Reflections on the Second Sunday of Easter, April 15th, 2012: “Peace Be With You” (John 20:19-23)

The first disciples were overcome with fear after their Master and Teacher, Jesus, had been crucified. Their fear was evident by virtue of their hiding out. The text in John 20 uses “doors” (plural). They were hiding out and were locked away deep within a building with a bolted door, and with an inner room that was also secure. This was high security in play. They knew the routine. While Christ had suffered a miscarriage of justice and had been falsely accused and unjustly murdered, they were now known as enemies of the state; the disciples of the leader of sedition (again, so went the false accusation). As His disciples they could very well suffer the same fate. The Jewish leaders had gone to Pilate right after Christ had been buried: “Sir, we remember how that imposter said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first (Matthew 27:63-64).” The disciples were held suspect. In other words they were in trouble and the One who could have protected them was now dead…at least that is what they believed.

And that belief is what still plagues us. We Christians of course have a great advantage compared to the first disciples as they were in the scene described above. We have their later witness. Christ was seen, and heard, and touched. Christ is risen! And yet…we behave as if He were still dead. That is what our sin does to us, and it is of course pathetic.

The proof of our unbelief that still confronts us is our living in fear like the first disciples. We hide behind locked doors. Oh, perhaps our doors are different, but they are there. One way that they are there is in our confrontation with sin. We all struggle with sin, because we all have the sinful nature which remains even after conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ; even after becoming a new creation. But there is a vast difference between experiencing the battle between the two natures (our sinful nature and born-again nature), and just plain giving in to the sinful nature without repentance and without faith in the Risen Lord Jesus. We “hide behind our locked doors” living in fear whenever we act as if Christ is not alive to help us in our confrontation with sin. When we say, “Oh what’s the point?! I must live as if my Savior is dead and just give into the temptation!” I am not saying that Christians do not sin…we do…I am not saying that our battle against the flesh isn’t constant…it is…but what I am saying is that to live in fear as if to release our faith in the Living Savior, treating Him as if He were still dead is to be the perfect position to give up the battle, give up the fight, give up repentance, and give in to sin as master. This is not living in faith in the Risen Christ!

We live in fear also when it comes to prayer, worship, service, and witness. If we live in fear, then why pray? The Lord is not really there. Why worship? The Lord is not really there. Why serve others? We may very well run out of resources…after-all the Lord will not be there to replenish them! Why witness? The Lord is not really there. When we give in to fear, we act and live as if Christ was not risen!

What will save us from this sad state? The answer is in our Gospel in John 20. Jesus did not wait for those first disciples, nor does He wait for us, to pull themselves up by their own boot straps! He took and takes the initiative, He enacts grace, and He comes to us in our helpless state. And when He comes He speaks peace, but when He speaks peace He does not do it as if to wish for or hope for the best for us, but He speaks peace in such a fashion as to GIVE peace or IMPART peace — God’s peace — to you and to me! And that peace is directly connected to the showing of His wounds. The wounds that said two things to those original disciples shaking in fear:

1. I WAS dead, but look it really is ME and I am alive! I AM RISEN! I conquered death! And dear Christian, if Jesus conquered DEATH, then what problem confronting you — causing you to fear — is worse than what Jesus has already defeated?!

2. Those wounds are the basis for our peace. Those wounds mean that it is true: YOU ARE FORGIVEN; the blood of Jesus really was shed to FORGIVE you ALL your sins and now as the RISEN LORD, He speaks authoritatively to this truth: You are forgiven your sins…you are right with God. God’s peace really IS yours!

It is time for us in this Easter season especially to cast off fear. The Living Lord is with us. Let us break out of our closed, locked spaces and know that the Risen Christ is leading us to turn from sin, to pray, to worship, to serve, and to witness empowered through His unending and death-defeating LIFE. You may live this way because Christ is Risen and His peace is yours!

In Christ,

Dr. Espinosa

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