us with His Word, calling us to Himself and assuring us of the forgiveness, life, and salvation He has won for us. He also invites us into His physical presence. Not only to come and touch and believe. But to come and eat. To drink. And in doing so, receive the peace—the very fruits of the cross—and be comforted in faith. He has gifted us His Holy Spirit in our baptism, that we would be kept securely in this Christian Church, where the Lord’s presence is ever with us and the peace He gives is constantly placed before our eyes and within our ears and upon our tongues.
And it was for this very reason that He has given us this Word. That we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, we may have life in His Name.
Christ speaks peace to us today. He gives life today.
And He will, forever.
Christ is Risen!
He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
In His Name
Amen