Power in Our Words

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

POWER IN OUR WORDS.

 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 Jews, 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 his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." 

NIV

The evening of the first day of the week, or the same day of his resurrection which would be Sunday. Having been crucified on Friday and being made sure he and the other two were dead before sundown for that would be the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, Sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Jesus rose from the grave on Sunday morning and that is where he encountered Mary who went and told the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”. Now later that evening, which we have to believe was before sundown, for then that day would have been over, according to the way Jews counted days, they are locked up in a room. They had to have been worried, fearful of being arrested by the same groups of Jews that arrested and had Jesus crucified by the Romans. It is interesting how bold they seemed while Jesus was with them. But now even though Mary had told them she had seen the Lord, they were still in a locked room rather than going out looking for Jesus. Some scholars would make hay with the fact they were assembled together on the first day of the week, giving honor to the day our Lord was resurrected and that is why the Christian church uses Sunday as its Sabbath day. We also have left far behind the idea of the Sabbath starting at sundown, which would be our Saturday and only lasting till sundown on Sunday. For many of us, Sunday only consists of the first couple of hours after sunrise, when we gather at church. In past years many churches were conducting Sunday evening services, which a few may still do, but for the most part, our Sabbath lasts a few hours. Here while the disciples were gathered in this locked room, Jesus shows up. Again, it is interesting in his choice of greeting. Why he restricted himself to only say, “Peace be with you” is strange. We would think that he would have said something like, “Hi guys, it’s me, see I told you I would be resurrected and here I am, and it sure is good to see all you again”. “I have a lot more to tell you now that you fully understand that I am God”. But nope, Just “Peace be with you”. Now he does repeat that phrase and he does give them a command to get out of that room and go tell the story. Maybe that might be a clue that we need to get out of our church and go tell the story. Sure we love to gather and actually are following that idea of not forsaking the assembly of ourselves. It is good to gather in the house of the Lord, but we cannot stay there, we have to get out and tell the story. Here Jesus breathes on them and tells them to receive the Holy Spirit. This is not the place where the Spirit comes as on the day of Pentecost, but this makes a reference to the time when God breathed his breathe of life into Adam at the first creation. Jesus is making the point that he has just started the new creation, breathing the Spirit on his creation. We are living in the new creation already, being citizens of the kingdom of God. Whatever happens to this heaven and earth is just a result of this new creation becoming fully complete. It is also interesting that Jesus tells them if they forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven and if they do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. What is interesting is that God is the only one who forgives sin. How can we then have to power to forgive sin? We think the idea here is that as they and subsequently us, have been sent to preach the good news, to tell the story, to testify what Jesus has done in our lives when people receive that word, and accept Jesus, their sins are forgiven. In other words, we have the words of reconciliation. If they refuse to hear our words and refuse Jesus, then we have the words of condemnation. Either their sins are forgiven or they are condemned because of our words of telling the story. That would mean we have power in our words, power for their salvation, or their condemnation.