"The risen Christ opens what we cannot" Easter Tuesday 2026
08. April 2026
Easter Tuesday (observed)
Luke 24:36–47
This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.
"Peace to you." The risen Lord stands among His disciples on Easter evening and speaks these words first. No rebuke for their cowardice. No reprimand for their unbelief. "Peace to you." And they are terrified.
Peace should calm them. Instead, it frightens them. They think they see a ghost—some shadowy spirit, some remnant of their dead Master haunting the room where they've locked themselves away. Jesus didn't rise from the dead to haunt us. He rose to give us what we cannot give ourselves. He rose to open what remains closed.
The risen Christ opens what we cannot. Christ opens Scripture. He opens understanding. He opens His hands and His feet to show the wounds. He opens His mouth to eat broiled fish. Through all this opening—this unveiling, this unlocking—He opens heaven itself and seats us there with Him. We cannot open our own eyes to see Him. We cannot unlock the meaning of Scripture on our own. We cannot break down the door that separates earth from glory. The risen Lamb who was slain has won the keys, and He opens what no man can shut.
The disciples are locked in a room, afraid. Their eyes are closed to the reality standing before them—they see a ghost instead of God. Their minds are shut to the Scriptures that testified of this moment. Their hearts are sealed with terror and unbelief. They have nothing to offer but doubt and fear. After the women's testimony, after Peter saw the empty tomb, after the report from the Emmaus road, they remain locked up—trapped in their own inability to believe what God has done.
We are no different. The Word of God lies open before us and we see history, morality, religious sentiments—but not Christ crucified for us. The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world stands in the midst of every page, and our eyes do not see Him. Our understanding remains shut. We read Moses and think it's about law-keeping. We read the prophets and think it's about social reform. We read the psalms and think it's about our feelings. We cannot see what stands there: "that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me."
Sin has locked us out. Death has barred the door. The grave has sealed us in darkness. No amount of religious effort, no sincerity, no spiritual insight can break through. The risen Christ opens what we cannot—because we cannot open anything at all.
Christ does not leave us locked in. He stands in our midst and says, "Peace to you." That peace is not a feeling. That peace is the finished work of Calvary declared over us. That peace is what He accomplished when His hands and feet were nailed to the tree. That peace is the blood of the New Testament poured out for the forgiveness of sins. He doesn't wish peace. He gives peace, because He has made peace through the blood of His cross.
He shows them His hands and His feet. "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." The risen Christ opens His wounds. The marks of His passion remain. The holes where the nails pierced through are still there. The body that hung dead on the cross is the same body standing alive before them. He doesn't erase the crucifixion—He displays it. His scars become His credentials. His wounds become our comfort.
This is flesh and bones—real, physical, touchable. The same body that was laid in Joseph's tomb now eats broiled fish in a locked room. Death no longer has dominion over Him. The grave could not hold Him. The Christ who opens His wounds to prove His identity is the same Christ who will open our graves and call us forth on the Last Day. Because He lives, we will live also.
The risen Christ opens what we cannot. He opens Scripture. "Then He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures." Having the Bible in our hands is not enough. Reading it, studying it, memorizing it is not enough. The Scriptures remain closed until Christ opens them. The Pharisees had Scripture memorized and still crucified the Lord of glory. The scribes knew every jot and tittle and still missed the point. When Jesus opens the Scriptures, we see what was there all along: Him. Crucified for our transgressions. Raised for our justification. Ascending to the Father's right hand to intercede for us. Coming again to raise our bodies from the dust.
Moses wrote of Him. The Passover lamb slain and eaten pointed to Him. The bronze serpent lifted up in the wilderness prefigured Him. Isaiah's Suffering Servant is Him. David's psalms—the ones about being forsaken, about bones out of joint, about hands and feet pierced—they're all about Him. The whole point of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, is this Christ standing before His disciples with wounded hands and feet, declaring peace.
He sends that same message out. "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." The risen Christ opens what we cannot—and what He opens is the kingdom of heaven to all who believe. Repentance and remission. Turning from sin, from self-righteousness, from locked-up unbelief. The forgiveness of all sins, declared in Christ's name, sealed by His wounds, guaranteed by His resurrection.
This message goes to all nations. He suffered. He died. He rose. Because He did, sins are forgiven. The redeemed of the Lord say this, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered out of the lands. This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
The risen Christ opens what we cannot. He gave them to drink of the water of wisdom, and they are strengthened thereby, and they shall not be moved; and it exalts them forever. That water is Holy Baptism, where Christ opened the kingdom and washed away sins. That water is the Word of God, where Christ continues to open Scripture and show us Himself. That strengthening comes in the Holy Supper, where the same Christ who ate broiled fish with His disciples now gives us His body and blood under bread and wine—the body that was crucified, the blood that was shed, now living and life-giving.
We don't open these gifts. We don't unlock their power. We don't make them work by our sincerity or our understanding. Christ opens them and gives us what He has won. If we are risen with Christ, we seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. We set our affection on things above. The risen Christ has opened heaven and seated us there with Him.
"Peace to you." That peace does not depend on our calm. It doesn't rest on our feelings or our circumstances or our ability to believe without doubting. That peace is the objective fact of what Christ accomplished. He suffered. He died. He rose. Death no longer has dominion over Him. Because He lives, that same peace is declared over all who are baptized into His death and resurrection. Christ being raised from the dead dies no more. We will not die either—not in the end, not forever.
The risen Christ opens what we cannot. He opened Scripture and showed them it was all about Him. He opened His wounds and proved He is no ghost but God in flesh. He opened His mouth and ate their food to demonstrate the resurrection of the body. He opened their understanding so they could comprehend what Moses and the prophets had been saying all along. He opened the mission to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, proclaiming repentance and remission in His name. He continues to open these gifts—opening eyes in the Word, opening mouths at the Altar, opening the kingdom of heaven and bringing us through.
We were locked in sin, shut up under death, sealed in the grave. Christ has the keys. He who was dead is alive forevermore. He stands among us still, showing His hands and His feet, speaking peace, opening Scripture, giving us to drink of the water of wisdom that exalts us forever. The risen Christ opens what we cannot. He has opened heaven itself and seated us there in Him. Amen.
This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.
Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin
