John 20:19-23
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were 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 his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
The theme of John 20:19-23, a segment that extends to verse 29, has the theme of the risen Lord with a gathering of disciples. The appearance tradition is consistent that Jesus comes to the followers of Jesus. They do not look for him.[1] Some scholars have noted that in John's text, one can count this resurrection appearance as the seventh, and of course the greatest, of the divine signs or miracles in Jesus' ministry. They would identify the first six as 2:1‑11; 4:46‑54; 5:1‑9; 6:1‑14; 9:1‑38 and 11:1‑45. The purpose of the segment is to deepen faith in Christ. This segment contains John’s version of Pentecost, his vision of apostolic authority, and Thomas. It expands on the astounding events of Easter Sunday.
In John 20:19-23, we have an appearance of the risen Lord to the disciples. 19 When it was evening on that day, a day beginning in darkness and ending in darkness, but also symbolic of the condition of the disciples, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples (at this point, we assume all of them) had met were locked for fear of the Jews, more properly, the chief priests, scribes, and pharisees. We can see John showing us the anxiety and dread the disciples still experienced. The horror of crucifixion fills their minds. The resurrection is only a rumor. For the purpose of safety, the disciples re-group behind locked doors. We cannot surmise that, although fearful for their lives, the knowledge that Jesus was alive encouraged them. They must have been a disheartened and fearful lot as they met in the evening on the same day as the resurrection events recounted earlier in this passage. Jesus came and stood among them, suggesting the risen Lord could move in and out of the natural world at will, and said, "Peace (shalom) be with you." His first word was that peace would be with them, the standard Jewish greeting, although in this context of a fearful band of disciples, the word would carry special meaning. 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. In contrast to verse 19, this note of the action of the risen Lord focuses upon the physicality of the risen Lord. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. The focus shifts to how the appearance of the risen Lord affected the disciples. They move from fear to joy. The gospel writers chose this way of showing the disciples recognized the risen Lord because they shared in his life and work up to the days of his going to Jerusalem and his arrest. The appearance was not that of a ghost or that of coming back to earthly life. They interpret the appearance of the risen Lord against the background of the eschatological expectation of a resurrection from the dead. The same will be true in the appearance to Thomas.[2] 21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. Jesus has offered his disciples the gift of his "peace." The disciples move from their fear to peace. This time, peace serves as a portal to a new shalom‑age‑‑the Age of the Spirit. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." We have here the common calling of all Christians to continue the mission of Jesus in witness to the lordship of God. This saying is true for all disciples of Jesus.[3] The inauguration of the mission of the disciples is succinct. Yet, it must resonate with them in terms kof his prior teaching. Anyone who hears his word believes the one who sent him has eternal life (5:24). Jesus seeks to do the will of the one who sent him (5:30, 6:38-40). Jesus has come not on his own, but from the one who sent him, who is true, and whom he knows because he came from him and this one sent him (7:28-9). If he judges anyone, the judgment is true, for it will reflect the judgment of the Father who sent him (8:16). The Father who sent him testifies on his behalf (8:18). The one who sent Jesus is true and Jesus declares to the world what he heard from the one who sent him (8:26). The one who sent him is also with him and he seeks to please the one who sent him (8:29). He does the works of the one who sent him what it is day (9:4). The Father has sanctified him and sent him into the world (10:36). Whoever believes and sees Jesus also believes and sees the one who sent him (12:44-5). The Father who sent him has given him a command about what to say and speak (12:49). The word they hear is not from Jesus but from the Father who sent him (14:24). The disciples believe the Father has sent him (17:8). As the Father has sent Jesus into the world, so he sends his disciples into the world (17:18). The Father is in Jesus, Jesus is in the Father, and if they disciples are in the Father and the Son, the world will have the opportunity to believe the Father has sent the Son (17:21). The oneness of the disciples with each other and with the Son will give the world the opportunity to believe the Father has sent him (17:23). Jesus entrusts the disciples with the same mission the Father had given him. 22 When he had said this, he breathed, as God breathed into Adam in Genesis 2:7, on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. In order to accomplish the mission the Son has given them, they will need energy from beyond their individual capacity. God gives the Spirit without measure (3:34b). The spirit gives life, and his words are spirit and life (6:63). The Spirit is a river of life flowing out of the heart of the believer, although the Spirit was not yet present for the risen Lord had not yet given the Spirit (7:38-9). The Father will send them another Advocate, the Spirit of truth, who will be with them and abide in them (14:16-17). The Father will send them the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who will teach them and remind them of what Jesus said (14:26). The Son sends the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to them from the Father, and he will testify on behalf of the Son (15:26). The Spirit of truth will come to them and lead them into all truth, since he will speak to them only what he hears (16:13). They need the Spirit, the Advocate, for it is the Spirit that gives life, teaches them all things, and enables them to discern what sins to forgive or not forgive. The risen Lord bestows upon the disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit. The imparting of the Spirit takes place through the risen Lord, justifying our calling the Spirit the Spirit of Christ. Yet, this does not alter the fact that the Spirit originates and proceeds from the Father.[4] Based on this passage, the imparting of the Spirit is in connection with an appearance of the risen Lord. This notion of relating the imparting of the Spirit to the Easter appearances seems to have more inner probability than the account of Luke, which separates Easter, ascension, appearances over 40 days, and Pentecost on the 50th day.[5] This verse was important in the Latin theology of the Middle Ages, where it spoke of the procession of both Son and Spirit. In that view, what distinguished these two processions was that the Son was a matter of begetting and the Spirit was that of breathing. These processions in the eternal divine substance resulted in the persons of the Son and Spirit, who they distinguished by describing relations, the Father actively begetting, the Son passively begotten, and the Spirit passively breathed. Such processions take place form all eternity in the divine essence.[6] 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven[7] them. The already accomplished forgiveness of sin through the cross becomes a gift the disciples, after receiving the gifts of peace and the Spirit, may offer to others. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Jesus defines the primary characteristic of this age to be the giving and receiving of forgiveness. This is a variant of Matthew 16:19, 18:18. One can think of this as the handing over of the power of the keys to the disciples. Yet, we cannot speak of the instituting of a penitential rite by Jesus related to the pronouncing of the remission of sins as the sacrament of penance that the church would possess. In early Christianity, the forgiving of sins went with baptism and only later was a special supplementary rite developed for lapsed Christians. Nevertheless, pronouncing the remission of sins originated with Jesus, which we can see in Mark 2:9ff and Luke 7:47. As a result, the risen Lord imparted an authority and indeed an obligation to forgive to all his disciples.[8]
In an incomplete novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald called The Last Tycoon (1941), he wrote that “there are no second acts in American lives.” Of course, he was not so naïve as to think that people cannot make a dramatic turn in one’s life. Here is an example of the truth of this statement. Yes, Bill Clinton went on to continue to be president and have a roll in American politics. The “however” is that people will always think of him in connection with his sexual relationships with a variety of women, often in the context of the inequality of the power equation. His relationships with women, especially an intern, will forever define and mark the memory of him. His example is one of many. One moment may not end a life. In fact, after that moment, one may go on to be very successful. Yet, that one moment can be a defining moment in terms of what people remember. In that sense, there are no second acts in American lives.
However, Fitzgerald also wrote in an essay called "My Lost City," which is a beautiful testament to New York City, in which he wrote: “I once thought that there were no second acts in American lives, but there was certainly to be a second act to New York's boom days.” Yes, this is also true. History is full of second acts, careers, and mid-life crises. Sometimes, life gives us a second chance because we were not ready the first time. Sometimes, as the wind of change sweeps across our lives, we find our true direction. Sometimes, we will not know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory (Dr. Seuss).
Many of us can hope for or be grateful for the second act.
Every so often, you meet people who radiate joy — who seem to know why they were put on this earth, who glow with a kind of inner light. Life, for these people, has often followed what we might think of as a two-mountain shape. They get out of school, they start a career, and they begin climbing the mountain they thought they were meant to climb. Their goals on this first mountain are the ones our culture endorses: to be a success, to make your mark, to experience personal happiness. But when they get to the top of that mountain, something happens. They look around and find the view … unsatisfying. They realize: This wasn’t my mountain after all. There’s another, bigger mountain out there that is actually my mountain.
And so they embark on a new journey. On the second mountain, life moves from self-centered to other-centered. They want the things that are truly worth wanting, not the things other people tell them to want. They embrace a life of interdependence, not independence. They surrender to a life of commitment.[9]
In the plain, flat world of Euclidian geometry, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. We must not confuse Euclidian world with real world. Often, the journey toward actualizing your life purpose is a long and winding road. You may start out in cosmetology and become a mortuary hairdresser and become a successful actor (Danny DeVito and Whoopi Goldberg). You may begin as a receptionist and become a successful country singer (Faith Hill). You may take acting classes to overcome shyness, become a carpenter in California for sixteen years, and finally land the acting role of a lifetime (Harrison Ford). You may franchise a failing business at the age of 65 and become the symbol of Kentucky Fried Chicken (Colonel Sanders). You might have a personally devastating loss of wife and mother on the same day, take some time away from being a successful politician in New York, go west, join the military, and eventually become open for the next thing in your life, even president of the United States (Teddy Roosevelt). Yes, the path to finding your joy and satisfaction in life, the path to fulfilling your personal mission in life, may well be a long, winding road.
The disciples understood so little of Jesus while they were with him. They misunderstood his teachings. They found it difficult to understand what following him might mean. They abandoned Jesus at the time of crucifixion. They gather secretly because of fear of their Jewish leaders. If any group of people needed a second act, the disciples did. They will have a second act of receiving energy derived from the Spirit of life and truth, their Advocate, empowering them and guiding them to continue the mission of Jesus as those sent into the world by the Father.
[1] Barth Church Dogmatics IV.2 [64.2] 144.
[2] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 2, 349.
[3] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 3, 372.
[4] Pannenberg Systematic Theology, Volume 1, 318, Volume 3, 4.
[5] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 3, 14.
[6] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 1, 305.
[7] The verb here, “they are forgiven,” is proclaimed in the Greek perfect tense — a grammatical structure that expresses a past action which results in a present state (Barclay M. Newman and Eugene A. Nida, A Translator’s Handbook on the Gospel of John [New York: United Bible Societies, 1980], 615).
[8] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 3, 365-6.
[9] —Blurb for David Brooks, The Second Mountain (New York: Random House, 2019).
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