From Fear to Peace and Power
Here are a few thoughts I have on this Sunday, Pentecost Sunday's gospel. What are yours?
Gospel: John 20:19-23
19When 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.” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
I love the gospel of John. One of my Greek professors in seminary warned all of us who chose this gospel to study and translate that we would regret it. I still am in love with John!
John sets the stage for us in this way: following Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples were in hiding because they were afraid of what could happen to them. Jesus appears out of nowhere giving peace to his fearful followers.
Jesus’ saying of “Peace be with you,” is a common enough greeting both in Hebrew and in Arabic, but what Jesus does is far more than merely greet his fearful flock. He gives and breathes peace into them. One meaning is “peace is yours.”
Once they got over gawking at the resurrected Jesus who could enter a locked room, we know not how, and received the peace, it produced joy and hope within them. They were now in a responsive place to receive the promised Holy Spirit with its associated power enabling and transforming them (as we read in the book of Acts) to fearlessly preach and teach about Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension. The disciples had progressed from being fearful friends hiding for their lives to bold, fearless ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
Are you struggling with fear? Is the time of being at home so long getting to you? Are you sad because of the inability to gather with friends and family over the recent holiday weekend?
Just as Jesus breathed peace, hope and power into his feckless followers, he longs to do the same for us, no matter what we are afraid of, no matter what it is with which we struggle. In Jesus we experience peace because that is who Jesus is. As Paul wrote to the Ephesian churches, “he [Jesus] is our peace,” (Ephesians 2:14), so Jesus doesn’t only give peace to his people, he is peace.
Let us drop and leave behind the chains of fear that bind us and fearlessly proclaim what God has done for us. What is your story? Tell it.
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Gospel: John 20:19-23
19When 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.” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
John sets the stage for us in this way: following Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples were in hiding because they were afraid of what could happen to them. Jesus appears out of nowhere giving peace to his fearful followers.
Jesus’ saying of “Peace be with you,” is a common enough greeting both in Hebrew and in Arabic, but what Jesus does is far more than merely greet his fearful flock. He gives and breathes peace into them. One meaning is “peace is yours.”
Once they got over gawking at the resurrected Jesus who could enter a locked room, we know not how, and received the peace, it produced joy and hope within them. They were now in a responsive place to receive the promised Holy Spirit with its associated power enabling and transforming them (as we read in the book of Acts) to fearlessly preach and teach about Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension. The disciples had progressed from being fearful friends hiding for their lives to bold, fearless ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
Are you struggling with fear? Is the time of being at home so long getting to you? Are you sad because of the inability to gather with friends and family over the recent holiday weekend?
Just as Jesus breathed peace, hope and power into his feckless followers, he longs to do the same for us, no matter what we are afraid of, no matter what it is with which we struggle. In Jesus we experience peace because that is who Jesus is. As Paul wrote to the Ephesian churches, “he [Jesus] is our peace,” (Ephesians 2:14), so Jesus doesn’t only give peace to his people, he is peace.
Let us drop and leave behind the chains of fear that bind us and fearlessly proclaim what God has done for us. What is your story? Tell it.
Picture
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