Sent And Authorized
John 20:19-31
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. John 20:21-23 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… It’s the second Sunday of Easter: Christ is risen!
Our Gospel reading for this day in the Church year teaches us much of what we need to know about the Fifth Chief Part of Luther’s Small Catechism, which is properly called The Office of the Keys, along with Confession. To review, and I expect many of you can recite this along with me, “The Office of the Keys is that special authority which Christ has given to His Church on earth to forgive the sins of penitent sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent.”
The following question, “Where is this written?”, is answered with a portion of the above reading from John: “This is what John the Evangelist writes in chapter twenty – The Lord Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.’”
Then the final question in this section is, “What do you believe according to these words?” And the answer is my absolute favorite part of the Small Catechism, where Luther is reported to have written, “I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His command, in particular, when they exclude openly, unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation, and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.”
The Office of the Keys has everything to do with what a pastor is given by God to do – forgive and retain sins. He does this because God Himself has sent the pastor do to it, and it is on God’s authority. This means the pastor is sent and authorized by God through the Church to serve his people Christ’s gifts which deliver forgiveness, life, and salvation. Therefore, the basic “job description” of a pastor is that he is “the forgiveness man.” He is simply, uncompromisingly, and continually to give his people Jesus in all the ways Jesus wants them to have Him.
Besides the account in John 20, Jesus Himself says in Matthew 9:6, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.” Those same words are recorded in Mark 2:10 and Luke 5:24. Jesus, the Son of Man and Son of God – God Himself in the flesh – has divine authority and power to forgive sins. Of COURSE Jesus has the authority to do this; He is THE forgiveness Man, and He has “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Mt 28:18). And there are many citations in our Lutheran Confessions, which are a true exposition of Scripture, that state clearly that the pastor, on behalf of His congregation, has been sent and authorized to forgive and retain sins.
One other passage needs to be noted here. Following Peter’s God-given confession of Christ as the Son of the living God in Matthew 16, Jesus tells him that He will build His Church on that confession. Matthew 16:17-19: Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Peter and the apostles with him are given the full authority of the keys which they are to use to bind and loose, to lock up and set free, to retain and forgive sins.
Retaining sins – the “locking key” – means simply that if someone is unrepentant, the pastor does not give that person Absolution; that person’s sin is bound to him. An unrepentant sinner will not be able to hear the Gospel unless he first owns and confesses his sin. Short of that, he needs the full force of the Law to convict him of his sin in order to bring him to repentance. But if there is no repentance, there will be no absolution, no forgiveness. An unrepentant person is literally clinging to his sin and denying what God’s Word says about it. In cases like that, the person really wants no forgiveness because he doesn’t believe he has sinned. One’s lack of acknowledgement of sin does not lead to forgiveness, but crushing defeat. Sadly, unless that person repents, he will remain in his sin and, frighteningly, may die out of grace.
That is why we need always to hear the Law of God to remind us of our sinful condition and to break through the sinful stubbornness that so easily leads us astray. That condition has infected all of us. We sin because we are sinners. We defy and deny God’s Word when we do things that God forbids, and when we neglect to do the good He commands. We say and think evil and unkind things of others.
Further, we disrespect and mistreat our spouses, parents, and children. We despise the authority God has placed over us in the home, the church, and the state. We want what others have, therefore making us ungrateful for and unhappy with what God has given us. We fail to thank God day and night for providing for us with food, shelter, and other items of our daily bread. We hoard things at the grocery store. We may even think about getting used to not attending church.
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That Gospel, dear fellow redeemed, is that Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, born of the Virgin Mary, has redeemed you – bought you back from sin and death – not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death. Christ’s “It is finished!” from the cross gives you the certainty that everything that needs to be done to save you has been done by our Lord Jesus. He took your sin. He took your beating. He took your scourging. He took your mockery. He took your suffering. He took your crucifixion. He took your death. He took ALL of what you and I deserved for our sins into Himself on that horrid and wretched cross, and fulfilled His Father’s will to pay for the sins of all mankind.
Then, as we celebrated last Sunday and continue to celebrate every Lord’s Day, Jesus burst forth from His grave signaling the defeat of death and the full atonement for all our sins. And Christ Himself has given His Church the means of grace – the delivery systems by which His forgiveness comes to you. You are baptized, which means Christ’s death to sin is yours and His resurrection is yours. Your baptism gives you forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and eternal salvation. Rejoice in that each and every day as you make the sign of the holy cross and say, “I am baptized! Christ is mine and I am His!”
You receive Holy Absolution – the forgiveness from God Himself, not doubting but firmly believing by God-given faith that by this forgiving word, your sins are forgiven before God in heaven.
You get to hear the preached Gospel of Christ’s work for you, by which you are saved.
And you receive Christ’s true and real body and blood under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink. And in this Holy Meal you receive what Christ delivers – forgiveness, life, salvation, and the power to amend your sinful life and do better by God’s grace.
Sadly, and as we all know, we are currently unable to gather together as God would have us gather and receive His Sacramental gifts as often as they are offered. We all know the burdensome restraints that have been placed on our society due to illness, and we know and are frustrated by the unconstitutional restriction of our free exercise of true religion. But more importantly than earthly constitutions and rights, God the Holy Spirit has taught us through the writer to the Hebrews (10:25) that we should not forsake “the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
And in Acts 5:29, after the apostles were commanded not to preach in Jesus’ name, Peter and the other apostles said, “It is necessary to obey God rather than men.” This means that when governing authorities require us to go against God’s Word, we simply must not obey. We should never be content with restrictions on our gatherings, but work all the harder to get back to normal.
As you have probably guessed, I take these restrictions personally as your pastor. You are my family in Christ, and I have been sent and authorized by God to serve you. Not only have we as a congregation been unconstitutionally restricted in the free exercise of Christianity, I as your pastor have been restricted from administering to you all of Christ’s gifts in the proper ways and in the frequency with which we are accustomed.
Certainly, God is allowing us to be tested; He has allowed these things to happen, for nothing ever happens without His knowledge or permission. By the looks of things we may not understand how, but God is still ultimately in control. He knows what is going on and how it will resolve much better than we or any scientists, health officials, or politicians do. And throughout the history of Christianity, each and every time persecution and testing come, it is always for God’s glory and to have His Church see what she is made of.
This is not a time for the Church of God to shrink away in fear, but to confess all the more boldly that we need Him and His Word preached and His Sacramental gifts administered.
We will stay strong, dear fellow redeemed. We will cling to Christ all the more. We will not cower in fear, but we will trust Him to deliver us from this current bondage. We will trust Him for our health and safety, and we will trust Him to bless our obedience to His Word.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1) “Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Prov. 3:5-6).
Christ is yours. He is risen! In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
