St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Cleveland, Tennessee

Pentecost Sunday
27 May 2007
John 20:19-23

As I was giving thought as to what I would share with you today on this Pentecost Sunday, I kept coming back to this Gospel lesson. I have in the past addressed the events of Pentecost in great detail. I will do that again in future sermons. But today I really feel led to concentrate on this Gospel. I believe that this is one of the most important passages in all of the New Testament. I will tell you a little bit more of why I think that. But let’s study it for just a few moments together this morning.

The context, of course, is always so important in interpreting a passage to its fullest extent. This is the first Easter evening where this Gospel passage takes place. This is John’s accounting of the first Easter Day. John tells us that the women went to the tomb, Mary Magdalene and the other women. They did not find the body. Mary Magdalene encounters Jesus shortly thereafter, but she does not recognize him. You may remember that Mary Magdalene thinks he is the gardener, and then Jesus says, “Mary”. And Mary says, “Rabbouni”, which is Hebrew for teacher. “Rabbi.” So, then Mary Magdalene realizes this is the resurrected Lord. The women go back and tell the disciples. This passage makes it clear that the disciples are in hiding because they are fearful that they may be about to share the same fate as Jesus has experienced, i.e. death, because of their loyalty to Jesus. So, the disciples are in hiding. The women come back, and tell them, “The Lord is risen.” And so Peter and the beloved disciple go to the tomb, and they find the tomb empty just as the women had said. That is the context that leads up to this event.

Let’s focus on this. It is evening by now of that first Easter day. The women went at sunrise, and they come back to Jerusalem as quickly as possible. So since early morning there has been this rumor among the inner circle of Jesus’ followers that he has risen. They can’t understand that. Just put yourself in their shoes. When we hear this story, we have the benefit of two thousand years of hindsight. But imagine being those disciples that first Easter day and hearing this incredible story. I don’t use that word lightly. An incredible story. The one whom they witnessed dying on the cross is now said to be raised from the dead. You can just imagine the mix of excitement and anxiety among the disciples. The mixture of hope, and yet a tendency to disbelieve. How can this be true? They must have been thinking, “It is too good to be true.” And then, Jesus appears to them.

What I want to focus on this morning is really very brief, but I think it is so very important. When Jesus appears to his disciples, he could have taken any number of approaches to them. He could have criticized them for their lack of belief. Jesus told them that he was going to be raised from the dead. They just never could understand that. They never could grasp it. So, he could have criticized them for their disbelief. Or, he could begin immediately looking to the future, “Ok here is what we are going to do.” He could have done that. But in the midst of their confusion, in the midst of their fear, in the midst of the unknown that the disciples were experiencing, the first words Jesus says to them, and I think this is so important for us to remember, are, “Peace be with you.” That was the message of the risen Lord to his disciples. “Peace be with you.” Jesus wants them not to be fearful. He wants them to trust that what they are experiencing is true. “I really am raised from the dead.” So, he says, “Peace be with you.” Just a moment later, again he says, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” To me this is so very important to our understanding of the Gospel message in its wholeness. Jesus is saying to his disciples, “Don’t be fearful. Believe in me. Believe in the Father.” That gives us peace. Jesus wants us in our personal relationship with God to be at peace. This is so important for us to hear, so important for me to hear this, to internalize it. There are things in life we cannot control. We all know that. Everyone in this room knows that there are things in this life that are beyond our control, events in our families, events at the local level, let alone at an international level. So many things are beyond our control but what Jesus is saying here, and what he is saying throughout the Gospels in different contexts is, “God’s will for us is to have peace in our hearts.” Whatever it is that is happening around us, that is beyond our control oftentimes. In our relationship with God, the desire is to be at peace. The peace that comes from knowing that we are loved.

I think so many of us, and I know it is true for me, struggle with truly accepting that we are loved as we are because we all know our inmost thoughts. We all know that we oftentimes drift away from where God would have us be. And yet, the extraordinary message of the Gospel is that we are loved as we are. And when we genuinely confess our sins we are completely forgiven. The weight of those sins is taken away when we repent. And that allows us to be at peace. That doesn’t mean that we are morally perfect. None of us ever will be. But to be at peace with God is to believe that we are loved as we are, that we are forgiven, that the weight of those sins is gone. And that we can rest in the assurance that we are loved.

Jesus could have said anything to these fearful, anxiety-ridden disciples. They could have had a big party once they realized it was true. But, his first words to them were, “Peace be with you.” “Peace be with you.” That is what Jesus brings to us. That is the offering of the Gospel message. Peace in our hearts. Peace, knowing that we are loved. We are forgiven. And we are reconciled with God.