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Feasting on the Word © 2011 Westminster John Knox Press Day of Pentecost John 20:19–23 19When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Theological Perspective Pastoral Perspective Today’s Gospel lection is a postresurrection Behind the barricaded wooden door, the room was passage from the Gospel of John that represents the silent as a tomb. The disciples huddled together in Johannine community’s alternative understanding mute misery, no one daring to speak aloud of Mary’s of the Lukan description of the Pentecost wild account of a Jesus-sighting earlier that day. The commissioning of the church and the first gift of very idea of it spooked them down to their bones, the Spirit. The homiletical location of this lection, because anxiety over persecution by the religious Pentecost Sunday, suggests theological foci on authorities (v. 19) paled in comparison to something mission, commission, and the Holy Spirit, but this they feared even more: Jesus, back from the dead pericope also rewards reflection on the risen Christ with a score to settle. If he caught up with them, and on the Christology of the Johannine community. what would Jesus do? Shame draped over the room Previously in John 20, the fast-running Peter like a shroud. But then, suddenly into this miasma and the Beloved Disciple have gone to confirm that a presence of electrifying substance materialized in Jesus’ tomb is empty, and Mary Magdalene has their midst. Jesus! Fear ratcheted up to pure terror; encountered the risen Jesus in the garden. As we but when Christ spoke, their roiling thoughts of enter this lection, the disciples are gathered together doom were suddenly stilled. His voice was richly later on that first Easter Sunday behind locked lyrical, like bells pealing on a hillside. “Peace be doors when Jesus appears to them, proclaiming—or with you,” he said, his face radiating an irrefutable, invoking—shalom, and showing them his body, irrepressible . love. unmistakably scarred by the manner of his death, It is a stunning scene. Despite its familiarity but now resurrected. Jesus then again proclaims and joyful tone, a close consideration of this text shalom, a repetition that begins to suggest an can trigger some discomfiting questions. Do the eschatological dimension of fulfillment, and disciples deserve this surprising reception from commissions the gathered disciples to continue the Christ? Is it fair that they get off without any kind of work he has begun, the Father’s work. Finally, he reproach, despite the fact that only one among them breathes on the gathered followers and bids them joined the women in bearing witness to the horror receive the Holy Spirit, which grants them the power at the foot of the cross? Is there no retribution for to forgive. utter abandonment of the Messiah? What kind of Day of Pentecost Feasting on the Word © 2011 Westminster John Knox Press John 20:19–23 Exegetical Perspective Homiletical Perspective What a surprise Jesus’ disciples experienced when The first decision a preacher must make is whether they saw him once again, yet not fully without to preach about one or more of the appointed anticipation. John 20:19–23 is the second of several lessons or to preach more generally about Pentecost, postresurrection accounts where Jesus appears to the festival. The story of the pouring out of the Holy his followers. This narrative, which can be viewed Spirit, as told by John, offers a number of homiletic as the pneumatological climax to John’s Gospel, themes. can be divided into two units: verses 19–20, the The narrative opens with the renewal of creation, appearance of the risen Jesus, and verses 21–23, the which begins with the evening of a new day, the first commissioning of the disciples by the risen Jesus. day of the week. So the first theme available to a In the first part of the narrative, verse 19 preacher is that of beginnings and new beginnings. establishes the setting for the disciples’ surprise Just as the Holy Spirit moved over the waters in the event. The time is evening of the first day of the beginning of creation, so the Holy Spirit is poured week, the same day when Jesus had appeared to out as the very breath of God in the beginning of a Mary Magdalene early in the morning when it new mighty and creative act of God. The homilist was still dark outside (John 20:1). The narrative can make much of what is involved in any creative implies that Mary has announced to Jesus’ disciples act, the relationship between a work of art and those that he is risen (vv. 17–18). The same time frame who experience it. The creative act both demands provides continuity between Jesus’ appearance to and reveals something of the creator, intended or Mary Magdalene (vv. 1–18) and his appearance to not. Those who experience a work of art bring to it the disciples (vv. 19–23). This first day of the week all kinds of interpretation, imposition of meaning, would have been Saturday evening after the close and, frequently, distorted vision. The gift of the of the Sabbath, around 6:00 p.m., when the Jews Holy Spirit both initiates the work of the renewal who normally observed the Sabbath would meet in of creation and guides and shapes its interpretation homes to break bread (Acts 2:46), thus prolonging among those who respond. the Sabbath. The doors to the house where the A second homiletic emphasis can be found disciples have gathered are locked because, according in consideration of the disciples’ meeting in a to the evangelist, the disciples feared “the Jews,” house with locked doors “for fear of the Jews.” Day of Pentecost Feasting on the Word © 2011 Westminster John Knox Press John 20:19–23 Theological Perspective Pastoral Perspective Jesus delivers a clear message to the disciples: He religion throws behavioral accountability out the wants them to continue his own mission—a mission window? he himself was given by the Father. But what exactly Given the many times the disciples were rebuked is the mission upon which he sends them? Unlike over the years, it is indeed interesting to note Jesus’ the Synoptics, the Gospel of John centers less on total lack of reproach in this high-stakes reunion. ethical teaching and more on teaching the person Jesus seems impatient to get on with things, to of Jesus as witness to God’s power and presence. push forward into the future. He issues traveling Unlike, for example, the Great Commission (Matt. instructions: “As the Father has sent me, so I 28:18–20), which commands the disciples to go send you” (v. 21). What are the disciples being into the world, teaching Jesus’ message of the sent to do? Preach great sermons? Create vibrant kingdom and making new disciples, the Johannine church programming? Actually, Jesus offers a commission is not centered on ethical teaching but very particular foundational mandate instead: on love and life in the faithful community as fidelity “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven to Christ. them; if you retain the sins of any, they are The Johannine community understood this retained” (v. 23). “new commandment” Jesus gives (John 13:34–35) This little grenade of a sentence is perhaps the to be the commandment to love each other as Jesus most evocative of the text. Although long used as had loved them. In John’s Gospel, the practice of a foundation for the establishment of the priestly love, rather than adherence to ethical teachings, power of absolution (see also Matt. 16:19), today’s will identify followers of Jesus to each other and preacher might explore this verse more expansively. to the world. Thus, in this pericope it might be Aside from hermeneutical questions regarding said that Jesus first commissions his disciples the verse’s odd grammatical structure, one might to continue his mission of divine love and then also wonder about theology. If Jesus is conferring gives them the spiritual power to carry out that the power of pardoning sin to his followers, mission in community. In a symbolic reenactment does this imply that an intentional harboring of of the priestly creation myth in Genesis, Jesus unforgiveness is acceptable? It seems contradictory breathes (emphysaoµ, in its one use in the Christian for Jesus to appoint humans to judge others, since Testament) on the disciples and gives them the Spirit Christ’s policy on forgiveness was so crystal clear. (pneuma, also translatable as “breath” or “wind”) in Forgiveness? Yes, all the time. order that members of the community may have the Many commentators suggest that verse 23 is more ability to forgive each other. appropriately interpreted as the risen Christ’s urging This is the one reference to forgiveness in the his disciples foremost to teach and model shalom, Gospel of John, and coming here near the end of ushering in a breathtaking new vision of community the Gospel and following the resurrection, it takes built upon mutual forgiveness.