Part I: The Appearance to the Disciples (19-23)Following the horrific death of Jesus, the disciples understandably are in hiding, both in stunned grief and abject fear. Jesus appears to them and says, "Peace be with you," his way of saying "Hello, there." "Shalom" was the typical greeting and for John, of course, it is more than that, as we discovered in John 14, "My peace I give to you." He shows them his hands and side, so his glorified body does go through doors or walls, but the marks of the crucifixion remain. Then just for good measure Jesus repeats his greeting. I imagine it with a bit of a chuckle,seeing the reaction and the shaking heads of the disciples. The disciples are ecstatic.
But not only is Jeuss alive, so is the dream. "As the Father as sent me, so send I you." The mission to transform the world by making present God's alternative way of life (the kingdom) now enters the dimension, he talked about in the Upper Room in John 14 & 15. Jesus is the death that is the seed that goes into the ground and dies so that there will be many more seeds. So he breathes on them (reminds me of Genesis 2 in which God breathed into a creature of dirt and made him a living soul) and tells them to "Receive the Holy Spirit" (the word for Spiritin both Hebrew [ruach] and Greek [pneuma] means "wind" or "breath"). Jesus has come to let them know he has beaten death and also, that the anticipated launch of the kingdom movement into hyperspeed is now to begin as Christ is multiplied in and through them. My guess is that the disciples didn't understand that until Pentecost and beyond. But John who writes this is in his older years does understand. I wonder if we do.
In verse 22, we have another reference to the power of forgiveness and the freedom we have to give it or not give it. It's that "binding and loosing" thing I talked about in the raising of Lazarus and found also in the first confession of Christ by Peter in Matthew 16. God has placed the power to set people loose into new life within us.
The Appearance to the Disciples (24-31)Thomas has been spoken of earlier. He was the one who sarcastically said, "Let's go die with him, then" when they went to Bethany before raising Lazarus. He was the one who said to Jesus in John 14, "We don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way?" Thomas is a "show me" kind of disciple. He is not there when Jesus appears. Perhaps he had gone on an errand and sneaked out or perhaps he just needed to be alone and get some air. The giddy enthusiasm of the other disciples seems wishful thinking at best and delusional at worst. He's not buying.
A week later (a week of hearing the disciples say over and over that they saw Jesus alive), Jesus comes through still locked doors. For the third time in just 7 verses, Jesus says, "Peace be with you." Then he meets Thomas on the terms he stated, inviting him to put his fingers in the prints of the nails in his hands and put his hands in the hollow of his side. There comes a time when doubting must give way to belief. But Jesus did meet him in his doubts, a fact in which I take great comfort. Thomas then calls him, "My Lord and my God."
The last words to Thomas (in verse 29) are more about you and me than him. Only a very few got to see and believe, billions would not see and believe. The two verses that follow comprise what some manuscripts have as the ending of John's gospel. It certainly makes a great ending. But there is an epilogue to the gospel of John - the Easter encounter with Peter. Our study in the gospel of John will conclude with that tomorrow.
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