Resurrection Appearances: Peace Be With You

John 20:19-23

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

This passage is John’s version of the Great Commission. Jesus appears to his disciples and grants them his peace. After this, he says that he is sending them out into the world just as the father sent him before breathing his holy spirit on them. This is a pivotal moment in the lives of the disciples. Jesus has done all he came to do. He’s about to ascend to heaven and is giving his disciples their marching orders. This means that whatever Jesus says next is of vital importance. He has his disciples together, he’s filled them with his holy spirit and he could now talk to them about anything. The options are endless. He could send the disciples out into the world by talking to them about prayer. Or worship. Or giving. Or the bible. However, the one thing that Jesus chooses to talk to them about at this pivotal moment in the history of the church is not any of those things. It’s forgiveness.

Now, forgiveness is a tricky and nuanced subject. There’s all sorts of questions that surround it. For example, can you forgive if the other person isn’t sorry? Can you forgive someone on behalf of someone else? To what extent does forgiving mean forgetting? Questions like these and many others are really important concepts that I can’t possibly get to the bottom of now. However, what is really clear is just how much of a priority the resurrected Jesus places on forgiveness as he’s commissioning his disciples to go out into the world. He even goes as far as to say that people will or won’t be forgiven depending on what the disciples do or don’t do. That’s powerful stuff. 

Now I don’t know if you’re surprised by the fact that Jesus talks about forgiveness here but I don’t think we should be. There are so many examples and situations that would be drastically and radically transformed if some christ-like forgiveness was injected into them. We know this at a national and international level. Can you imagine how different our news would be? I’m sure we’re all well aware of personal situations that would be drastically impacted and transformed for the better if christ-like forgiveness was at the heart of it. Forgiveness is a process. It can be slow. It can take time but this passage is clear that Jesus expects his followers to be agents of forgiveness in the world. So, let me ask you, where do you have an opportunity to be someone who is marked by forgiveness? Do you have meetings arranged or e-mails to send where you could change the tone through leaning into forgiveness more than you were planning to? Do you have a catch up with a friend or family member where you could interact with them in a more forgiving way? The resurrected Jesus is clearly interested in forgiveness. It’s one of his priorities. If we are to truly be his disciples, it should be one of ours too.

Richard Barber