Peace be with you

Peace be with YOU.  John 20.19-21

Seasons' Greeting . . .

When I was a small child, we went to church on Sunday nights.  Oh, not as an option to the Sunday morning service, not because we had sports in the morning, like kids do today--but we went to Sunday night service, after having been to Sunday morning church service.  That’s just what we did.  Personally, I would like to go back to that format.  It was a day set apart, and it was a great way to start the week.

Apparently, Jesus liked Sunday night church services as well, because he showed himself first to his group of disciples at a Sunday night gathering! 

Check out what John records:

“That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”  John 20.19-21

Friends, you and I cannot really understand or appreciate how Jesus came into the meeting that night, but apparently it must have been similar to the way he left the tomb … something quite out of our very human understanding or reality.  Yes, Jesus seemed to ‘materialize’ into the room with his loved ones that day.  And the first thing he proffered was peace.  Oh, you’ve just gotta love that.  He is the one who had told them before his death, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid”. (John 14.27)  How many times have I leaned on those words of Jesus, the words that he gave to his disciples that night about peace.  How many times have I given those same words away to others in need of an otherworldly peace!

After greeting them, Jesus immediately proffered the physical proof that he was their same Jesus--their Lord and Savior, the one they had followed, the one from whom they had learned the way of grace, the one they had seen crucified and subsequently buried in Joseph’s tomb.  This Jesus extended pierced hands and oh, so wounded feet.  And yes, as they looked, truly it was Jesus! 

And then he offered them peace yet again, having once greeted them … and he charged them “Even as the Father sent me, so I send you,” and breathed the Spirit upon them.  Apparently, the Holy Spirit is key to having peace.

Stop right now… stop your reading, Friend—in Nigeria, in Uganda, in Brooklyn, Michigan and the Philippines--understand what Jesus of Nazareth said that Easter evening, because he said it to you and me as well some two thousand years later … “So I send you.” 

Sent, for what, or is it ‘sent, for whom’?  You and I have been commissioned to tell of the love of this great Savior.  How are you doing with your ‘telling’?  Do you ever mention Jesus to another?  Do you ever tell the difference Jesus has made in your life?  Do you ever point another Home?  I mean, I’m just askin’ … do ya? 

The scene on this Sunday night is the first time Jesus has met with the group of disciples; after he offers them a peace that passes understanding, he immediately charges them…yes, he immediately sends them to tell others of the Savior of Peace, and how to encounter him.  Check it out--you and I are similarly ‘sent’.  ‘So send I you,’  Jesus said.  So I’m just askin’ … who have you told about your Jesus?  To whom have you offered the peace that has been offered you?  I’m just askin' …