Second Sunday of Easter
Second Sunday of Easter
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Michael Moffitt April 27th, 2025
John 20: 19-31 “They Thought They Knew All About Him”
Every Thursday afternoon I have the joy of meeting with 3 other Anglican priests in a Zoom call. This was started by the American Anglican Council during the initial phase of Covid. The idea was to have a format where Anglican Clergy could get together on a regular basis to exhort and encourage one another. We were one of the original groups to be formed and began a group with 8 but we found that to be to many. So we split into 2 separate groups of four. We just celebrated five years together and it’s been a wonderful opportunity for spiritual growth and accountability. I’ve never been with them in person but only on Zoom, and yet I love them dearly as brothers in Christ. One of our members is from Bellingham, Washington, another is from Modesto, California, and one lives and ministers in Versailles, Kentucky. The age range is from 73 down to 35. For five years we have been studying a curriculum entitled “Growing Into Jesus’ Life” by Geoff Chapman. The primary focus of the study is to grow into a deeper understanding of who Jesus is and how we are to live before him. The curriculum continues to grow because the author continues to grow and write. Every once in a while when he finishes another section he sends it to us for approval. After we’re through with it he joins us on Zoom to critique the lessons. If approved he sends it to all the other Covenant Care Groups to add them to their study guides.
This past Thursday we continued our fourth week on just one weekly lesson on Jesus as creator. One of the benefits of this study is that it requires that we learn to think outside of the obvious. When we consider Jesus as creator, it forces us to think of creation not limited to the earth, even so that in itself is extraordinary. We’re looking to see into the depths of the person of the Son of God revealed to us through God’s word.
Think of Colossians 1:15-20, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
One of God’s great blessings to us is that Jesus condescended to come down to earth, as one of us, so that He could reveal the amazing, inconceivable love of the Father for us. As amazing and mind blowing as this is it boggles the mind when we consider who Jesus was, is, and has always been throughout eternity. For me that is more surprising than anything else in this world. The Son of God, the agent that the Father used to create all things, humbled himself, as Philippians 2:8 reminds us, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” That is Jesus, the Son of God, creator of all things, far more remarkable, and glorious than what is normally presented to us. The mistake that men made was considering Him only in His humanity more than in His divinity. This Savior, Jesus Christ loves us in the most wonderful and complete way. The benefits for those who embrace Him as Savior and Lord are both immediate and eternal. WOW!
Last week we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. We relived the story from Luke 24:1-12 of the first Easter morning when many of the women who followed Him went to the tomb to finish the burial ritual on Jesus’ body. The process that was started by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus on Good Friday but couldn’t be completed because the Sabbath day was beginning. The women arrive to find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty.
Instead they find two men in dazzling apparel, taken to be angels, who said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”
Suddenly, they did remember and ran back to tell the eleven disciples what they had found and what the angels told them. The disciples didn’t believe them; however Peter ran back to the open and empty tomb, and in verse twelve, “and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.”
So basically the disciples were in a dark place spiritually and emotionally. They were in hiding after Jesus was crucified out of fear for their own safety. I suspect that they wanted to be secluded so that they had time to think and come up with an exit strategy. They had been so confident that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, now everything they believed about Him was apparently false. But how could they explain the miraculous things that Jesus did, and what about when He taught the crowds, and it was like no other teaching they had ever heard? Everyone would always marvel and claim that Jesus taught as one who had authority. What about the people who were possessed by demons who fled at the command of Jesus. What about when they had been sent out by Jesus with the authority of His name and were able to heal the sick and even the demons submitted to them in Jesus’ name. Could they still do that or would the demonic forces laugh at them now.
So, I can imagine their thoughts were a jumbled mess. It seemed that basically this Jesus who was their Rabbi, their Master who claimed to be the Son of God was not who He claimed to be. It just didn’t add up and now they were in a real jam and felt lost and disillusioned.
Let’s look again at John 20:19–21,
“On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
Verse 19 could easily have read, “and later that same day” because this is the evening of the same day that it was discovered that Jesus’ body was not in the tomb.
Earlier in John 20:16-18 John writes that the only one who had seen and spoken with the resurrected Lord was Mary Magdalene. It is such a touching scene when Mary speaks to a man that she assumes is the gardener and asks him where the body of her Lord has been placed. Listen to John 20:15-16, “Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).” I love the tenderness and compassion that Jesus showed to Mary Magdalene in that moment. He sees her great pain and does something that only Jesus could do, He reveals Himself and in that moment everything was made right again and her joy returns. Jesus then sends her back with a message for the disciples in verses 17-18, “Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.”
I love John’s account here because it’s the first clue that because Jesus is the resurrected Lord everything has changed. Let me explain. In our reading this morning from John 20:19-31 we saw that Jesus invites Thomas to touch Him verifying that the holes in His hands and the wound in His side was a verification that He was indeed their Lord and Master. So why did Jesus instruct Mary to not cling to Him? I believe that Jesus wanted Mary to understand that He was not merely an earthly being recovered from an illness or a sound beating, but she needed to know that He was truly resurrected from the dead as he had foretold them, and the Scriptures foretold concerning the Messiah. This was the prelude to His ascension back to the Father, His Father, and their Father. Jesus was making a distinction between His unique Sonship and the redemptive, adoptive sonship of the disciples. This is why He had come at the command of His Father, and they needed to understand that things were not only different but gloriously so. In the meantime Mary is given a commission to go and tell the disciples that He was alive, the very thing that He will instruct the disciples to do.
John doesn’t share with the reader the reaction of the disciples when Mary returned with the explosive news that Jesus was alive and shared with them His message. All we know is that they locked themselves in because they were afraid of the Jewish religious leaders arresting and punishing them because they had been Jesus’ disciples. They still hadn’t picked up on the fact that everything that happened to Jesus, he had told them it would. God’s redemptive plan was going to be carried out. They need not worry. Sound familiar? Feel familiar?
Even though the doors were locked Jesus appears in the room and says, Peace be with you” which was a common greeting both then and now in that part of the world. This was another indication that something was very different. There is no indication that Jesus had ever before walked through walls. In his farewell discourse in the Upper Room the night of His betrayal Jesus had said the same thing to them in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
This time Jesus was going to lead them into the kind of peace that went beyond the sentiment of a greeting but would be a part of who they were in Christ.
Now the Prince of Peace is standing before them and the greeting “Peace be with you” should be seen and understood by the “It is finished” on the cross. Because now through his finished work there is peace with God for those who embrace him by faith. Once he said this he showed them his nail scarred hands and the wound on his side and then suddenly they start to get it and are glad.
I must confess that for me something seems to be lost in the translation, “the disciples when they saw the Lord were glad”. The word for “glad” in Greek is “Chairo” and it can be translated rejoice; to be full of joy; or from the Message, they were awestruck. Think about their misery and hopelessness just moments before Jesus appeared. I guarantee that they were stunned, blown away, beside themselves with a mixture of joy and maybe a little apprehension.
On Thursday night we went out to dinner with some dear friends. When we returned to their home I could see their little dog just celebrating the fact that they had finally returned home. There was an abundance of tail wagging, bodily shaking, and probably yips of Joy. The amazing thing about dogs is that when the beloved owner leaves they’re sad. It’s as if they assume that this time they aren’t coming back, even though they always do.
It reminds me of when Jesus died and was buried in the tomb, his disciples assumed that Jesus was forever gone, and their sorrow was complete. But when he returned I don’t think the phrase “and they were glad” is quite descriptive enough. I don’t imagine they were wagging their tails and jumping around but I know that their hearts soared, and their joy was intense. I love that when Jesus entered the room the first thing he said was, “Peace be with you.” I can imagine that they were racked with guilt because they had abandoned him, and Peter had denied that he even knew Jesus 3 times.
Jesus told them earlier that they would be glad when he returned in John 16:22, “So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” Now for the second time Jesus says to them in verse 21, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
Essentially Jesus is doing the same thing that he did with Mary Magdalene, he is giving them his commission. He gives them his peace to let them know that he hasn’t come to chastise them for running away at his arrest but also they were going to need his peace to do the work that the Father was sending them to accomplish. Over forty times in the Gospel Jesus is said to have been sent by God and now this will become the characteristic of his disciples as well. Jesus had promised them that he would send them the Holy Spirit (14:16; 15:26; 16:7) and now he is also sending them out to continue the work that he had begun.
The Father had sent the Son, which meant that in the words, works and person of Jesus, men were confronted not just by a Jewish rabbi but by God himself. It would then be true that in the apostolic mission of the church, the world is not confronted by a mere human institution, but by Jesus the Son of God. In the same way that Jesus in his humanity was totally dependent on and obedient to the Father, the church would need to follow the same path as Jesus and therefore would need the same power and glory to accomplish all that he was sending them to do.
The Gospel of John clearly teaches the divinity of Jesus, but it is always in the context of Jesus obediently following the voice of his Father and only doing what he saw the Father doing. At the beginning of his ministry Jesus humbly submits to John the Baptist’ baptism of repentance and the Father sends the Holy Spirit upon him and expresses his own delight in the Son. Jesus knew that if the community that he had established was to function in obedience to all that he would ask of them, they too would need the power and authority of the Holy Spirit. At the resurrection Jesus had been glorified so now the Spirit could be given. Now the life that Jesus had shared in union with the Father is shared with the disciples. Jesus suddenly appearing in the room where they were hiding was not merely him proving that he was alive but was a reunion with him and the disciples, who would now be united to him as well. Look at verses 22–23,
“And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld”.
Jesus imparting the Holy Spirit by breathing on the disciples was a major event in the Gospels, but the question arises about how to see this as it relates to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The breathing of the Spirit by Jesus is definitely a powerful event, but it does not fulfill the promises that he made earlier in the Gospel. Jesus had promised that the Spirit would be sent to the disciples after he returned to the Father and this would be the Helper, Counselor and the one who would bear witness of Jesus.
What John is describing is Jesus commissioning or ordaining the disciples for mission but not just for them but for the whole world. The actual beginning of the call on their lives will begin at Pentecost where the outpouring of the Holy Spirit changes the disciples completely and they are empowered to fulfill the calling to go into the whole world in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. In the breathing of the Spirit upon the disciples Jesus is preparing them for ministry.
Remember that Thomas is not present when the Spirit is given, yet he is the one who confesses Jesus as Lord, which is a confession that is the work of the Spirit. This would suggest that the breathing out of the Spirit was not simply directed to those within the room but was the Holy Spirit being released into the world in a new way that begins to bring about new life where faith is found.
The disciples enter into a new phase in their life with God, but it is not yet the time where the Holy Spirit will be unleashed in power upon them in a way that transforms them into the witnesses that reflect the image and power of Christ to the world. This was to happen at Pentecost. In the meantime Jesus is commissioning them to be his witnesses. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
The disciples were to bear witness to Jesus by being the presence of Christ through the Spirit. In this way they would be the prophets and teachers who confront the world about their rejection of God and his word, just as Jesus had done. As the disciples faithfully bore witness to the Lordship of Jesus both in word and through the examples of their lives and love for each other, the world would be forced to choose for or against Jesus, just as they were during his ministry.
Those who repent and believe in Jesus could be assured of forgiveness and those who refuse to surrender to the Lordship of Christ would be assured that their sins are not forgiven. This is the consequence of rejecting the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world. The ancient church understood this to be demonstrated through the teaching of baptism as the sacramental sign of forgiveness of sin and the exercise of church discipline on those who continued in their flagrant sins while refusing to repent and turn back to obedience to God in Christ.
Unfortunately most in the modern church have lost the will to reveal this kind of love for God’s word. It’s the power of the Word of God and the revelation of the Holy Spirit that brings new life to those who have previously been unable to hear, to see, or to understand the glorious gift that Jesus Christ made possible through His death and resurrection. The consequences are that many within the institution of the church continue to live without regard for the word of God and therefore have no real witness to how Jesus Christ has set them free from sin and death. They consider themselves forgiven for their sins while continuing to mock God through disobedience to his word. The true act of God’s love is to confront those who feel such comfort and call them to faith lest they die in their sins.
John’s Gospel was the last gospel to be written, and it was written primarily to answer the many heresies being introduced to the early churches, especially concerning the divinity of Christ. From the beginning John proclaims Jesus as the living Word through whom all things were created. From the time of the disciples first encountering Jesus to the time of His death, burial, and resurrection they had grown in their understanding of who Jesus really was. However, by the time John wrote his gospel 40-50 years had gone by and his understanding of the reality of who Jesus was, is, and is to come had grown immeasurably.
In closing let me return to what I told you earlier about the Covenant Care Group that I’ve been a part of for 5 years. We have grown in our faith and understanding of who Jesus is and has always been. By deepening our understanding of the reality of who He is, we have also grown in our love for Him. Following Jesus according to His word is our desire, not because we don’t want to face the judgment of God, but we want to be with Him forever. Finally let’s read John 20:30-31, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” Let’s pray.
