The Disciples’ Commission
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again, Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven” John 20:19-23
‘On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews.’ It is Sunday night. Peter and possibly John, along with Mary and the other women have seen the empty tomb that morning. Mary has seen and talked with the risen Jesus soon afterwards and, as Jesus told her to do, has relayed everything that has happened to her to the disciples (20:18). The disciples are clearly afraid of what the Jewish leaders might do to them because they were Jesus’ inner core of followers. Thomas isn’t with them and, of course, Judas Iscariot has taken his own life after betraying Jesus.
‘Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”’ Prior to His death, Jesus had told His disciples they would all be scattered and leave Him alone (16:32). When He was arrested Jesus told the soldiers to let His disciples go (18:8,9), and He was taken alone to the high priest and eventually to Pilate to be condemned to death. The disciples, and especially Peter who had denied Him three times (18:17,18,25-27) would have felt deeply ashamed of the way they abandoned Jesus. So His appearance showed He was not holding their failures against them but was rather offering restored relationship.
The Hebrew term ‘Shalom,’ here translated “Peace,” pictures every blessing the kingdom of God offers, life at its very best because of God’s unparalleled favour. Because Jesus has brought the kingdom of God into new covenant realisation through His death and resurrection, shalom is now a realisable blessing. The peace of reconciliation with God and the imparting of His very life are now realities.
Jesus wanted to reassure His disciples that they were not seeing an illusion or phantom. ‘After he said this, he showed them his hands and side.’ To every generation since, and especially to our hurting generation, Jesus continues to be recognised by His scars. The effect on the disciples might be predictable but is still amazingly moving, ‘The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.’
Jesus repeated His greeting, “Peace be with you!” but this time with a repeated commission for His disciples, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (cf. 17:18). John has often picked up in his gospel the reasons Jesus was sent into the world by the Father: to do His will (6:38,39), to speak His words (3:34), to perform His works (4:34) and to win salvation for all who believe (3:16,17). John has also foreshadowed at various times in his gospel that the disciples were sent to continue Jesus’ words and works: Jesus told His disciples to reap where others had sown (4:35-38), that those who believed in Him would do even greater works than He had done (14:12), that He had chosen and appointed them to go and bear fruit (15:16). Their mission was to “harvest” men and women for the kingdom by their witness to Jesus in word and deed, alongside the ongoing witness of the Holy Spirit.
‘And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”’ The disciples would receive a double enduement of the Spirit, here and on the Day of Pentecost. A plausible explanation is that the disciples here experienced what we know as the new birth, the power of the new life in Christ, and then at Pentecost an empowerment for ministry.
“If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” This is the only time forgiveness of sins is spoken of in John’s gospel, though sins not forgiven are alluded to (8:24; 9:41; 15:22,24; 16:8,9). The non-forgiveness of sins is always related to refusal to believe in Jesus, so forgiveness of sins relates to believing in Him. Jesus statement about sins being forgiven and not forgiven is in the context of the giving of the Holy Spirit, which is in turn related to the disciples being sent into the world as Jesus’ witnesses (20:21,22; cf.15:26,27). It seems then that the way the disciples forgive and don’t forgive sins is by preaching the gospel (the principle way they will witness to Christ) and declaring the effects of believing the gospel (forgiveness) or rejecting it (unforgiveness).
The commission given to the disciples is ours just as much as it was theirs. The Father sent His Son into the world. In like manner the Son sent His disciples into the world. This is not a double mission – first Jesus’ mission and then our mission. It is one mission with God sending forth His Son into the world, initially through the incarnation and then through the church. God’s mission has two phases: the Son in His incarnational life as a man and then the Son in His risen life through the church.
You and I are called to be part of this second phase.
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