Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins: Luke 24:36-49

Our Easter celebration continues this weekend. We are still singing Easter songs. There are still some of the beautiful flowers adorning the altar area. But most important of all, we are still hearing the Easter message in our Scripture readings. The Gospel lesson for today is actually a continuation of the story of the Emmaus disciples. That is one of the most interesting Easter appearances that is recorded in the Gospels. It’s one of my favorites because I wish that I could have been one of those two who had this stranger join them on their walk to Emmaus. He spoke with such wisdom knowledge about the Christ that when He revealed to them who He really was their comment was, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” They couldn’t wait to get back to Jerusalem to tell the others that they had seen Jesus alive.

It was while they were telling the disciples what had happened that our Gospel lesson for today begins and presents to us Luke’s account of that Easter evening appearance that was last week’s Gospel lesson from John’s Gospel. The two Gospel writers have a little bit different emphasis in their presentations. While John told us about the forgiving and retaining of sins and told us about Thomas and his doubts, Luke tells us about something that sets the pattern for the purpose and ministry of the church until Jesus comes again.

As we have heard before, when Jesus appeared to those disciples in the locked room on the evening of that first Easter, they were terrified. They thought they were seeing a spirit. Even though the two Emmaus disciples were telling them about seeing Jesus, even though they had heard other reports about people seeing the risen Lord, they still were frightened by His sudden appearance. It was too good to be true. But all the evidence was there that He was alive. He showed them His hands and his feet. He even asked them for something to eat and He ate a piece of broiled fish. That was more evidence that He was truly alive.

There was more to this visit though that simply showing them that He was alive. There were some important lessons about God’s whole plan of salvation that needed to be heard. He reminded them that everything that had happened to Him was just as He had told them. In the weeks before Holy Week, our Gospel lessons included some of the passages where Jesus told His disciples that they were going to Jerusalem and that there He would be handed over to the leaders of the people and he would be crucified and on the third day He would be raised from the dead. You may recall that the disciples had some strange reactions to Jesus when He said those things. Peter tried to rebuke Jesus for talking that way. James and John jumped quickly from that topic to wanting to be seated at Jesus’ right and His left in His kingdom. Each time Jesus had some stern words for those disciples. They didn’t seem to understand what He was trying to say.

Now He was telling them that it all happened just as He said it would and on top of that it was just as it had been foretold by the prophets in the Scriptures, the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. Next comes a statement that grabs my attention and should grab the attention of any Christian. In verse 45 it says, “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” What a wonderful gift that must have been. When we read the Scriptures, we often have a hard time figuring out just what was meant, how a certain passage relates to the rest of what the Scriptures say, or how am I supposed to understand that as it relates to my life now. Wouldn’t it be great to have Jesus open our minds to understand the Scriptures in the way that God intended? He actually does that through the power of the Holy Spirit whenever we read and study God’s Word. The more we study the more we understand. Unfortunately for us, our human minds are simply not able to understand all the things of God. We have a hard time accepting that truth and that is when people get themselves in trouble by imposing their human thinking on the mysteries of God.

On this occasion though, Jesus opened their minds to understand all that He was telling them. They could see the connections between the passages from the prophets and the Psalms that spoke about the suffering, death and resurrection of the Christ, and the events that took place in the recent days. They now had a new understanding that would have an effect on their lives from that time forward. One thing was certain for them. Jesus of Nazareth, their teacher and friend, was truly the Messiah, the Christ. All He had told them happened just as He said. All that the Scriptures said about the Messiah happened to Him. The evidence was clear and beyond a doubt. Jesus is the Christ.

The second thing that He mentioned to them is what gave them the direction for their ministry in the years to come and gives the church its purpose down through the ages. Again, according to the Scriptures, repentance and forgiveness will be preached in His name to all nations.” Going back to Isaiah 49, we hear, “I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” Repentance and forgiveness is the essence of the message that the prophets brought to the people of Israel in ancient times. It was the message that John the Baptist proclaimed as the forerunner of Jesus the Messiah and it was the same message that Jesus proclaimed during His earthly ministry.

Repentance is the acknowledgment of sin, sorrow over that sin, sorrow that we have offended God and hurt our neighbor and then the sincere desire to remove that sin from our lives. It is what we do when we come together for worship. We begin with the confession of sins. While we do it as a congregation, we also need to realize that this is a very personal time of repentance as well. The reason that repentance needs to be an important part of the message of the church is that the devil is always active, trying to get us to think that our sin is really not all that serious. We don’t need to repent. He wants to convince us that we haven’t done anything wrong. We wants to distract us at that point in the service so that we simply stand up with everyone else and say the words that are in the book or that we have memorized without even having to think about it. If we go through the motions that should be enough. That’s not what Jesus said though. Repentance needs to be proclaimed. Not only is it proclaimed but it needs to be practiced from the heart. Then the forgiveness that comes in the name of Jesus will mean something to us. Without true repentance, there is no real appreciation for the great mercy and love that has been shown to us through the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. We need to hear the Law and the Gospel. The Law calls us to repentance and the Gospel assures us that our sins are forgiven by the grace of God for Christ’s sake and it is ours by faith. Law without Gospel is hopeless. Gospel without Law is meaningless. That’s why Jesus said, “Repentance and forgiveness will be preached in His name to all nations.”

He then added, “You are witnesses of these things.” They had been eye-witnesses of all that had happened and now He had opened their minds to understand God’s whole plan of salvation. He was also going to send what the Father had promised, namely the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would give them the power to proclaim the message of repentance and forgiveness in His name and would also work in the hearts of those who heard the message so that they too could believe in Jesus as Lord as Savior and receive the blessings of forgiveness, new life now and life forever in heaven. I mentioned before that this would then be the pattern for the church to follow for all time. The Lord has given us the Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments for the strengthening of our faith so that we can be His witnesses to all nations. We can proclaim repentance and forgiveness to all people beginning right where we are. This remains the most important function of the church today. In the face of so many distractions, it is vitally important that the church keep its focus on Christ and His message of repentance and forgiveness in His name. Amen

And the peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen