Sermon onJohn 20:19-31

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

“Peace be with you.”

These are Jesus’ first words to these fearful disciples.

Mary Magdalene had already told them about the risen Jesus.

Maybe they didn’t believe her—admittedly, it was a pretty wild story. Or maybe they were afraid of what Jesus would say when they saw him. Most of Jesus’ disciples had, after all, not stayed with him as he died.

Instead of going out looking for Jesus after hearing Mary’s testimony, they locked themselves in a room, fearing they would suffer the same death Jesus had—and maybe feeling ashamed that they had abandoned him.

But when Jesus inexplicably appeared within that locked room, he did not shame them or scold them.

He brought them peace.

This wasn’t peace as a mere laying down of weapons or “agreeing to disagree.” It also wasn’t Pax Romana, Roman peace, that was enforced by the edge of a sword.

Shalom, God’s peace, is a state of well-being in community when people are in right relationship with God and each other. It means something closer to “justice” than a mere absence of war. It’s the Jubilee we talked about earlier this year.

It’s the Beloved Community Jesus had been talking about all along.

Jesus could have given up on his disciples who had abandoned him in his suffering, but instead, he sought them out and brought them peace.

He also brought them the Holy Spirit. He breathed his living breath onto those disciples. The Greek word for “breath” also means “spirit,” just as the Hebrew word for “spirit” also means “wind” or “breeze.” There are plays on words in both testaments about “spirit.”

The Gospel of John doesn’t have an account of Pentecost like Acts does, so this is where John marks the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is equipping his disciples to continue his mission.

He greets them with a word of peace and breathes the Holy Spirit on them, the breath of life. Then, he talks to them about forgiveness.

A lot has been made over the centuries of Jesus saying, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”I’m not going to pretend to know the exact mechanics of this.

Still, if we look at Jesus’ teachings overall, forgiveness seems pretty important.But also, a lot of damage has been done by people with authority demanding that victims and vulnerable people forgive their abusers and oppressors. If there’s a situation on your heart, and you’d like a sounding board, I’m here for you.

What I see in this story is that when Jesus talks about forgiveness, he goes first. He forgives his fearful disciples for abandoning him. Then, he forgives Thomas, who insisted on having the same experience of Jesus the other disciples had.

It’s like Jesus is saying, “As you continue to carry my message of the Beloved Community into the world, don’t forget that I washed your feet, I fed you, I forgave you, I equipped you with the Holy Spirit. Now, pass it on!”

That’s not easy—for them or for us.

Even with Jesus’ example of forgiveness and peace, there is so much pain in the world.

Violence in Israel and Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti, starvation in Nigeria, not to mention a contentious election year in our own country—that only scratches the surface of the world’s conflict and suffering. It’s heart-breaking and overwhelming.

It’s way easier to stay in our lovely, historic sanctuary and think about how much we love God than it is to go out and show people that we love God.

But Jesus didn’t equip the disciples just to have them stay in that locked room.

We see in our reading from Acts an idyllic image of the Beloved Community enacted by the early Jesus followers:

“Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.”

They shared their goal of Beloved Community, they shared their resources, they shared the story of Jesus. This is a beautiful picture of God’s shalom, the peace Jesus brought to the disciples in that locked room.

Of course, it didn’t last long—there were disagreements among Jesus followers pretty much from the beginning, and that hasn’t stopped. But it also doesn’t negate the sprouts of the Beloved Community that were growing among them and that we can nurture too.

Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on his first disciples, our ancestors in faith, and the Holy Spirit lives in us, too.

The thing about Spirit, or breath, or wind, is that we can’t see it (unless we exhale when it’s really cold), but we can see its effects. We can see the wind moving through the leaves of a tree or the rising and falling of someone chest.

People can’t see the Holy Spirit, but they can see us and what we do in God’s name. They can see when we build up the Beloved Community, and they can see when we act, well, less than Christ-like. That’s not to say we have to pretend to be perfect—people can definitely see through that. But people can also see when our actions are motivated by peace and a spirit of forgiveness and love for our neighbors.

Counterintuitively, sometimes the way we build up the Beloved Community is through rest. Sometimes we need restful practices to make us feel like humans again and to restore our peace, spirit of forgiveness, and love.

I have a colleague whose congregation can tell when she hasn’t made time to go swimming in the morning.Our spirits dim when we don’t make time for things that fill our cups.

Sabbath practices aren’t there just so we can work harder the other six days of the week, but they do restore us, realign us, and help us love our neighbors better. Rest makes room for joy.

And our world needs joy. Our world needs your joy. The world needs the Spirit that breathes in you to share that joy with the people around you.

Out of that joy, you can work with God to build up the Beloved Community and make this suffering world a little more like it is in heaven.

Jesus gave us his example of forgiveness and peace, equips us with the breath of the Holy Spirit, and invites us to take that peace and joy into the world he created and loves.Say to the world, “Peace be with you.”