Dear friends in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we may believe and in believing we may obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
The focus of today’s Gospel lesson is usually on the exchange between Thomas and the Risen Christ—and understandably so. History, of course, has saddled that disciple with the unflattering label Doubter. Yet to countless Christians, Thomas is actually something of a hero—
he who dared to demand a demonstration of Jesus’ deity before
he’d bound onto the band wagon and blast on the bugle of belief.
Today, though, I’m going to give old Thomas a break. We’ll leave him to wrestle with his regrettable reputation while you and I focus on vs. 21-22.
Jesus said to the disciples,
Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.
When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
Receive the Holy Spirit.
(John 20:21-22)
Now, before we get to this interesting and intriguing interchange, let’s back up and set the stage. Can someone describe the feelings of Jesus’ followers? Of whom or what are they afraid?
They’re together…but terrified, hiding in a home, huddled behind locked doors: afraid that those who killed Jesus might not yet be done with their work, might already be tracking down the rest of that riotous rabbi’s rabble-rousers, might even be keen on crucifying another cast of criminals.
And to top it all off, their minds are swimming with the confusing stories of Peter and John, who saw the empty tomb—to say nothing of Mary’s claims that she actually spoke with the Risen Lord.
I also wonder: Do you think they might be afraid of having to meet Jesus themselves?
In one short week, they’ve all gone from
– praising him on Palm Sunday as the promised Messiah;
– promising him that they would never betray or deny him; and
– swearing to defend him with their lives…only to discover that they are all betrayers, deniers and cowards.
I think that whom they fear the most could very well be a toss-up between
– Those wanting to spill blood, who may be looking for the disciples;
– And He-whose-blood-was-spilled, who is looking for the disciples.
Theirs is a highly anxious environment—and anxiety tends to mess us up, especially our ability to breathe normally…which leads to a lot of trouble.
Our son, Mark, has told us about his experience of trying to breathe while in a tight maneuver in a jet—pulling g’s, which I think means forces of gravity. Anyway, the power of the turn pulls the blood out of your head (which is never a good thing, but especially not if you’re in control of an aircraft thousands of feet off the ground!).
They wear special suits that compress the muscles in their arms, legs, and torsos to help them control their flow of blood. But there’s one more vital tool to help them stay conscious: they have to control their breathing.
And the way Mark described it reminded us a lot of the way that a pregnant mother needs to focus her breathing to get through the stress and pain of childbirth.
Now, I’ve never had to worry about pulling g’s OR giving birth…the closest I’ve gotten to the former is a ride at the county fair, and to the latter is being my wife’s breathing coach.
Now I did a pretty good job for Carolyn during her long labor with Mark. I took it seriously, I breathed with her, I held her up when she needed me close, And I stayed far away when she decided that I should be feeling some of the pain that she was going through.
During one of her later contractions, I was watching the monitor, helping her breathe, then telling her when the pain had peaked and was starting to ease off…except one time it didn’t—it just dipped a little, then shot back up a whole lot worse… When she could finally lie back and breathe again, she looked me in the eye and said, I will tell you when the pain gets easier!
Scuba divers, weight lifters, marathon runners—all will affirm that breathing is key… In fact, breathing is key for any and every anxious situation.
Once when I was going through a rough time, I met with a counselor. After a couple of sessions, she pointed out to me something that I’d never noticed. Whenever I had to think about something that bothered me, I tended to hold my breath. She said, “if you don’t do anything else but continue to breathe while you think, you’ll find that you have more energy and a clearer thinking process.”
So back to our Gospel story. Why do you suppose we’re told that Jesus breathes on his followers?
Well, breathing on them proves that he’s neither a ghost nor a zombie. And at the same time, breathing on his lost, anxious, fear-filled followers who, for all practical purposes, are dead to the world, Jesus fills them spiritually with life, love, and grace. Hm, the breath of life—does that sound familiar?
In Genesis 2, we just heard the account of how God forms a body from dirt that is dead to the world, then breathes into it…and human life is born.
As you may know, the Hebrew word for breath, nephesh, can also mean spirit, and it can also mean wind. In the Genesis creation story,
the wind of God is moving over the waters (1:2);
God breathes out to speak, and creation happens; (chapter 1);
And here God breathes into that lump of clay (2:7) to make us.
So now the question needs to be asked—how does all this help us in our daily struggles with anxiety and anger, bad dreams and bad feelings, heartache and health problems?
Well, here’s the connection for me. Jesus promises to be with us always. And I like to think that the Lord’s presence with us is
as enveloping as the very air we breathe
(in…and out…keeping us alive, keeping us centered, keeping us secure);
as persistent as the winds that move the weather across the planet
(and God’s inspiration moves us to serve and love);
as pervasive as God’s Holy Spirit who, says the Apostle Paul in Romans 8,
indeed intercedes for us with sighs…too deep for words…
That’s the promise that Jesus bestows on the disciples in our Gospel. It is the very same promise that Jesus bestows on you and on me, all the days of our lives. So breathe in, breathe out, give thanks to God. Amen.
Pastor Scott Fuller