The First Day
Gospel of John
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.” John 20:19-23
The evening of the first day. Twelve hours or so after the empty tomb is discovered and Mary encounters the resurrected Christ. The disciples exist behind locked doors, in secret, because they fear the Jewish leaders. Once in hiding, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea are out in the open, but the disciples now are hidden. Into this locked room, Jesus came. He didn’t bust open the doors with great force, nor did he enter with thunder and lightning. He simply stood and brought peace.
Jesus showed the disciples his hands (probably wrists) and his side where he had been pierced with a sword. Proof and recognition fill the disciples with joy. They still lack peace and are still hiding from the Jews. Jesus says it again, “Peace be with you.” Jesus came with a mission and now he is passing it on to the disciples. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
Salvation is from the Jews. It is and was meant for Israel. Jesus came to bring salvation. Now the disciples are charged with taking the message to the whole world.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Genesis 1:1-2
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2:7
Jesus tells Nicodemus the wind blows where it wills. Wind is the same word as breath and spirit in both the Greek and the Hebrew. On the first day of creation, we see the Spirit of God moving across the waters and then in the next chapter God directs the breath into Adam to give him the breath of life. Jesus now breathes the breath of new life, new creation into the disciples. This breath gives the disciples new life – God’s life. Restoring life. Power for God’s mission.3
I am sending you.
Christ came to show a different understanding of sin and forgiveness. Jesus told the disciples when the Holy Spirit came to them, he would prove the world wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment. Jesus reiterates that message here in terms of forgiveness. Teach the world about forgiveness and why they need it. Only Israel had concepts about forgiveness of sin, and the disciples would need to teach the world what they knew. They were to bear witness to all they had seen and learned. They were to bear witness to forgiveness. They were to bear witness to receiving forgiveness and to rejecting forgiveness and its consequences.2,3
As the Spirit was moving over the waters
Spirit, come move over us
Come rest on us
Come rest on us (Repeat)
Come down
Spirit, when You move
You make my heart pound
When You fill the room
You’re here and I know You are moving
I’m here and I know You will fill me (Repeat)
Holy Spirit, come rest on us
You’re all we want4
As the Spirit moved over the waters the Spirit of God now moved over the room and into the lives of believers now and in the future. Thomas was not there but Thomas would receive the Holy Spirit too when he believed. God’s Spirit is moving over us too. Christ is still sending his disciples.