Deep Breathing
John 20:19-23
So, here it is, the evening of the first Easter Sunday. What an insane week for the disciples. No wonder they were hiding behind locked doors. Just think about it for a minute. Barely a week prior, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to people shouting:
“Praise God! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the LORD! Hail to the King of Israel!” (John 12:13 NLT)
They celebrated the Passover together in the Upper Room; Jesus washed their feet before the meal.
It was at this meal Jesus predicted one of the twelve, Judas, would betray him. He also prophesied Peter’s three-fold denial.
Over the next few days, Jesus taught them about things like Heaven (14:6), the Holy Spirit (14:15), staying connected to Him (15)…He gave them a new commandment, you remember, he said: “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.” (John 15:12 NLT)
He warned them that the world wouldn’t be impressed with their newfound faith, but also explained the Spirit’s presence with them.
Jesus again and again predicted his own passion, death and resurrection.
And, in what we refer to as his high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed for the disciples: “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” (John 17:21 NLT) (Somebody’s going to write a dissertation on that one day.)
After a fitful night of prayer and discernment in a garden called Gethsemane, Jesus was indeed betrayed by Judas, one of the original twelve. He was tried by a kangaroo court of corrupt Jewish leaders, mocked, beaten and turned over to the roman authorities.
Finally, in exasperation, Pontius Pilot had Jesus flogged and then crucified.
You know what happened next, we’ve talked about it over Holy Week. We walked along with Jesus as we experienced the “Final Journey.” (The Final Journey is our version of Stations of the Cross with dramatic readings and a set designed to represent the last hours of Jesus life on earth.)
After slow death on a cruel Roman cross, Jesus was buried in a borrowed tomb and left for dead.
Oh, but we all know better than that don’t we? We were here last week, weren’t we? We remember Mary Magdalene discovering the empty tomb, running to find Peter and John, returning with them to the tomb, only to be left behind in bewilderment. Until…until Jesus spoke to her.
“Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?” (John 20:15 NLT)
Of course Mary finally recognizes Jesus and runs to tell the others. “I have seen the Lord.”
Now, along in here somewhere, between when Mary Magdalene sees Jesus and when Jesus apparently walked through locked doors to join the disciples in the Upper Room, Jesus connected with two travelers walking along what we have come to know as the Emmaus Road. That story is recorded in Luke’s Gospel as taking place on Easter Sunday as well.
So, when we read the disciples are locked away behind closed doors it’s understandable because they’ve been through a lot already. Add to everything they’ve been through the very real danger of being hunted down by either the Jewish leaders or the Roman guard and you have the makings of a very highly stressed group of people.
Experts tell us human beings are stressed by danger. What is called a “fight or flight” reaction is the usual stressed response. The disciples opted for flight. They ran away. Had Jesus not come to see them that night, they may have never ventured out into the light of day again.
Perhaps Jesus understood their condition, perhaps he knew their fears, perhaps he knew that without a visit from their teacher his earthly efforts would have died that night. So, Jesus enters… “Peace be with you,” he says. Much has been made of this greeting, but Leonard Sweet insists it was just a casual greeting of the day, much like I might simply say, “Hey, how y’all doin’?” My insurance agent is an elderly gentleman originally from Mississippi. He always greets my call by saying, “Hey, how you?” Today, Middle-Easterners greet one another saying, “Shalom alekem” “peace be with you.” “Hey, how you?”
Perhaps Jesus’ casual greeting was meant to alleviate their fears. Sweet calls it almost comically mundane.
Despite the casual greeting, there is obviously a purpose to the meeting. Jesus shows his friends his hands and side. Instantly they are filled with Joy. The women, Peter and John, the Emmaus Road travelers were right, Jesus IS alive!
As the excitement in the room settled a bit, Jesus looked at those gathered there, once again offered his Peace greeting, then he did a strange thing. Look at the passage:
“Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Did you catch that? “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”
It reflects in measure the principle of Jewish authorization “One who is sent is as he who sends him.”
“As the Father has sent me” implies a sending in the past that continues to hold good in the present.
Along these same lines, Jesus once told his disciples: “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.” (John 14:12)
Jesus breathed on them, then said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (GK imperative)
John’s “use of emphusao (breathed) is the only use of this word in the entire New Testament. Many commentators believe the author of the fourth gospel is equating the breath of Jesus with the breath of God. Where the Lord God breathed life into a human being, the Lord Jesus breathes life into his church.”
Apparently, Jesus’ followers are to continue the work of God in a new form. He, Jesus, who is sent by God now sends the disciples into the world equipped with the Holy Spirit, who is released by the work of Jesus and who will complete what has been begun.
Did you catch that? Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit at Baptism, (Luke 3:21) sent by God to pronounce the forgiveness of humanity’s sins, now breaths on his followers, (not just the twelve) fills them with the Holy Spirit and sends them to continue his own work.
Thus making sense of Jesus then saying, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” What was it
Joseph was told by the angel before Jesus birth? “…name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21 NLT)
Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
In 586 B.C., Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, who took to Babylon the cream of the nation, and imported other peoples into the land. This was their policy of occupation and suppression -- dilute a people and its culture to discourage organized rebellion.
A temple priest named Ezekiel was one of the ones taken to Babylon. He was called by the Lord to prophesy in great mystic visions to the people of the Exile. The valley of the dry bones is one of his most famous visions.
The prophet Ezekiel was led in a visionary state to a valley filled with dry bones. The Lord told Ezekiel to examine the bones in that valley and he discovered the bones were “dried up, desiccated, decayed, detached, dead, dreaded bones.” (Sweet)
Then God asked, “Can these bones live again?” “Only you know that, Lord.”
Then God said to Ezekiel: “Prophesy over these bones, and tell them: ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones: Look, I am about to infuse breath into you and you will live. 6 I will put tendons on you and muscles over you and will cover you with skin; I will put breath in you and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
And as the old spiritual says, “Ezekiel connected them dry bones. The toe bone connected to the foot bone, the foot bone connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone connected to the leg bone…and so on.
And the bones in the valley began to rattle and clack and come together, then tendons, then sinews and then skin. And suddenly the bones that were scattered were now connected together.
But, there was no breath. There was no Spirit. There was no Holy Spirit. There was no life. Ezekiel gazed upon a “lifeless sea of corpses.” (Sweet)
Then God said to Ezekiel: “Prophesy to the breath, – prophesy, son of man – and say to the breath: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these corpses so that they may live.’” So I prophesied as I was commanded, and the breath came into them; they lived and stood on their feet, an extremely great army.
The Lord offers explanation: “Son of man, these bones are all the house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope has perished; we are cut off.’”
But Good News follows:
14 I will place my breath in you [says God] and you will live; I will give you rest in your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord – I have spoken and I will act, declares the Lord.’” (Ezekiel 37:9-11, 14 NET)
I wonder if the Easter Evening disciples felt hopeless, cutoff.
Not quite as many years ago as the John’s Pentecost or Ezekiel’s valley, another movement was in need of an infusion of the God’s breath. Most good Methodists will recall the events of a place called Aldersgate. Remember? John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, came to a sense of his own salvation at a place in London England called Aldersgate Street.
Wesley recorded in his journal that he had gone, “…very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans.” So profound was his experience, Wesley remembered it almost to the moment: “About a quarter to nine,” he wrote, “while he (the reader) was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
We’ve all seen numerous United Methodist churches named Aldersgate. We refer to it as the beginning of the Methodist movement for surely without his own conversion, Mr. Wesley would have never gained notoriety and would have gone down in history as simply a blip on the radar of the Anglican Church in England.
So, we all know about Aldersgate. But have you ever heard of Fetter Lane? Aldersgate took place May 24, 1738. New Year’s Eve of that year, December 31, 1738, John Wesley, his brother Charles and several other leaders in the Methodist movement (with names like Hall, Hinching, Ingham, Whitefield and Hutching) attended a love feast at a society meeting in a rented hall on Fetter Lane. It was called the Fetter Lane Society. A love feast was a gathering of Methodist folk to eat, fellowship, sing, read Scriptures and pray. It was how they ushered in the New Year. Nothing special here, right? It sounds similar to a modern day Watch Night Service.
John Wesley recorded the next events in his journal: “About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of His majesty, we broke out with one voice, ‘We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.’”
OK, so big deal. The Wesleys and some early Methodists experienced a charismatic outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We just read about something like that happening to our frightened followers. We all know the story of Pentecost, we’ve read the Book of Acts, so what?
While researching my dissertation, I discovered an interesting phenomenon. Few authors chronicling the life of JW, record the happenings at Fetter Lane. Book after book, written on John Wesley’s life, jump from Aldersgate directly to his field preaching experiences. They ignore Fetter Lane. But get this: Aldersgate happened in May of 1738, Fetter Lane happened New Year’s Eve 1738. It wasn’t until March of 1739 we read of Wesley preaching outdoors. If you’ll remember, outdoor preaching became a hallmark of the Wesleyan revival and impetus for its growth.
Thursday, April 29th, Wesley was to meet John Whitefield at Bristol, England. He records his thoughts in his journal: “I could scarcely reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields…” Wesley thought his job was to preach in churches only and the saving of souls was to be relegated to the interiors of those churches. It wasn’t long before his outdoor preaching gained both success and infamy.
April 2, a few days after his first meadow message, Wesley writes: “At four in the afternoon, I submitted to be more vile and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining to the city, to about three thousand people.”
If the Methodist movement got its spark at Aldersgate, it got its fire at Fetter Lane. I wonder why we don’t talk more about Fetter Lane. Even a charismatic renewal movement within the UMC, calls itself “Aldersgate Renewal Ministries.” I asked the director one time why they didn’t rename it Fetter Lane Renewal Ministries. He said, “No one’s ever heard of Fetter Lane.” I’m not sure he had either, to be honest.
The Easter night disciples had reason to be afraid.
The people of Ezekiel’s day had reason to be afraid.
But today, there are no Roman soldiers, no marauding armies.
So, why are we so afraid? What are we so afraid of? Why do so many churches seem to be huddling behind locked doors? Why do so many resemble valleys of dry bones?
While I’m not really concerned that we replicate a euphoric Fetter Lane-like revival, I am concerned that without an infilling and an outpouring of God’s Spirit, any church will, for all practical purposes, remain behind locked doors.
What might our churches look like if we were to invite the Risen Christ and his breath into our churches?
I wonder what our churches would look like if we refused to do anything until we were infused with God’s breath.
Dr. J. Howard Olds writes: “Here's something else about breath. Most of us use only about 20-30% of our lung capacity. We are shallow breathers. We breathe on the surface, not from the depths of our being. That's why we are short often out of breath or short of breath. The same is true spiritually. We dabble around on the surface. A real spiritual person is a person who knows how to breathe. Breathe on me breath of God.”
Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard used to pray it this way: “Teach me, O God, not to torture myself, not to make a martyr of myself through stifling reflection, but rather teach me to breathe deeply in faith.”
Jesus once said: 11 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? 12 Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! 13 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” (Luke 11:12-13 NLT)
Would you let me pray for us to receive the Holy Spirit? Let’s pray: Gracious Heavenly Father, we’re in church this morning wondering what it must have been like to see Jesus Easter night and have him breath on us, or what it must have like to see the dry bones come to life or what it was like to hear John Wesley preach in those fields while filled with your Spirit. But even more, God, we wonder what it might be like to experience the infilling of your Holy Spirit today.
Your Word tells us that if we ask for the Holy Spirit, you will send Him. So, God, even as we pray together, I pray that you will send your Spirit to fill us now. Perhaps some will experience Pentecostal power, others a gentle breeze. Some might sense overwhelming joy, others a deep conviction. Some might yearn for Fetter Lane fire, while others listen for a still quiet voice. Wherever our hearts may lie, we pray for your Spirit to fill us that we might be sent, as Jesus was sent, to share the Good News of forgiveness and love, of acceptance and grace. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN
1) http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_signs.htm
2)Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation, 3rd ed. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2007). Jn 20:21–23.
3) http://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/progressive_involvement/2010/04/lectionary-blogging-john-20-1931.html
4) Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley and Gerhard Friedrich, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964-). 537.
5) http://www.esermon.com/theResultsPage.asp?user_id=41906
6) Telford, John (1947). The Life of John Wesley. London: The Epworth Press. p. 394. ISBN 0-88019-320-4. pp117
