SERMON | John 20:19-23 | PENTECOST - "He Breathed On Them" by Rev. Joseph Sanford at Sellersburg United Methodist Church in Sellersburg, Indiana

SERMON | John 20:19-23 | PENTECOST - "He Breathed On Them" by Rev. Joseph Sanford at Sellersburg United Methodist Church in Sellersburg, Indiana

This is the arrival of the Holy Spirit in John.

At first hearing we might think, “Well, that’s boring.”

“No sound? No fire? No speaking in foreign languages? No Peter giving a testimony that leads to 3,000 people believing in the risen Savior?”

Why bother, right?

Jesus breathed on them.

—a very different effect in our post-COVID world!

Remember, this is the first time that all of the disciples who aren’t Mary have seen Jesus alive and breathing once more.

What had they been thinking about since Jesus was arrested and killed?

How they had run?

How they had denied?

How they had not stood up for him?

How some of the Jewish council were searching for them?

How they ached to not have Jesus with them?

How much it hurt to not hear his voice?

How guilty they felt?

How they had no idea what to do next since the one they were following were no 

longer there to lead them?

How they hoped those locked doors would protect them?

And then Jesus is there…seemingly out of nowhere.

In the moment they first see him, he offers them peace: “Peace be with you.”

— if they had been true Methodists, they would have responded, “And also with you.”

Then he shows them his hands and side so they might come to believe.

They do and suddenly their fear dissipates AND joy overcomes them.

Jesus said again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

Here is the key to what it all means.

One way we can understand this is to think back to the book which the author we call  John put firmly into our frame of mind with the opening words of the Gospel account.

Genesis.

“In the beginning…” and now, “He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”

 

The very first human beings received breath from God—the breath of life.

 

breath/spirit/wind are all the same word in both Hebrew and Greek.

 

Where the first humans received divine breath, so now the disciples do.

Where the presence of God came to walk among the first humans in the evening,  they heard the sound of the evening breeze.

The presence of God coupled with their choice to serve themselves as gods in idolatry led them to be in great fear and go into hiding…just like the disciples are in this scene.

Where sin, the symptom of the deeper problem of idolatry, had held the world captive from the life which God had envisioned for all people from all places…NOW Jesus breathes new life into the disciples after having dealt with the power of sin and death  on the cross.

New Creation had burst forth from that garden tomb — John says once again, “…the first day of the week” we are reminded that a new week and new creation had begun.

This new life and creative power is then given to the disciples through Jesus’ breath of life.

Then he tells them what it means: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

God is bringing forgiveness and new life to the whole world.

It was ALWAYS meant and described as coming through Israel from God to the world.

They were God’s elected people to be the vessel through which the great promise was fulfilled…and it had happened in this moment!

Now the disciples, filled with the new divine breath of the new creation where forgiveness