Fear, forgiveness, and faith
20:19 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.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And 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 withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 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.”
26 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.” 27 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.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 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.
John 20:19–31
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The Second Sunday of Easter (with Easter Day being the first) is sometimes called “Low Sunday”. Attendance levels at worship drop off significantly from the events of the Easter weekend. Some of us experience a spiritual “low” post-Easter, and our energy levels might take a little while to recover, too.
It’s also commonly known to be “Doubting Thomas Sunday,” which is unfortunate. As soon as we label Thomas that way, we miss the point entirely. The interaction between Jesus and Thomas is about belief beyond doubt, and the sheer joy that results. Yes, there is initial doubt, but Thomas isn’t the only one who feels unsure.
We’re taking a step back today and paying closer attention to Jesus’ appearance to the rest of the disciples. They were feeling particularly low that resurrection day.
That morning, Peter and John had seen the tomb empty and the linen lying there. Mary Magdalene saw Jesus himself, alive and well. These three had reported what they had seen to the rest of the disciples. The rest of the day has gone by, and here they are.
Peace in fear
The disciples are in a state of fear. Fear of what? John tells us that the doors were locked for fear of the Jews.
It makes sense to conclude that they are afraid of the Jewish leaders—the Pharisees and scribes. They were the ones who captured Jesus and rallied the crowds to have him put to death. They were the ones that Jesus had criticised and corrected throughout his ministry, with the Twelve by his side. They were the ones who went to the Romans to have Jesus killed so that he would be executed in the most cruel and gruesome way possible.
The disciples feared for their own lives. They feared they would be next, as his associates.
The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.”
Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.
John 18:17,25–27
Peter would have been extremely ashamed of what he had done. He had pretended not to know the man he had earlier confessed to be the Christ. Worse, Jesus had told Peter he would do it. Luke tells us that when the rooster crowed, he “wept bitterly” (Lk 22:62).
Now that Jesus was apparently alive again, Peter would have feared what would come his way when Jesus found him. He expected to be punished for what he had done, and deservedly so.
The other disciples weren’t much better. All but John had scattered and abandoned Jesus to save their own skin. Like a child who fears their parents when they’ve done something wrong, the disciples feared Jesus.
The doors were locked, that is, barred, for fear of the Jews. That also means the big Jew, Jesus himself.
There, you have the Law in its fullness. The disciples know their sin. They recognise their shortfall and know their faults. They sense that what they have done is deserving of God’s wrath and damnation.
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.”
John 20:19
All in the same sentence, John takes us from the fear of the disciples to the words of Jesus. What happens in-between is not described in much detail. All we know is that the disciples had locked themselves in a room and that Jesus came and stood among them. That’s enough to suggest that the resurrected Jesus is a little different. He’s still very much a human being, as we’ll soon discover, but he doesn’t allow physical barriers to stop him from revealing himself to the disciples.
I’d love to know how much time there was between the disciples realising that Jesus was suddenly there and when Jesus finally spoke. I’d imagine that would have been a very tense silence.
When Jesus does speak, his words are significant. He doesn’t say a simple “hello” or even, “How is everyone? Tough few days, huh.”
By showing up after being dead for a couple of days, Jesus’ very presence brings its own peace. The disciples need a bit more convincing, though. Jesus says, “Peace be with you.” This isn’t just a typical greeting, kind of hoping that they have peace. He is pronouncing it on them. By speaking his peace, he is giving it to them.
What is this peace? Why would he say that? On the evening of his betrayal, before they headed out to the garden, Jesus had spoken these words to them:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
John 14:27
And a bit later,
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33
The peace that Jesus gives is not the kind of peace the disciples think they desire. You can’t get the peace that Jesus gives from anywhere else. Why?
True peace is reconciliation with God, the forgiveness of sins, made possible by Christ’s death and resurrection. Only Jesus could have done that, and only Jesus did. The peace that he gives is peace with God (Ro. 5:1). Without that peace with God, we are unholy, unrighteous, and unfit for God’s kingdom. With that peace, we are his sons and daughters who inherit the crown of eternal life.
It is that same peace that we share at worship every single week. The order goes like this: we gather in his name, we repent, God forgives, we receive peace, we share that peace, and then we can carry on with the service: engaging with his Word, coming to him in prayer, and receiving the Sacrament.
Power in forgiveness
Peace is not all Jesus gives to his disciples on that resurrection day. Remember, they are in fear and expecting to be grilled by the teacher they abandoned.
…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.
John 20:19b–20
How can scars make a group of people so happy? A couple of reasons:
They know that it’s really Jesus, their teacher and Lord who had suffered and died.
When Jesus died on the cross, the sin of the world went with Him.
The wounds on Jesus’ hands and in his side are evidence of their sin. When Jesus died, sin died. This is what it means for Christ to be the Lamb of God. He was a sacrifice that carried the weight of our sin and was slaughtered for it. The payment has been made, the transaction complete.
When the disciples saw the wounds, then they were glad. Then they knew that he had forgiven them. Then they could openly receive the peace he was giving. And with that peace comes sheer joy. That is the power of forgiveness.
That wouldn’t be a bad spot to end the story. Jesus is alive, the disciples are forgiven, everyone’s happy. Not so. Jesus has something else to say.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 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.”
John 20:21–23
Now that the disciples are forgiven, reconciled, and redeemed, they are ready to be sent. To be a disciple means to be a student, a learner. Someone who is sent with a task is an apostle. It is only once Jesus sends them that they become apostles of Christ.
When Jesus sends his apostles, he equips them. Here, there are two things in the kit bag: the Holy Spirit, and the Keys.
This is the only instance in the whole New Testament of the word, “breathed.” We see it at a few critical points in the Old Testament, though.
Firstly, it’s important to note that the Hebrew word for spirit (ruach) literally means, “wind” or “breath”. It is that spirit that hovered over the waters before God created light.
It is that spirit that was breathed into the clay to give life to Adam, the first man. This is not some mysterious life force, but a part of God himself. Life itself exists because of the breath of God.
The other big one is Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones. God wraps the bones in ligaments and skin, but the bodies only become people when God breathes life into them.
So, Jesus breathes that same life, that same Spirit, over and into the apostles. That same breath, that same Spirit, is also in you.
The second thing Jesus equips them with is the authority to forgive sin and to withhold forgiveness. We call this the Office of the Keys. These Keys are exercised in public worship by the pastor, who is a called and ordained servant of God’s Word. This authority doesn’t come from the pastor or even from the Church—it is Christ’s authority under the Word.
There are two Keys, here. Sometimes, our words of absolution will include words like, “God forbid that any of you reject his grace and forgiveness by refusing to repent and believe, and your sins therefore remain unforgiven.”
Today, we used the simpler version, “I forgive the sins of all of you who repent and believe…” That implies that those of you who don’t repent or believe are not forgiven. Jesus gives both Keys to all of his apostles equally. That tells us that this authority doesn’t rest on any individual, but the Church.
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:18
As members of his Church, we have also been equipped and sent to carry out this ministry. Proclaiming the Gospel and telling people about Jesus is not just a matter of inviting people to church or even introducing them to the Bible. The ministry of reconciliation, which is what we are all called to, is about forgiving each other.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32
When we practice forgiveness within the Church, we become a beacon of God’s light in a dark world. When we practice forgiveness in our relationships with people outside of the Church, we proclaim the Gospel by our actions.
The disciples were first forgiven their own sin before they were equipped and sent out to forgive. May our risen Lord do the same with us.
May the peace of God, which is yours today, and which surpasses our understanding, keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.
