URC Daily Devotion for 5-08-2025
St John 20: 19 – 23
When 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.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘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.’
Reflection
In the chaos and uncertainty of the world, we might turn to these words in the gospel of John for the peace that they bring. It was peace the disciples needed as they hid in fear of the Jewish Authorities. It was peace the disciples needed amid their grief. And it was peace that was found and received when Jesus stood among them and breathed the life of the Spirit into them.
Yet, how at peace do you think the disciples would have felt when they heard, “as the Father has sent me, so I send you,” “… if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”?
With how this discourse with the disciples is committed to the page, one might imagine an uncomfortable scene when Jesus suggested the disciples should go and do what God the Father had sent him to do. Who among them/us would willingly sacrifice oneself as Jesus did? But then when Jesus appeared to offer them the power of judgement, maybe the mood changed!
What?!? That cannot be right? All authority, Jesus teaches us and shows us, belongs to God. Therefore, what on earth is going on? What was Jesus sending the disciples and us to do?
This is one of those occasions when our understanding of these final words is not helped by how the Greek has been translated. In trying to make sense of the words as a verse, the actual meaning has become a little lost. An alternative translation of the final words is “whoever you hold fast, they have been held fast.” There is no power of judgement, only the forging of a community in Jesus. Therefore, in the context of the gospel of John, we are reminded about trusting in Jesus’s way, and what Jesus sent us to do was to show people that way. For that we must hold fast to God, and if we do, God will hold fast to us!
Prayer
Jesus, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world
and bring us peace.
Jesus, Lamb of God,
you send us enveloped by the Spirit
to show others your way.
Jesus, Lamb of God,
you hold us in community with you
as we hold others in community with us.
Jesus, Lamb of God,
be the centre
and give the world peace. Amen