Thursday, November 19 –
We continue
to read the Resurrection account in John 20.
Today’s reading is John 20:19 – 31.
I hope you are encouraged in your faith and the peace of God Jesus speaks
of rests on you also. Please read first
and come back that we might walk through it a bit more.
That first Easter is full of joy as Jesus manifests himself to various
individuals. Recall that it was Luke who
wrote of Jesus’ appearance to the people walking to Emmaus (Luke 24:13 – 32). I’ve often considered their response as a
fitting expression of the joyous surprise the various people must have all felt
– “They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he
talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). When Mary Magdalene realized it was Jesus who
was talking to her early in the morning, she rushed back to tell the others,
saying – “Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the
Lord” (20:18). Her exuberance makes me imagine a smile on her face from ear
to ear! John’s next verse reminds us
that her early morning proclamation was followed by an entire daytime without
the disciples knowing for certain what had happened. John had been convinced that something
happened, but from the verse we began with, it’s fairly obvious that they were
cautiously nervous, until Jesus suddenly appeared to them –
“On
the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked
where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them
and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed
them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the
Lord” (20:19-20).
John’s
purpose in this narrative is to make sure everyone knows Jesus physically stood
among them. Yes, there’s something about
him “appearing” to them, rather than knocking on a locked door, that tells us
that his body has changed. Yet, to be
sure, Jesus suddenly, visibly, physically, stood among them. Why did Jesus purposefully show them his nail-pierced
hands and his spear wounded side? We
find out soon enough when we see Thomas’ response later on. Jesus’ words alleviate their fears as he speaks
the words to them a second time –
“Jesus
said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am
sending you”
(20:21).
Jesus
knew they were uncertain about what had just occurred, even though they had
witnessed Lazarus’ resurrection. My brother
Edward wrote about this saying, “knowing they have endured much and that
their souls were very troubled (cf. 14:1), he speaks words that melt away their
fractured beings. The Greek word for ‘peace’ is an unusual one. It is similar
to the Hebrew word shalom. It carries the idea of completeness or wholeness,
thus no brokenness or fractures in their soul.
It was words designed to bring healing to them.” [1]
All that had occurred on the night of his arrest is in the past, and he speaks
words of blessing (peace) and recommissions them to serve as his messengers –
Apostles (cf. also 14:27).
“And when he had said this, he breathed on
them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins
of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is
withheld” (20:22-23).
Much
has been written about these two verses.
Roman Catholics point to this as the beginning of the Apostolic
succession passed from generation to generation as Popes and Cardinals, even
Bishops and Priests have the Apostolic authority to remit all sins.
I see
the key is his “breathing” on them to receive the Holy Spirit. While John records this fifty years later, he
certainly remembered that the baptism of the Holy Spirit did not occur at this
point, but some fifty days later at Pentecost (Acts 2). In the context of John’s Gospel Jesus had
referred to the Spirit several times – and as recent as their last night
together in the Upper Room (14:16 – 18; 15:26,27; 16:7 – 14). Jesus had told them at that time that the Spirit
would not come until he was ascended to the Father (16:7). Now, he stands among them to restore them to
serve as His Apostles, and “he breathed on them…saying receive the Holy
Spirit”. This act of “breathing” is the
same word as in the creation, when “God formed the man of dust from the
ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a
living creature” (Genesis 2:7). What
Jesus is doing – in my opinion – is symbolically restoring them, reminding them
that the call to be his Apostles needed the power of the Holy Spirit to come. Calvin referred to this as a “sprinkling” of
the Spirit before the “immersion” of the Spirit on Pentecost, but I prefer
Westcott’s interpretation that in the context the “breathing of the Holy Spirit”,
as in creation, is to create new life, while the power of that new creation
will only appear after Pentecost.
The other
often debated piece of these two verses is in Jesus’ promise – “If you
forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness
from any, it is withheld” (20:23).
Roman Catholics again appeal to the authority of the clergy, but this
misses the context and the words Jesus used.
At the beginning, we noted that Jesus said to them, “I am sending you”
– using a present tense verb. Yet, the basis of that sending is “as the
Father has sent me…” – using a past tense verb. It is not two missions he speaks of, but rather
one. As Jesus “was” sent by the Father
to preach the Kingdom of God, announcing the good news of the Gospel, so also,
the disciples are "being sent" to carry that mission forward.
Generation after generation needs to realize “I am sending you”
is always the call of Christ in our lives.
Put these
things together and we begin to see the point Jesus makes in both words and
symbolic action. We announce the reality
of the Kingdom of God, that Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God has come and
conquered death, and life is in Him when we turn to Him by faith, asking Him to
be saved. We are “born of the Spirit” as
we place our trust in him, and now we are able to announce “your sins are forgiven”. Jesus exercised his authority upon the earth,
and yet he did it in obedience to the Father.
We exercise His authority on the earth in obedience to Christ Jesus. Yet, nothing we do is possible without the life
and power of the Holy Spirit – who is the life-breath of Jesus Christ. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, said it
himself – “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having
received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he (Jesus) has poured
out this (the Holy Spirit) that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” (Acts
2:33).
I
spent a lot of time on those two verses to help us see Jesus’ purpose in
standing in the midst of them to make sure they knew what he was about to
do. Yet, not all of the disciples were
present that night.
“Now
Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to
them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger
into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never
believe” (20:24-25).
John
does not write this to create a “doubting Thomas” – as he has often been labeled. Thomas demonstrates the humanity of the disciples and the fact that they were not zealots. Thomas is all of us who
find ourselves wondering if someone proclaiming a miracle is telling us the whole
story. Thomas merely wanted proof to
counter his own loss of hope. John tells
us it was shortly later that it was resolved –
“Eight
days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although
the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with
you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands;
and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but
believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to
him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have
not seen and yet have believed” (20:26-29).
Writing
from the vantage point of fifty years later, we see John’s purpose in including
this story. Once again Jesus comes
suddenly, visibly, physically among them, and Thomas is now there, and he speaks
words of gentleness and blessing – “peace be with you…then he said to Thomas…” There is no rebuke in Jesus’ voice, but a
gentleness of restoring hope to one who was floundering in hopelessness. Thomas saw His graceful approach and recognized
what he had seen dozens of times before – Jesus, you are “my Lord and my God”. John reminds all of us who have never seen
Jesus, and won’t until we are “absent from the body, home with the Lord”, that “believing”
is trusting by faith that Jesus is our “Lord, and God” too.
Once
again, John adds his own commentary to what we perceive is the end of the Gospel
and he writes to us, the readers, though he probably did not think we’d be
reading this two thousand years later –
“Now
Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not
written in this book; but these are written 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” (20:30-31).
From
John’s vantage point fifty years had passed.
All of the other disciples were now dead – in fact, they had all been
martyred. Yet John’s message is the
message he heard from Jesus, and the message he taught those who he Pastored,
and they taught it to those that followed…all of was passed on through the
generations – that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came, and did many things to
prove He was God, and when we put our faith and trust in Him, we have the life
of Christ within. Jesus is alive, and I pray
that you have the faith that fully trusts in Christ Jesus as your Savior and
Lord, also.
Peace
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