Introduction
For the next 4 weeks, we will be looking at the close of John’s gospel narrative. After the resurrection, the disciples were afraid. Despite Mary Magdalene telling them the good news, they locked themselves away. Last Sunday, one of our elders stated that the disciples were quarantined for the first Easter in the upper room. They were isolated, confused, disoriented, and fearful.
Quarantined disciples… sounds familiar doesn’t it? What can we learn from the disciples when they were shut indoors? What can unlearn from them? What can we learn from Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and scripture? Emmanuel, join me as we dig into chapters 20 and 21 of John’s gospel. During this series, you will again hear from some familiar voices from Emmanuel. Let us begin with a familiar hymn, Be Thou My Vision.
Song
Aaron Strumpel “Be Thou My Vision”
Opening Scripture and Prayer
“Jesus came and stood among them and said,
‘Peace be with you.’
After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.” John 20:19-20
Living God,
You appeared to your disciples in their hour of fear,
and offered them your peace to still their hearts.
May we open our arms
to be living hope in the world today,
bringing peace to those in living in fear.
Give us courage to be bold in what we believe;
may we hold firm to your promise of life and hope,
and strive for a new world, free from covid-19, injustice, hate and conflict.
Call to Worship
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
We have not seen the risen Christ,
But we see him in the lives
of those transformed by grace.
We have not seen Jesus face-to-face,
But we have seen him in the faces
of everyone whose love encourages us.
We have not touched the wounds from the cross,
But we have been called
to bring healing to the scarred of the world.
Song
Audrey Assad “I Shall Not Want”
Scripture Reading – John 20:19-23 NRSV
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Prayer of Praise
Dear God, you are astounding!
At the end of all your surprises
you send among us the One who was crucified,
dead and buried, and risen into glory.
He comes now as a living Lord,
defying our locked doors,
banishing our fears,
greeting us with peace,
and overwhelming us with awe and wondering love.
How paltry is our vaunted knowledge,
how pathetic our cultured doubts,
when our souls are confronted with this risen Christ!
How blessed are those who believe him,
and how happy are those who receive him.
Please receive our thanks, our praise and our worship,
and continue bless us beyond our deserving,
as we lift up our voices in celebration.
In the name of this same Christ Jesus
whose presence makes this occasion. Amen!
Reflection
Despite locked doors, Jesus manifests his very presence to the terrified disciples. Despite fear, despite being hidden away, Jesus makes his peace known through his presence. Isn’t that so reassuring? When the world is crumbling around us, doom looms heavy overheard, and we wide ourselves away, nothing can keep God from breaking in. Not death, not a locked door, not nakedness in Eden, or fleeing on a boat to Tarshish. God finds a way to pursue us!
Did they not hear Mary’s Easter sermon? Did they not hear that he had been risen? Did they believe her? Where they arguing while hidden away in fear? Were they quarreling? Were they second-guessing Mary’s inclusion as a disciple? Did Mary begin to doubt her own experience of the resurrection? Were they making plans to return to their normal lives?
Notice that Jesus’ first words to them are “Peace to you!” It is both a common greeting used by every single person in ancient Palestine and loaded with eschatological meaning. God’s peace, shalom, is now totally available to humanity because of his action on the cross, his defeat of death, and by the end of this passage, the offering of his Spirit. Shalom is total well-being. Shalom is the reordering of chaos into abundant life. Shalom is the work and ministry of Jesus made tangible to humanity.
Jesus had promised to turn their grief to joy (14:18) and his promise comes true in this passage. As they were “filled with joy” the disciples were beginning to experience the fundamental blessing of the kingdom of God (e.g. Isa 25:6-9; 54:1-5; 61:1-3).
When Jesus returns, he commissions his disciples to carry on the work of the Father, the very same work Jesus had been doing. “He breathed in” is loaded with scriptural echoes. Namely, it harkens back to the unusual term in Gen 2:7 and Ezek 37:9–10. In the former passage God “breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of life,” so completing the creation of man. In the latter the prophet calls to the wind to “breathe into these slain that they may live,” after which “breath came into them, they came to life and rose to their feet, a mighty host.” This is a vision of the return of the Jewish people from the lands. Both uses of God’s breathing create life where there was none. God invigorates his people. The Spirit bestows upon God’s people his continuing mission in the world.
The lines about forgiveness are tricky. If you read it one way, it appears that the early disciples had the power to refuse to forgive the sins of some. Does that mean they had the power to keep someone from receiving God’s grace? Does that mean that they were gatekeepers for Jesus or heaven? I don’t think so.
All of us, Christians in general, are involved in the forgiveness of sins as agents of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ commission to his followers was not one of privileged judgment, but of weighty responsibility to represent to love of God and the will of God with extreme faithfulness. Forgiveness is paramount to the good news. We are to be participants in the grace Jesus lavishes upon humanity. When we refuse to forgive, we go straight back to the valley of dry bones.
May we be filled with joy knowing that the resurrected Jesus breaks into our locked homes, brings peace amidst despair, and breathes his very Spirit into our lives to embolden us to invite others into the grand forgiveness of our savior. Amen.
As many of you know, I come from a musical family. I have always connected to both God and Scripture best through song. I plan on introducing you to some of the artists that have impacted me in recent years. Like many of us, John Van Deusen struggles with mental health issues. A lot of his songs are mantras to remind him of the promises of God and the comforts found in scripture. His songs have benefited me in both dark times and joyous times. Like us, like the disciples, crippled by fear, anxiety and depression, Jesus breaks through to our reality. This song is a meditation on how our downcast state is mitigated by the very presence of Jesus.
Song
John Van Deusen “Calling All Cowards”
[Verse 1]
Oh why, my soul, are you so downcast?
Why so disturbed deep within me?
Put your hope in God
For I will yet praise him, my savior and my God
[Chorus]
He is the light in the darkest hour
Calling all cowards to His side
He is the light in the skeleton valley
Rise up and rally to His side
He is the light, He is the light, He is the light, He is the light
[Verse 2]
Let all who take refuge in You rejoice
Let us sing with everything we have
For You bless us Lord
And faithfully extend Your favor as a shield
[Chorus]
He is the light in the darkest hour
Calling all cowards to His side
He is the light in the skeleton valley
Rise up and rally to His side
He is the light, He is the light, He is the light, He is the light
[Bridge]
My savior and my God, My savior and my God
My savior and my God, My savior and my God
[Chorus]
He is the light in the darkest hour
Calling all cowards to His side
He is the light in the skeleton valley
Rise up and rally to His side
He is the light
Benediction
May the presence of Jesus become real and tangible in your very home. May the peace of Jesus bring you comfort. May the Holy Spirit restore your livelihood. May forgiveness abound. Amen.
Thanks for your inspiring thoughts, Pastor David. Such comfort and peace offered on this Sunday morning. Appreciated the songs and artistic choice of John Van Deusen! Blessings to you and your family also today and in this week. (Colossians 3:15)
Dear Pastor David,
The devotional thoughts, songs and artistic flare (even by John Van Deusen) were well selected. Sometimes difficult to imagine that the disciples were ‘troubled’ by the same thoughts as we. It was good to virtually fellowship with Emmanuel again this morning. Deb did a nice job with the Kids page also. Thanks for being a blessing today!
Courage, Strength and Peace to you and your family also. (Colossians 15:3). Leaning on Jesus ……….. George
Thanks for making a Sunday service available to us. A great way to start the day.
A question remains—regarding the ability of the disciples to “retain the sins.” It does sound like they have the power to withhold forgiveness. (Thank you for raising the question—(read heavy sarcasm hear))
What that means vis-a-vis Grace vs middle men like the disciples or priests in the confessional hurts my brain. (Then that raises another question: Are the priests doing the forgiving or reminding the confessor that God forgives.). But back to the disciples: What does Jesus mean? You don’t think it means that they are gatekeepers. OK. I like the paragraph that follows, but I’m still left with the question: What does Jesus mean?
I realize that this is outside of the main point of your message, which is a good one, especially in these times. But inquiring minds want to know.
Thanks again for the message.
Here is an excerpt from the Word Biblical Commentary on John:
One cannot deal with this saying without recalling the similar Matt 16:19b, with its parallel in Matt 18:18. The saying is clearly independent, and has been given varied contexts by the Evangelists, or their sources. Our Evangelist has set it in the context of the resurrection commission of Jesus. Significantly its appearance in Matt 16:19b has the nature of a charge to an apostle.
The majority of commentators still interpret the Matthaean saying in the light of the rabbinic use of the terms “binding” and “loosing” for determining whether actions are “forbidden” or “allowed” by the Law, and so view the saying as relating to a kind of magisterial office. Certainly that usage was current in Rabbinism, but the terms were also applied to imposing or relieving the “ban” on offenders, i.e., their exclusion from or readmittance to the synagogue (see Str-B, 1:738–47).
With this Jeremias agrees: “The authority of the messengers includes both the communication of salvation and the imposition of judgment. It is the judge’s authority to acquit and to pronounce guilty that is described by this pair of opposites and the synonymous phrases ‘bind and loose’ and ‘forgive and retain sins.’ As pairs of opposites are used in Semitic languages to describe the totality, these pairs of words mean that the messengers receive total authority” (New Testament Theology, 238). The saying therefore, alike in Matthew and in John, is fittingly placed in a context of commission to disciples. Interestingly, while the Matthaean saying is set in the ministry of Jesus, it has in view Peter’s work in the era following the Resurrection (Peter was certainly no rock-man on whom the Lord could build his church in the period approaching his passion!). John’s context is specifically that of the commission of the risen Lord in v 21 and the gift of the Spirit in v 22. It entails therefore the double context of the continuance of the mission of Jesus through his disciples in the world, and the continuance of that mission through the Holy Spirit to the world in and with the disciples.
George R. Beasley-Murray, John, vol. 36, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1999), 383.
In my most recent failing, which was major, I found that I was not concerned with whether or not God forgave me, speaking from an emotional and rational place. I knew he did, I knew he loved me and accepted me, I knew that his heart was understanding and forgiving. It was disconcerting to many when I shared this. I don’t quite know why. I would combine this verse from John/Matthew about our binding and loosing sins with Matthew 5:23-24: Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.
Here is how it worked for me. I felt like God released me from shame and guilt, but those I had hurt were hurting, and in my instance, would be hurting for an extended period of time. God’s forgiveness is certain, and he is an expert at it. Our forgiveness is not certain, and we are bad at it, or at least we need to get better at it. Each time takes practice, and process – it is not automatic. When we are hurt and our pain is not simply erased with an ask of forgiveness. Sometimes we have to forgive 70 times 7, even for the same offense because the pain recurs even though the heart desires to let it go. When I offend someone I need to recognize that, because I just want it to be over and to be and feel forgiven. It just isn’t that easy in the human sphere.
I felt the most emotional and spiritual release when those I offended forgave me, in this sense they had the power of binding and loosing over me. This is our practice of loving God, when we love each other – especially in seeking and granting forgiveness here on earth.
I like Dale Bruner’s comments on this (The Gospel of John: A Commentary/Eerdmans,2012). “But only God can forgive sins, we could object. But we recall that God gave this gift of forgiveness to his Son Jesus (Mark 2:1-12). Now the Son himself gives this same God-given gift to his disciples…Disciples do not ‘make” this gift for others; they simply ‘share’ it with believers, and ‘so, pass it on’…And how do they ‘retain’ or ‘pronounce as unforgiven’ other people’s sins? When they warn the unrepentant and unbelieving of the consequences of unrepented sin…c.f. Jn 3:36…Here at the very end of Jesus’ Great Commission in this single verse we see Jesus’ two-sided single gift of a) the forgiveness privilege and of b) the warning responsibility…We are probably least obedient to Jesus’ Mission Mandate, just reviewed, in our understandable reluctance to warn unbelievers…pp. 1165-1166.
Love Bruner!
The last line of your post hits hard. I struggle with what “warning” people looks like. How do we best warn people of what life here and now without Christ is like without shaming, guilting, emotionally manipulating, or becoming self-righteous?
I agree that we have a mandate to warn people, but I don’t think the Church has done a good job of that over the years.
Jesus seemed to invite unbelievers into a bigger life than they could image for themselves. (fishermen, tax collectors, people of the night, outcasts, etc). His most intense warnings seemed saved for the religious elite, whom he apparently identified as the unbelievers.
Long story short, I totally agree that we have to be faithful to our commission, which means proclaiming the whole story, not just the fluffy fun stuff. Hard to do indeed!
Great thoughts Steve, and thank you for sharing. Wish I was by default as forgiving as God.