Sent or Stuck?
John 20:19-23 September 13, 2009
Intro:
I’ve never really been in fear for my life. I have felt fear – that powerful, raw emotional response to some situation, where the heart suddenly starts beating much harder, sweat appears on the brow, all the senses go on high alert, and everything appears larger and more real and like it could unhinge us. I felt some of that just a few weeks ago, trying to climb up to the top of the scaffolding and stand on a platform on the very top, with no rails or supports, so I could keep working up high. I climbed up 4, maybe five times, willing myself to just not care that there was nothing to hold on to, nothing to stop me from leaning too far, nothing to scream “caution: edge!” I felt fear in Bolivia as we drove through an angry mob – they weren’t angry at us but at their government, but it was still a volatile situation. I felt fear two months ago as my son hung tightly to me in the operating room, crying, while the anesthetist put him to sleep for his elbow operation and I had to walk away with him lying on the table. But I’ve never been in fear for my life.
As a result, I can’t completely identify with a large number of Christians in our world today who live in fear for their very lives because of their love for Jesus, and I can’t completely identify with that first group of Jesus’ disciples which we are going to read about in John in just a moment. But I do know a little something of that desire to run away, to hide, to retreat, to get out and get safe. And I do know a little something of the power of those times of fear to determine the very course of our lives – either as creating and enforcing a pattern of feeling fear and running away and withdrawing from life, or of feeling fear and overcoming it and embracing life. Let me set the stage for our Scripture reading today…
Jesus has just died, and the disciples have good reason to believe that they could be close behind. The crowd was hostile, Peter barely avoided detection and possible sanction around the fire the night Jesus was arrested and began his trial, and in their grief and fear they have gathered in secret to try to make sense of it all, and figure out what happens next. Here’s the story:
John 20:19-23
19 That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Behind Locked Doors: vs. 19-20
John’s story begins behind locked doors. This is what fear does – it sends us running, and we lock the doors behind us. We retreat, try to get safe, run away. And then in the story, suddenly, miraculously, Jesus appears! Jesus, who was supposedly dead, “standing there among them!” And the immediate response of the group is of even more fear, which I think we would agree is natural and even appropriate for a first response: Lk 24:37 “But the whole group was startled and frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost!”. And then we read quickly of what would likely have actually been a longer process: Jesus speaks a word of peace, Jesus demonstrates that He is, in fact, real, and the disciples have an opportunity to see, hear, come to believe, and then respond in joy. We read that quickly, but it likely took some time that evening, and it likely takes some time in our lives as the same process unfolds – we are afraid, then Jesus comes, speaks, shows Himself, and we have opportunity to come to believe and respond. I want to make some applications here in a moment, but let’s finish the story first.
Jesus’ Commissioning Process: vs. 21-23
After this initial meeting and demonstration, Jesus says four things that are hugely significant.
• Receive Peace
• Be Sent
• Be Filled
• Go in authority
Verse 21 begins with Jesus repeating the first thing He had said, that “again” is significant. This word of peace, which would calm and reassure and transform the disciples’ fear, needed to be repeated. It was spoken by Jesus, then the disciples had an experience which changed the entire way they saw the situation, and then Jesus could repeat that peace a second time and have it be more powerful again.
Next Jesus sends. Let’s think on this phrase carefully together: “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” It is carefully qualified – Jesus “sends” in the same was as the Father sent Jesus. So how was that? Give me some single words that describe how God the Father sent God the Son. These are critical ideas, because they determine how we are sent in Jesus’ name.
Third Jesus breathes on them with the words, “receive the Holy Spirit”. Very important point here: this comes after the sending, to empower the sending. The gift of the Holy Spirit does not have, as it’s primary purpose, to provide us with some amazing spiritual experience that we can enjoy. That might happen, but as a by-product of being filled so that we can be effectively sent. Many Christians I know have no concept of this – the experience of the filling of the Holy Spirit, to them, is either a gift to be enjoyed personally or something for others. But look at the progression of Jesus’ words – does it not seem obvious that Jesus does the “sending” and now breathes the Spirit to empower that sending? I think we can fairly conclude then, that if we really want to know what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit we have to obey the “being sent” part first, and THEN we will know the amazing power of the Holy Spirit at work in and through us.
Finally, Jesus bestows spiritual authority on His disciples. This verse is awkward for us, it seems to give us a greater power than we might want – the power to forgive or not to forgive. By and large, we don’t want to take any responsibility for others – often we don’t even want to take responsibility for ourselves! But Jesus is plainly saying something different here: we now have spiritual authority over one another. If we forgive, they are forgiven. If we don’t forgive, they are not forgiven. There is some strong spiritual power and authority there! Here is the key: this comes only after the filling of the Holy Spirit. So it is not us, as individuals, with some special spiritual power or authority, which might lead us quickly to an exercise of power that is easily manipulated and distorted by human beings. The power to forgive flows through us as we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Same exact principle as a physical healing: God does the healing, but through people. Here God does the forgiving, but through people. Make sense?
So What Does All This Mean For Us?
Ok, so back to us. We can read this, and think, “oh how nice for them…”. We can keep the story, and Jesus, at a distance. Our fear can do that to us, cause us to retreat behind locked doors, or inside a nicely renovated sanctuary, and we can huddle up and miss the point. It seems to me that if we give in to that idea, keep it all at arms length, leave it for others, we will miss out on the very reason for which we were embraced by God in love in the first place – to enjoy God through the joint participation in His mission of loving others into that same new experience.
Jesus’ way, seen very clearly here in John, and which we have heard already in Deanna’s story, is far better. It is the answer to our fears and our insignificance, and here is how it unfolds:
1. We accept the gift of peace: into our fears, our loneliness, our isolation, our uncertainties, all those things that grab at our very guy and threaten to unhinge us, Jesus comes and speaks a word of peace. A word that centres, that heals, that births something new inside of us – something tender but strong, like a seed in a bit of soil in a crack in a rock that can grow and defeat that rock. Maybe Jesus has to speak it a couple times before we hear it, but my friends it is real. Powerful. Life-giving. Listen for it! Be in the room with Jesus’ disciples, and listen for it!
2. We accept our part in the mission: I’m coming to believe that if we don’t do this, we don’t get to the rest. Jesus puts it next, right after the “peace”. We just go! It is not a matter of waiting, preparing, getting all the conditions right, waiting till life is all good and together, until we have all the answers, until we’ve defeated sin in our lives – if we wait for that we’ll never go! And we aren’t supposed to wait!! Jesus has sent us, just as He was sent. The critical question here is simple: will we obey and go. Our society thinks that what makes us Christians is that we “go to church” – maybe what really makes us Christians is that we “go to our world”!
3. As we go, we are filled. We wonder what we would say, what we would do, how we could possibly make a difference – this is the exciting road of faith. We don’t know in advance! But we go with the promise that Jesus has breathed life, Spirit, into us, and we listen and obey.
4. We deliver an amazing message: a message of forgiveness, of freedom, and of new life.
Conclusion:
Today is our fall kick off, our “commissioning”, and I believe, with all my heart, that we are a sent people. God’s plan for our world hinges on us going in obedience and in the power of the Holy Spirit. So what is holding us back? Anything?? Is it fear, like it was the disciples? Fear of rejection, fear of being asked questions we don’t know the answer to, fear of not being respected? Maybe it is comfort – “going” would take extra effort, extra time, maybe extra money, and we don’t want to sacrifice. Or maybe it is simply not knowing how to start.
The fact is this: as we go, we discover the greatest joy. The deepest healing. The greatest significance. Because Jesus is alive, and with us, and has chosen us as His ambassadors with the promise of the fullness of the Holy Spirit inside of us. And as we obey, as we go, as we see God’s Kingdom come, we know no better fulfillment, no deeper joy, no greater significance, than the way of life that beats back fear, accepts the mission, and then goes in power and in authority. This fall, will you allow yourself to be sent? Jesus promises there is really no better way to live than that!
