Sin and Forgiveness (Second Sunday of Easter)

Sermons on YouTube…

Easter is a season that’s full of surprises. Or at least, it was full of surprises for the first disciples. It was surprising for the disciples that Jesus rose again from the dead, even though he told them in advance that this was going to happen. It was surprising for the disciples – or at least it should have been – that Jesus wanted to continue to have a relationship with them after they had all run away and abandoned him just a few days before. And it was clearly surprising for the disciples that the risen Jesus didn’t simply fix all the problems of the world, but instead, sent them out into a world that was still a dangerous and scary place in order to be his messengers and continue the journey he had begun with them.

In fact, that may have been the most surprising thing that happened to the disciples in today’s Gospel reading. Jesus breathes on them, empowers them with the Holy Spirit, and tells them that “as the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Jesus tells them that their journey isn’t over. In fact, it’s just beginning.

And then he sends them out with the mission of forgiving sins. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”  And that, too, is kind of surprising because:

• you’d think the disciples need to be forgiven, not become agents of forgiveness…

• you’d think that the primary mission of the disciples would be to teach the world about Jesus – at least, that’s how it sounds in Matthew’s Gospel …

• this is actually the first and only time in John’s Gospel that John ever records Jesus using the word “forgive”!

So why are Jesus’ words about forgiveness so important at this point in the Gospel? And what do they really mean here? To understand what Jesus is saying, and why words about forgiveness are so important as he sends his disciples out into the world, it’s important to realize that:

• this is an instruction to the entire community of the disciples … (it’s not just a liturgical instruction for the Apostles, and later Pastors, to pronounce absolution …)

• “sin” in John’s Gospel usually doesn’t mean a moral misdeed, but rather a condition in which one is blind to God’s work, God’s presence and God’s love in the world … (you may remember back in Lent, when the man born blind could “see”, but those who didn’t were “blind” and so their “sin” remained…) “Forgiveness” is what happens when blindness to God’s work and presence and love is lifted …

So if “sin” is blindness to God’s work and God’s presence and God’s love in the world, then the mission of the disciples is to help people experience God’s work and God’s presence and God’s love as living realities in their lives.  

If the disciples do that, then the blindness of those who haven’t experienced God’s work, God’s presence and God’s love will be removed. It will mean, as John’s Gospel describes it, that their “sin” will be “forgiven”.

On the other hand, if the disciples DON’T make God’s work and God’s presence and God’s love known in the world, then the blindness of many will remain, and as John describes it, their “sin” will be “retained”.

So this instruction of Jesus really isn’t license for the disciples to run around and arbitrarily decide between right and wrong, declaring some to be forgiven and others not to be forgiven. Instead, it’s a missional instruction to disciples of all times and all places to continue the work of Jesus in the world, making God’s work, God’s presence and God’s love known in the lives of others so that the blindness of sin may be lifted from the lives of people in the world around us.

And so our call as Easter Christians isn’t simply to run around and say “Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!” Instead, our call is to be Jesus’ risen body in the world, empowered by the Holy Spirit to make God’s work and God’s presence and God’s love a living reality in the lives of others so that the blindness of sin can be lifted and people can live in the light of the forgiveness of God’s love.

This month, in Confirmation, we’re finishing up by studying Holy Communion.  One of the key concepts we look at is what we call the “doctrine of the real presence.”  That is, we believe that the bread and wine aren’t just symbols or pneumonic devices that help us to think about Jesus, but are actually conveyers of Jesus’ real and living presence in our lives. Communion is a way that Jesus makes himself “real” in our actual, physical, daily lives…

And that’s important, because if Jesus is real in our lives, then we’re able to make Jesus real in the lives of others. We’re empowered to do precisely what Jesus called those first huddled disciples to do – to make God’s work, God’s presence and God’s love a living reality in the lives of others…

Years ago, we used to do a summer service project called “Workcamp”, during which youth and adults would spend a week do repairs and painting and other work for residents of low income communities. In 2008, I went along for the whole week as a Site Coach at the Mannington, WV Workcamp in 2008. As one of the “red shirts” we did a lot of talking with the residents whom our crews were helping. And I still remember a number of people who said things to me like, “I had been praying for help like this for years” and “I didn’t think there were people who cared enough to help”…

In that week, as a Pastor, I didn’t “pronounce absolution” on anyone. But I think we helped people experience the new life of forgiveness that Jesus talks about in today’s Gospel. And that’s because when we came and helped people who thought the world had forgotten about them, we did the same thing for them that Jesus did when he came into the lives of people who were sure that even God had forgotten about them. When we came and helped people, we became the hands of Jesus answering their prayers. And when we came and helped people, we showed them that God’s love was not just an abstract concept we talked about, but a living reality we wanted to help them experience.

Like that first Easter, it may have been surprising to the people in need. And sometimes, it was surprising to us. We went to help, not really knowing whether anybody would see our work as the work, the presence and the love of God made visible. But it happened, and it happens still, even when we’re not on mission trips.

Easter isn’t simply the recollection of an historical event that happened to Jesus 2000 years ago.  Instead, it’s a time of remembering our call as modern disciples to make the resurrection real in the lives of others around us. And we do that, as individuals and as a community, whenever we make God’s work, God’s presence and God’s love a living reality in the lives of our neighbors through our deeds, our words or simply our attitudes.

Amen.