By David L. Larsen
John 20:19-31
A
very sensitive and troubled young woman whom life had dealt some very hard blows
— profound physi-cal and relational dysfunction — spent six days in
Yosemite Park in California. She needed to heal and get her footing.
One
day while hiking she spotted a little tuft of grass growing out of the broad
surface of a huge rock ledge. This was like an epiphany to her — a miracle
in which God spoke! Out of the hard, barren, sterile soil of her life, God can
bring life out of death!
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The
resurrection of our Lord is an even more decisive and dynamic disclosure of
what God can do. It is God’s grand opening of hope and life and joy and
peace!
I.
Jesus Christ Comes to Meet His Own (19-23)
The
episodic appearances of Jesus during the forty days are transitional, preparing
His disciples for their life ahead without the cons-tant physical presence of
our Lord.
Easter
Sunday has been a great day but emotionally very taxing. Jesus has appeared
to Mary Magdalene (and to Peter?), but the disciples gather “with the doors
locked for fear of the Jews..” What a picture of our lives oftentimes and
the Church today.
Twice
Jesus greets His own with the traditional: Peace! Meeting them now for the first
time together since His passion, it is significant He does not say: shame on
you! Rather He speaks of the health, the soundness, the wholeness which are
the very essence of what the Gospel brings, (Acts 10:36.)
Then
He shares Proof. Christianity is not afraid of investigation. Jesus want us
to be sure. The disciples were overjoyed. Quickly He moves them to their Purpose.
In John’s version of the Great Commission, our Lord directs them to their
calling — “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”
But
their need for the endowment of Power is addressed as He breathes on them and
says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Is this a prophecy, a prayer or a
plea? Now they are ready to face into their Prerogative (think of the systems
of error built on these words on the forgiveness of sin). They must mean that
Christ’s own have the message of forgiveness and the privilege of assuring
those who truly pray for forgiveness that they are indeed absolved in accordance
with the promise of Scripture and the provision of Calvary.