Dear Ny’Mier and Allereah, you are baptized into God’s name most holy.
You are now God’s child. You claim a place among God’s family. You are His chosen.
You are now united with Christ in a death like His and will certainly be united with Christ in a resurrection like His.
You believe Jesus is the Christ and by believing you have life in His name.
Through water and His Word, Jesus has breathed on you and now have the Holy Spirit dwelling within.
You were once dead in your sin and trespasses and now you are alive to God in Christ Jesus,
you were lost and now you’re found,
you were blind and now you see.
Jesus won for you peace with God on the cross – look at Jesus’ hands and His side – and that which He won, He delivers it to you today,
upon your forehead and upon your heart, you are marked,
welcome to God’s family where you are heir with us in all the heavenly treasures.
Ny’Mier and Allereah, that is your peace today and that will be your peace forever.
That this is true of you two and that this is true of all the baptized is our joy in the midst of suffering and our peace in the midst of fear.
That is a lot to say and because of the riches of God’s promises in baptism, I could more easily find a beginning than an end.
And these promises are not only a lot to say, they are very bold things to say.
And so I’d like today to consider this one thing, “Who do I think I am to say such bold things?”
“Who do you think you are to believe such bold things?”
“Who does Jesus think He is to promise such bold things?”
Jesus promises that He can give you and your children and the world the one thing we need the most and that is peace.
Dear saints, you have said and thought these exact words, I’m sure, “Who do he think he think he is? Who do she think she is?”
You say it about someone who could not possibly know enough about you and your family to think they have the solution,
They could not possibly be involved enough to think they can offer you wisdom,
they are not strong enough and have not gone through that you are going through to think they could possibly have anything to offer that would bring you peace.
Our Lord Jesus is very bold, is He not, in coming to a bunch of men full of fear and saying, Peace be with you, not once but twice. And then offering His hands and His side as the proof the peace He comes to bring?
Who does He think He is?
And then eight days later, is He not bold in coming to a man named Thomas full of bold doubts and questions and again saying Peace be with you.
And are we not bold to say that baptism offers peace – we end the declaration peace be with you,
or that in Christ’s body and blood, The peace of the Lord is with you always,
And that this whole service of hearing Christ’s Word as He breathes on us His life giving Holy Spirit and forgives us all our sin could possibly be The Lord looking upon us with favor and giving us His peace.
Who do we think we are saying Amen to these promises?
One thing we ought all agree on is that we, without Jesus being a part of the we, are nobodies.
We don’t have the solution.
We don’t have the wisdom.
We are not strong enough to think we could possibly have anything to offer ourselves, each other or the world that would bring peace.
What could we possibly say to someone when they found out they have cancer,
Or when their child was just killed in a car wreck
Or when they have no job and little means to pay the bills,
Or when their brother is drunk again or back on drugs,
or when they so burdened with confusion and fear and guilt and shame that they can barely function.
We are nobodies.
Jesus, we know, was a not a nobody.
He had healed.
He had taught wisdom as one with authority.
He had cleansed lepers, received sinners and ate with them, forgave sin, and even raised the dead.
This somebody Jesus once said,
Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
That’s what He said to His disciples before He died.
But those words are meaningless to the disciples after His death, locked up in an upper room, full of fear, because that Jesus who was a somebody, is now a dead somebody.
Dead somebodies cannot give peace, even less than we nobodies.
But then, this Jesus defeats death and answered for their sin and came out of the grave and came to them, shows them His hands and His side,
And said, “Peace be with you.”
Their reaction? It is not, “Who do you think you are?”
They are glad when they saw the Lord.
Thomas’ reaction to Jesus when He offer Him peace by appearing to Him and telling Thomas he can place his fingers in the marks of the nails and place his hand in His side, is not,
“Who do you think you are?”
It is a confession that Jesus alone can and does give him peace because, because Thomas says, My Lord, and My God.
Jesus is not a nobody and Jesus is not a dead somebody.
Jesus is the Son of God who suffered for you and died for you and is risen and present here for you.
Peace He gives you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Jesus knows your suffering, Jesus knows death, Jesus knows grief and loss and Jesus knows the ravages of sin and the wrath of God you deserve more than you could possibly know.
He is in full position to say to you, “Who do you think you are?”
And instead, He said to Ny’Mier and Allereah today, “I know who you are you. You are mine! You are God’s child.”
And the peace that He alone can give, He has decided that He would even use us to give it through.Jesus is a somebody who does know the groaning and sufferings of His people, and He can give wisdom,
Jesus was sent to give peace.
And this Jesus sent His apostles and sends His apostolic Church us, to give peace.
As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.
Who do we think we are offering peace? We think we are sent and doing what Jesus has told us to do in baptizing
and teaching
and hearing
and praying
and doing this in remembrance of Him.
We think Jesus alone can give peace.
And we think Jesus is really with us and even works through us to give His peace.
“I forgive you all your sins….”
“I baptize you….”
“Take and eat….”
These are not my words. My words cannot give peace.
Water, bread and wine cannot give peace.
But the risen and present Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God, is offering peace through these Words and His meal.
Like newborn infant, we long for the pure spiritual milk of His Word and this meal….., peace now,
and peace for times of suffering and confusion and fear and guilt,
and peace on the day of your death,
and peace on the day of your judgment.
Who does Jesus think He is to offer us all this?
We receive all the peace He has to offer as we hear His again Words that we too might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
for by believing, we have life,
and we have peace in His name.