Quasimodogeniti
Beloved. This Sunday historically has the Latin name, Quasimodogeniti. It means “as newborn babes” and comes from the first word in Latin of today’s Introit from St. Peter’s epistle: As newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up to salvation. We, dear Christian are to long for the Holy Scriptures because they proclaim Jesus and so they are the words of eternal life. Just like milk is life for the baby, so too are the Holy Scriptures life for us.
The Holy Scriptures are not the word of man but they are the word of God. Even though they were written over the course of the centuries by the human authors—the prophets and apostles—ultimately there is only one Author of all of Holy Scripture: the Holy Spirit, true God, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. That’s why we say that the Bible is the word of God. Because the Bible is the word of God, because the Holy Spirit so moved these men to write the exact words that they did, that means that every word is important. To be sure, we may not always catch it or understand it and often we may wonder “why did the Holy Spirit see fit to record that/ write that?” Some of the things we might think are just incidentals or words or phrases that just give us a background or fuller picture. To be sure, that is often the case, but it does us well to consider and ponder: “did the Holy Spirit see fit to record that detail so that it might point me to a truth?”
Today’s Gospel might be one instance of this where we read: On the evening of that day, the first day of the week… Of course, we know that this event happened on Easter Sunday—that day, the day of our Lord’s resurrection. But by the time St. John wrote his Gospel, decades after the event, the Christians had begun worshipping on Sundays. We see this already happening in the book of Acts at the time of the Apostles. They had changed the holy day from the Jews’ Saturday to Sunday. Not only did this distinguish the Christians from the Jews, but Sunday was the celebration day of Jesus’ resurrection. Although Christians could observe their holy day any day of the week—God did not command it like He did for Saturday for the Jews—the Christians gathered for worship on Sunday to commemorate and celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
And now, Sunday, the first day of the week also reminds us of the first day of creation, the day that God began to create. Combine that with Jesus’ resurrection and what do you have—the glorious truth that as St. Paul writes [2 Cor. 5.17]: If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! That’s us, dear Christian. We are a new creation in Jesus through baptism and faith. And it all began with His Easter Sunday, the first day of the week, resurrection.
So as we hear of these Christians—the disciples gathered together, behind locked doors, on Easter Sunday evening—what do we have? What might the Holy Spirit be trying to point out to us? Maybe it might be that: here, this Easter Sunday evening was the day the Christian Church met for the first time. And what do we see a week later, that following Sunday—which is certainly why this Gospel is appointed for today, a week after Easter? —The same thing: his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” The Church was again gathered.
It does us well, then to think about us at worship today because as we look at this Easter Sunday scene and what is happening, we get a good picture of what is happening as we today gather for worship almost two millennia later.
St. John begins: On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them, “Peace be
with you.” What sort of group were the disciples? Were they a grand, joyful bunch? Hardly! Here it was, the greatest day in the history of the world—death had been defeated. Were the disciples celebrating? Absolutely not! They heard from the women and now the disciples from the road to Emmaus about Jesus’ resurrection. But they were cowering in fear: the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. After all, who could blame them? They figured that the Jews would come for them next, hence the locked doors. That was weighing on them. And of course they certainly had great inner turmoil with their consciences bothering them, reminding them how they had deserted Jesus and had sinned against Him. How Satan must have been attacking them! How dazed and confused they must have been! They weren’t gathered for worship but to hide.
Isn’t that also a picture of us as well? We so often act as if Jesus is still dead, as if the resurrection never happened. We live in such changing and some would say perilous times. We carry with us the uncertainty and worry of our age. We see all sorts of troubles in the world—economic, political, coronavirus, etc. We see and experience our own troubles—personal, economic, health concerns. None of us are exempt from the trials and troubles that come with life in this world. They so easily bog us down. We, too, are dazed and confused by the dizzying events happening to us. We too are weak and beaten. And like the disciples that first Easter Sunday, we live as if there wasn’t an Easter, become despondent and in effect say with Thomas: Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.
But what? We go to church. It is for us like that first Easter Sunday evening each time we are with our fellow Christians—who, along with us, suffer from all what’s going on in life. We will not always feel “up” for it. It may be a struggle in light of all what’s going on, but as we gather in church—confused, stunned, worrying, etc.—we are in good company. We are each week replicating the day the church first met that Easter Sunday evening.
And remember what happened then: On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them, “Peace be with you.” Jesus was in their midst! He came and stood among them. He does the same with us today—He comes and is with us. Remember: Easter does not just mean that Jesus came back to life; it also means that He is now in what we call His state of exaltation. By that we mean that Jesus—also now according to His human nature/ also now as man makes full use of His divine power, glory, majesty, characteristics. That means that His human nature is now always and fully using His divine omnipresence and omnipotence—that also as man He is all powerful and present everywhere. That means that as Jesus came and stood among them, there He was with His physical and glorified body. Because He was also now fully using His divinity also as man, Jesus was there physically, bodily, even though the doors had been locked—just like we heard last week that the stone was rolled away from tomb not to let Jesus out but to show the tomb was empty! The stone of the tomb and the door here were no barriers to Jesus being physically with His disciples. And as our text reads: Jesus came and stood among them, it seems almost as if He was there already and at that moment revealed Himself to them that He was there, in their midst physically/ in His post-resurrection glorified bodily.
By Jesus coming and standing among them, it was a mocking—not of the disciples but of their fear of the Jews and the Jews’ hostility toward Him and His disciples. Jesus came and stood as if to say to His enemies—“You tried your worst and it did nothing. What else can you do?” And by mocking the fear of the disciples, going to them behind those locked doors, He was in effect saying: “What are you afraid of?” By Jesus coming and standing in their midst, He was saying/ showing that no matter wherever they might be, He was there/ He was near, even though they may not have been able to see Him. That means that He was there for their protection, for their help, to hear and answer their prayers, to be with them in every trouble.
And that’s precisely what happens today in worship. No matter where we may be and wherever throughout the world Jesus’ church is at worship. Jesus [comes] and [stands] among [us]. When we gather for worship, we are not worshipping someone who’s not there, or only “spiritually” present, or who is in our hearts; Jesus is physically/ bodily with us in worship—just like He was with these disciples, the first time the church met that first Easter Sunday evening. After all, what does Jesus promise His dear Christians? For where two or three have been gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them [Mt. 18.20]. Jesus can do it because He is the God-man: as God He is everywhere and as man He is physically, bodily there. Jesus is one united Person who is both God and man. This is a great mystery—Jesus being bodily present with His Christians wherever they may be in worship, but this is also a tremendous comfort. Let us understand that what happened in today’s Gospel was not a one-time event but something that still happens all the time in worship.
And what happens when Jesus [comes] and [stands] among [us] as we are gathered in worship? Jesus came and stood among them, “Peace be with you.” Jesus does not come alone. And certainly He does not come in wrath but He comes bringing us peace, peace that He brought about by His life, suffering and death on the cross. What the angels announced at Jesus’ birth “peace on earth”, Jesus has now brought about and gives to us. What a glorious peace we have that Jesus brought about and now gives us: sin cannot accuse us—Jesus took our sins with Him to the cross; the devil cannot terrify us—Jesus defeated him with all his temptations; death cannot kill us—Jesus rose from the dead as its Conqueror; hell cannot condemn us because Jesus opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
In worship, Jesus gives us this peace in the word, in the absolution and in the Holy Communion. Like in our Gospel, Jesus doesn’t just come—as if that’s not enough—He comes giving us great and abundant gifts, the greatest of which and the one which all the others revolve around is the forgiveness of sins. Notice our text: On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them, “Peace be with you” and then what does Jesus do? When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. These scars are the marks of that peace Jesus brought about; they point us to the redemption and salvation He brought about. When the disciples saw them and when we look on them with the eyes of faith today, we see in them Jesus’ love and graciousness to us. When we look upon His sacred wound where He was speared, there we see where the blood and water came out—the foundation of the holy sacraments of the Church. Not only does Jesus show us His hands and side but He gives us His very body to eat and His very blood to drink for the forgiveness of our sins. Not only is Jesus in our midst but we are united with Him by the holy Sacrament—He in us and we in Him.
So, yes, each time we gather for worship the events of that first Easter are relived: we come weakened and beaten but the glorified Jesus is bodily in our midst giving us the peace of the forgiveness of sins He won for us, showing us His hands and side giving us His very body and blood for forgiveness and strength. In church we see the Lord and that’s why being here is as a great joy for us today as it was for the disciples that day: Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. INJ Amen