Station #11 of the Resurrection Story

Station #11 ….. Jesus Appears to Disciples in a Locked Room

Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.” Then he showed them his hands and side. The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant. Jesus repeated his greeting: “Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you.” Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he said. “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”  (John 20:19-23). While they were saying all this, Jesus appeared to them and said, “Peace be with you.” They thought they were seeing a ghost and were scared half to death. He continued with them, “Don’t be upset, and don’t let all these doubting questions take over. Look at my hands; look at my feet – it’s really me. Touch me. Look me over from head to toe. A ghost doesn’t have muscle and bone like this.” As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. They still couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was too much; it seemed too good to be true. He asked, “Do you have any food here?” They gave him a piece of leftover fish they had cooked. He took it and ate it right before their eyes. Then he said, “Everything I told you while I was with you comes to this: All the things written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms have to be fulfilled.” He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way. (Luke 24:36-49)

Worth A Thousand Words: Jesus Breathes His Spirit on the Disciples, Hanna Varghese

A Reflection:

On the evening of his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples – his fearful disciples, huddled and cowering with all the life knocked out of them – and breathed into them, saying “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The phrase “breathed into them” is the identical phrase used in Genesis 2 when the Lord God breathed life into Adam, who at once became a “living soul.” The Genesis “in the beginning” that opens John’s gospel is now complemented by the Genesis “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” as Jesus breathes his life-creating Spirit into his disciples. The same Spirit that moved over the chaos and became articulate in the eight “God said…” commands that created the heavens and the earth, now moves in the disciples so that they can continue the creation work of Christ, “the firstborn over all creation” (Col. 1:15). For “everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.” That same Spirit moves over the chaos of our lives as well, bringing form out of formlessness and fullness out of emptiness, resulting in a new creation. (Eugene Peterson, from notes in the Message)

Resurrection, Present Tense:

That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace – a new life in a new land… When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.  (Romans 6:2-5)