Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 20:19
Then the same day at evening, being the first [day] of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace [be] unto you.
19 23. The Manifestation to the Ten and others
19. Then the same day, &c.] Rather, When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week. Note the great precision of the expression. ‘That day,’ that memorable day, the ‘day of days.’
Oh! day of days! shall hearts set free
No minstrel rapture find for thee?
Thou art the Sun of other days,
They shine by giving back thy rays.
Keble, Christian Year, Easter Day.
Comp. Joh 1:39, Joh 5:9, Joh 11:49, Joh 18:13, where ‘that’ has a similar meaning. Evidently the hour is late; the disciples have returned from Emmaus (Luk 24:23), and it was evening when they left Emmaus. At least it must be long after sunset, when the second day of the week, according to the Jewish reckoning, would begin. And S. John speaks of it as still part of the first day. This is a point in favour of S. John’s using the modern method in counting the hours: it has a special bearing on the explanation of ‘the seventh hour’ in Joh 4:52. See notes there and on Joh 19:14.
when the doors were shut ] This is mentioned both here and Joh 20:26 to shew that the appearance was miraculous. After the Resurrection Christ’s human form, though still real and corporeal, is not subject to the ordinary conditions of material bodies. Before the Resurrection He was visible, unless He willed it otherwise; after the Resurrection it would seem that He was invisible, unless He willed it otherwise. Comp. Luk 24:31.
where the disciples were ] The best authorities all omit ‘assembled.’ S. Luke says more definitely, ‘the eleven and they that were with them’ (Luk 24:33); ‘the eleven’ meaning the Apostolic company, although one was absent. It was natural that the small community of believers should be gathered together, not merely for mutual protection and comfort, but to discuss the reported appearances to the women and to S. Peter.
for fear of the Jews ] Literally, because of the (prevailing) fear of the Jews (comp. Joh 7:13). It was not certain that the Sanhedrin would rest content with having put Jesus to death; all the less so as rumours of His being alive again were spreading.
came Jesus ] It is futile to discuss how; that the doors were miraculously opened, as in S. Peter’s release from prison, is neither stated nor implied.
Peace be unto you ] The ordinary greeting intensified. His last word to them in their sorrow before His Passion (Joh 16:33), His first word to them in their terror (Luk 24:37) at His return, is ‘Peace.’ Possibly the place was the same, the large upper room where they had last been all together.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The same day at evening – On the first day of the week, the day of the resurrection of Christ.
When the doors were shut – This does not mean that the doors were fastened, though that might have been the case, but only that they were closed. Jesus had been taken from them, and it was natural that they should apprehend that the Jews would next attempt to wreak their vengeance on his followers. Hence, they met in the evening, and with closed doors, lest the Jews should bring against them the same charge of sedition that they had against the Lord Jesus. It is not certainly said what was the object of their assembling, but it is not unreasonable to suppose that it was to talk over the events which had just occurred, to deliberate about their condition, and to engage in acts of worship. Their minds were doubtless much agitated. They had seen their Master taken away and put to death; but a part of their number also had affirmed that they had seen him alive. In this state of things they naturally came together in a time and place of safety. It was not uncommon for the early Christians to hold their meetings for worship in the night. In times of persecution they were forbidden to assemble during the day, and hence, they were compelled to meet in the night. Pliny the younger, writing to Trajan, the Roman emperor, and giving an account of Christians, says that they were accustomed to meet together on a stated day before it was light, and sing among themselves alternately a hymn to Christ as God. True Christians will love to meet together for worship. Nothing will prevent this; and one of the evidences of piety is a desire to assemble to hear the Word of God, and to offer to him prayer and praise. It is worthy of remark that this is the first assembly that was convened for worship on the Lords Day, and in that assembly Jesus was present. Since that time, the day has been observed in the church as the Christian Sabbath, particularly to commemorate the resurrection of Christ.
Came Jesus … – There is no evidence that he came into their assembly in any miraculous manner. For anything that appears to the contrary, Jesus entered in the usual way and manner, though his sudden appearance alarmed them.
Peace be unto you – The sudden manner of his appearance, and the fact that most of them had not before seen him since his resurrection, tended to alarm them. Hence, he addressed them in the usual form of salutation to allay their fears, and to assure them that it was their own Saviour and Friend.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 20:19-23
Then the same day at evening
The first Lords Day evening
I.
THE ANXIOUS COMPANY. The twelve, with the exception of Judas and Thomas, were gathered and kept together by a community of interest in Christ. They betook themselves to retirement from lack of sympathy from without, and from fear of the Jews. There was excitement among them by reports of the Resurrection.
II. THE DIVINE VISITOR. His appearance was
1. Miraculous.
2. Unexpected.
3. Welcome. His greeting touched the chords of memory.
4. Indubitable. He showed them His hands!
III. THE SUDDEN JOY (Joh 20:20).
1. Their suspense was at an end
2. Their fears dispelled.
3. Their dim hopes realized.
4. Their belief in His predictions established.
5. Their pleasure in His society renewed.
6. Their confidence in His Divine mission revived.
IV. THE SACRED COMMISSION. Christ
1. More fully repeated His former language.
2. Instructed them to devote their life to the declaration of Gods mind, and the publication of a gospel of pardon for guilty men.
3. Added dignity to their duty in comparing it to His own mission.
4. Imparted the necessary qualifications.
Conclusion: It is Christs presence that hallows every Lords Day evening.
1. Giving Spiritual power to the preacher.
2. Imparting grace and blessing to the faithful hearer.
(Prof. J. R. Thomson.)
Jesus meeting His disciples after the Resurrection:
Note here
1. The reality of Christs sufferings, death, and resurrection.
2. The proof and attestation of His love.
3. The assurance that He is not ashamed of His humiliation and sufferings on our behalf.
4. The pledge of our resurrection.
5. The affecting circumstances of the history.
I. THE EVENT ITSELF was memorable. Never was such known in the history of man. Jesus came back in fulfilment of His own prophecy, as an evidence of the acceptance of His atonement, as the conqueror of sin and death.
II. THE TIME was memorable. The first day of the week, and the sun must not go down on that day before the Sun of Righteousness shines on the spirits of His dejected people. Thus our Lord puts peculiar honour on the day, and authorized the observance of it by His own example which has all the force of law. But the evening is specified. Why not the morning? Because they did not seek Him. The approach of Christ is often at our evening time–when the sun of hope and happiness is low and our comforters are few; when we least expect the aids of His providence, and are ready to say, Is His mercy clean gone for ever? So in the time of His disciples despair He appeared.
III. THE PLACE was memorable. Probably the scene of the Last Supper; to them like Bethel to Jacob, or the fig-tree to Nathanael. We are all affected by localities in which great blessings or deliverances have been experienced.
IV. THEIR PRIVILEGES were memorable.
1. Personal revelation of Christ.
2. Peace.
3. Spiritual power. (T. H. Day.)
The appearance to the second company
I. THE MEMBERS of the second company. It has been almost invariably assumed from 1Co 15:5 that they were apostles only. But the twelve is only a collective term. Just as the Roman magistrates, called the decemviri, were so called even though there might be vacancies in the body, so this term was applied to the apostles, though Judas was not counted, and Thomas was an absentee. And there is evidence to prove that the apostles did not alone consitute the assembly. Luke speaks of the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them; and it is also inevitable from the circumstances. If the brave women had come, expecting a calm retreat and a cordial welcome, would it be said to them from within, There is danger in the air; we have shut the door for fear of the Jews; besides, no one can join this company but apostles? If James and Joses, Simon and Judas, the brothers of our Lord, had knocked at the door, would it have been said to them, No admission for any but apostles? If Mark or Luke had whispered the password at the gate, would the answer have been, This is a meeting of apostles only? Depend upon it, this company was not a row of ecclesiastical dignitaries, each with a nimbus round his head, and the embroidered symbols of his office on his shoulders; it was only a family, met at the time of a great sorrow, and in the common family room. There was no division between clerical and lay; no upper and lower apartments–one for apostles, one for ordinary disciples.
II. THE FAST-CLOSED DOORS. Most likely this was at the house of John, the beloved disciple–that to which he had conveyed Mary. And we may assume that it was built in a style common to dwellings occupied by persons in fair circumstances. There would be a court open to the sky; and in the four sides of this court there would be rooms opening on to it. In this court the company would be assembled; and as its door was fastened by a great wooden key or iron bar, what did they fear? The bursting in of constables to arrest them on the lying charge of stealing a body out of its grave? They knew that such a charge had been lodged against them only that very day Did they fear the mob? It was the way of the Jews thus to storm the house of one who was unpopular (Act 17:5); and they could now set no limit to the possibilities of their wicked madness. Perhaps they had no distinct plan of defence, and no particular thought of saving their lives; but mainly out of half-instinctive impulse, they barred the court gates.
III. THE GREETING OF THE MASTER. His greeting to the first company had been, Rejoice! To the second, Peace! As Chrysostom says, To the women He proclaims joy; because they were plunged in grief. With a suitable interchange, therefore, He gives peace to the men, on account of their strife. The first was a small detachment of the general society, and consisted of women only. The second was the general society itself, including all the men. The women had been true, and were only conscious of grief; the men had not been true, and, besides their grief, were conscious of deep agitation and burning shame. This message was meant for our one, whole family, not for apostles alone. When we are in trouble, none of us hesitate to take the comfort that breathes in the fourteenth and following chapters of this Gospel. While you read Christs language after His resurrection, and compare it with those discourses, you say what He says now is but the continuation of what He said then. He said, My peace I leave with you; and now, having made peace by the blood of the Cross, He comes in His own person to pay the legacy! When we see any one wearing the badge of the Cross, yet seeming not to know the secret of the peace that cost Christ the cross to obtain, how can this be accounted for, unless these Christians think that the peace is only figurative; or that they must be better Christians before they can presume to take it? We might say to such, You are indeed no better Christians than the men who once cowered behind the shut gates of a certain courtyard in old Jerusalem. Let each crying, God be merciful to me a sinner, go and take this peace from the hand of the dear Christ.
IV. THE RESURRECTION BODY OF OUR LORD.
1. It was not an ordinary body, liable to ordinary laws; still, it was a body, perhaps, like that in which the Saviour had walked with Adam in Paradise, wrestled with Jacob, or reclined under the oak at Mamre. No stone wall could shut it in: no iron bar could keep it out; no law of gravitation could detain it; but it was a body.
2. It was flesh–All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, &c for one star differeth from another star in glory. This glory was the glory of the celestial; visible to mortals only by the light of miracle, and by an act of Divine prerogative. As Moses, with face of celestial flame, put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel might converse with him, so did the King of Moses veil His glories so that the disciples might speak to Him and live. To show them that it was a true body, He even condescended to take food (Luk 24:43).
3. The very body that had been crucified. He showed them His hands and His feet. Thus did He establish that fact of His resurrection on which the entire supernaturalism of our religion is decided, and on which all the work of the Atonement depends; while doing this He most emphatically and pathetically called their attention to the Atonement itself.
V. THE COMMISSION GIVEN TO THE DISCIPLES (verses 21-23).
1. The symbol. Both in Hebrew and Greek the word for breath is the word for spirit. The act of breathing here was an outward and visible sign of the Holy Spirit, now to be given for the first time; not indeed as a Divine energy in the human heart, but as an energy working through the finished facts of the Gospel, and as the gift of Christ crucified: not to be given for the first time either, in the sense of being given then and there; but to be given for the first time in the dispensation which Christ was about formally to inaugurate. For the Son of God to promise a boon is potentially the same thing as for Him to give it. When we hear Him say that He will do a thing, our souls exclaim, It is done!
2. The formula: Whosoever sins ye remit, &c. What is the import of this?
(1) Not the same as that of the great utterance first addressed to Peter, afterwards to the whole body of His colleagues (Mat 16:19; Mat 18:18). We are summoned to think, not of the power that can forbid or permit matters that have to do with the government of the Church, but of the question, When may sin be remitted? when retained?
(2) Dr. John Owen says, Christ here speaks of remitting or retaining sins by declaring the doctrine of the gospel; and this appears to be the true sense of this mysterious clause. God, by the voice of Christ, had already told the world whose sins He would remit, and whose retain. He who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is saved–that is, his sins are remitted; he who refuses to believe is condemned already–that is, his sins are retained. This arrangement of remedial grace is fixed and irrevocable, and no sentence pronounced by man, whatever his office in the Church may be, can in the slightest degree alter it, nullify it, or add to it.
(3) This declarative mission is the mission of all disciples. It was given to all Christians as such–to ministers and people alike, while as yet they were undistinguished. Surely as Christ was sent by the Father to do what He still continues to do for you, so surely are you sent by Him to do this. Have we received the Holy Ghost? It is only as sharers in the life of our risen Lord that we are sent on His embassies. We must all take in, then give out, that life; tell only what we personally and vitally know; and speak, each according to the measure of His gift. The first thing wanted in the Church is more life; after that, and as the result of it, more work. There may be work without life. (C. Stanford, D. D.)
Christs appearance to His disciples
(Text, and Luk 24:36-48)
I. HE DECLARED HIS BEING WEARY IN ORDER TO TRANQUILIZE THEIR HEARTS. His benediction expressed
1. The great want of human nature, Peace. The tumult of the disciples is typical of that of those who are at war with
(1) Themselves.
(2) Society.
(3) The universe.
2. The great design of Christs mission. He came to reconcile man to his Maker, to Himself, and to the Creation–to reproduce in humanity that supreme sympathy with God which is the essential and unfailing security of spiritual tranquility.
II. HE APPEALED TO THEIR REASON IN ORDER TO ALLAY THEIR FEAR.
1. Their fear implied their belief
(1) In disembodied spirits.
(2) In the possibility of disembodied spirits appearing to them.
(3) In disembodied spirits being unfriendly to them.
2. In Christs appeal
(1) He assures them that spirits may exist apart from matter, and in this state appear to living men.
(2) He demonstrates the materiality of His resurrection body.
(3) He throws upon them an inquiry into the cause of their superstitious fear. Inquiry into our mental phenomena will soon expel superstition.
III. HE GAVE THEM EVIDENCE IN ORDER TO ESTABLISH THEIR FAITH. While they believed not for joy; just as we say, the news is too good to be true. Observe, in relation to the evidence He presents of His resurrection
1. Its nature.
(1) A palpable exhibition of the reality of His body–He eats with them.
(2) A clear showing that His resurrection answered the predictions of Scripture. All things must be fulfilled, &c.
2. Its effect. Then opened He their understandings, &c.
IV. HE PROPOUNDED HIS SYSTEM IN ORDER TO INDICATE THEIR DUTY.
1. The great doctrine of His system. Repentance and remission of sins.
2. Its world-wide aspect–All nations–not a sect or class.
3. The order of propagation, Beginning at Jerusalem.
V. HE ENDOWED THEM WITH EXTRAORDINARY POWER IN ORDER TO FIT THEM FOR THEIR EXTRAORDINARY WORK.
1. He performs a symbolical act.
2. He endows them with extraordinary authority. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The risen Jesus appearing to His disciples
I. THE TIME WHEN HE APPEARED. The same day at evening.
1. Not till He had appeared before to others. Mary Magdalene had seen Him, and Peter and the Emmaus two. It is painful to be thus passed over; to know that He is lifting up the light of His countenance upon others, while we have no glimpse of it. We do not like an earthly friend to pass us by; much less the heavenly.
2. When they did not expect Him, surely they would have left the doors open. And often does He surprise His people. The heart is closed in despair against Him. But at evening time, it is light; when light is the last thing expected. Does not this call upon us to cultivate a waiting, expecting spirit. We must not think ourselves forgotten, our turn will come.
3. When they were talking together of Him. St. Luke tells us that Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them as they spoke; not prayed. What an honour was here put on Christian conversation and communion! And our own experience corresponds. When have our hearts been warmed in social converse, and left refreshed, and longing to see one another again? Has it not been when, forgetting a vexing world, we have spoken together of our blessed Master? Where two or three are gathered together in My name, &c.
II. THE SALUTATION. We may regard it as
1. An indication of the peace that reigned within His own soul. We are most ready to speak of what our hearts are full. With distracted minds we are not likely to speak of peace, unless it be to deplore our want of it.
2. An assurance of His forgiveness.
3. An intimation of our Lords power to communicate the peace it speaks of. Observe the action, He showed unto them His hands and His side. suggesting that He had made peace for them through the blood of His cross. See here that the chastisement of your peace has been really on Me. I shall show this hand and this side to My Father on His throne, and claim peace for you.
III. THE EFFECT OF THIS APPEARANCE AND SALUTATION–more than peace, it was gladness. Here is a striking fulfilment of that promise–Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. Their joy was connected with the sight of their Master. Nothing but this could comfort Mary. She goes from the garden to the disciples, and finds them absorbed in sorrow. She bears her testimony, but of what use is it? St. Mark says, They believed her not. Not one word do we read of their joy till Jesus Himself came. Then were the disciples glad. Now there is such a thing still as a sight of this risen Saviour. S Paul tells the Galatians who could never have beheld His face in the flesh, that before their eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth, crucified among them. To see Christ, then, is to understand this gospel, to receive it of Christ and heartily believe it. Have you ever thus seen the Lord? Till you have thus seen Him, you will never be happy men. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
The risen Lords greetings and gifts
(also Mat 28:9)
I. THEIR STRANGE AND MAJESTIC SIMPLICITY. Think of what tremendous experiences He had passed through since they saw Him last, and of what a rush of rapture and disturbance of joy shook the minds of the disciples, and then estimate the calm and calming power of that matter-of-fact and simple greeting. They bear upon their very front the mark of truth. Would anybody have imagined the scene so? Neither the delicate pencil of the great dramatic genius nor the coarser brush of legend can have drawn such a trait in character as this, and it seems to me that the only reasonable explanation of it is that these greetings are what He really did say. He has come from that tremendous conflict, and He reappears, not flushed with triumph, nor bearing any trace of effort, but surrounded as by a nimbus with that strange tranquility which evermore enwrapped Him. So small does the awful scene which He has passed through seem to this Divine-human Man, and so utterly are the old ties and bonds unaffected by it, that when He meets them, all He has to say to them as His first greeting is, Peace be unto you!–the well-worn salutation that was bandied to and fro in every market place and scene where men were wont to meet. Thus He vindicates the Divine tranquility of His nature; thus He minimizes the fact of death; thus He reduces it to its true insignificance as a parenthesis across which may pass unaffected all sweet familiarities and loving friendships.
II. THE UNIVERSAL DESTINATION OF THE GREETINGS OF THE RISEN LORD. Whatsoever any community or individual has conceived as its highest ideal of blessedness and of good, that the risen Christ hath in His hands to bestow. He takes mens ideals of blessedness, and deepens and purifies and refines them. The Greek notion of joy, as the thing to be most wished for those dear to us, is but a shallow one. They had to learn, and their philosophy, and their poetry, and their art came to corruption because they would not learn that the corn of wheat must be cast into the ground and die before it could bring forth fruit. They knew little of the blessing and meaning of sorrow, and therefore the false glitter passed away, and the pursuit of the ideal became gross and foul and sensuous. And, on the other hand, the Jew, with his longing for peace, had an equally shallow and unworthy conception of what that meant, and what was needed to produce it. If he had only external concord with men, and a competency of outward good within his reach without too much trouble, he thought that because he had much goods laid up for many years he might take his ease, and eat, and drink, and be merry. But Jesus Christ comes to satisfy both aspirations by contradicting both, and to reveal to each how much deeper and diviner his desire was than he dreamed it to be; and therefore how impossible it was to find the joy that would last in the dancing fireflies of external satisfactions or the delights of art and beauty; and how impossible it was to find the repose that ennobled and was wedded to action in anything short of union with God. The Lord Christ comes out of the grave in which He lay for every man, and brings to each mans door, in a dialect intelligible to the man himself, the satisfaction of the single souls aspirations and ideals, as well as of the national desires.
III. THE UNFAILING EFFICACY OF THE LORDS GREETINGS. Look at these people to whom He spoke. Remember what they were between the Friday and the Sunday morning; utterly cowed and beaten. They were on the point of parting. The Keystone withdrawn, the stones were ready to fall apart. From that time, when, by all reasonable logic and common sense applied to mens motives, the Crucifixion should have crushed their dreams and dissolved their society, a precisely opposite effect ensues, and not only did the Church continue, but the men changed their characters, and became, somehow or other, full of these very two things which Christ wishes them, namely, joy and peace. Now I want to know–what bridges that gulf? How do you get the Peter of the Acts of the Apostles out of the Peter of the Gospels? Is there any way of explaining that revolution of character, whilst yet its broad outlines remain identical, which befell Him and all of them, except the old-fashioned one that the something which came in between was the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the consequent gift of joy and peace in Him, a joy that no troubles or persecutions could shake, a peace that no conflicts could for a moment disturb? In His right hand He carried peace, and in His left joy. He gave these to them, and therefore out of weakness they were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, and when the time came, were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. There is omnipotent efficacy in Christs greetings! The one instance opens up the general law, that His wishes are gifts, that all His words are acts, that He speaks and it is done. Christs wishes are omnipotent, ours are powerless.
IV. OUR SHARE IN THIS TWOFOLD GREETING. When the women clung to His feet on that Easter morning they had no thought of anything but we clasp Thee again, O Soul of our souls. But then, as time went on, the meaning and blessedness and far-reaching issues of the Resurrection became more plain to them. And I think we can see traces of the process in the development of Christian teaching as presented in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles. Now, in all three aspects–as proof of Messiahship, as the pattern and prophesy of immortality, and as the symbol of the better life which is accessible for us, here and now–the resurrection of Jesus Christ stands for us even more truly than for the rapturous women who caught His feet, or for the thankful men who looked upon Him in the upper chamber as the source of peace and of joy. For therein is set forth for us the Christ whose work is thereby declared to be finished and acceptable to God, and all sorrow of sin, all guilt, all disturbance of heart and mind by reason of evil passions and burning memories of former iniquity, and all disturbance of our concord with God, are at once and for ever swept away. Again, the resurrection of Jesus Christ sets Him forth before us as the pattern and the prophecy of immortal life. This Samson has taken the gates of the prison-house on His broad shoulders and carried them away, and now no man is kept imprisoned evermore in that darkness. Therefore the sorrows of death, for myself and for my dear ones, the agitation which it causes, and all the darkness into which we shrink from passing, are swept away when He comes forth from the grave, serene, radiant, and victorious, to die no more, but to dispense amongst us His peace and His joy. And, again, the risen Christ is the source of a new life drawn from Him and received into my heart by faith in His sacrifice and resurrection and glory. And if I have, deep-seated in my soul, though it may be in imperfect maturity, that life that is hid with Christ in God, an inward fountain of gladness, far beyond the effervescent, and therefore soon fiat, waters of Greek or earthly joy, is mine; and in my inmost being dwells a depth of calm peace which no outward disturbance can touch any more than the winds that rave along the surface of the ocean affect its unmoved and unsounded abysses. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Jesus stood in the midst
Jesus in our midst
I. THERE IS A PECULIAR MANNER IN OUR LORDS COMING TO HIS DISCIPLES.
1. He came gladly: for He came so soon and so often: at least four times in one day. His delights were ever with the sons of men. He is glad to come and sup with us that we may sup with Him.
2. He came to those who were quite unworthy of so great a privilege.
3. He came to the full assembly, after He had been seen by the few.
4. He came when they were met together quietly, secluded from the world and its cares. It is a good thing for the saints to be shut in, and the world shut out. You must not expect Jesus to show Himself to you if your heart is at home, or at the workshop, or seeking after vanity.
5. He came when they were all thinking and talking about Him.
6. Some one will say, He will not come here, for there are many barriers, and we are not in a condition to receive Him. But were there no difficulties then? The doors were shut, and the disciples were in fear. Whatever doors there may be between my Lord and my soul, He could pass through them or open them to get at my heart when it longs after Him. You have a fear upon you which you cannot shake off. So had the disciples, or they would not have closed the doors. But Jesus comes though sins encompass us, and doubts and fears and cares hang thick about our path. He comes as the dew which waiteth not for man.
II. OUR SAVIOUR HAD A PECULIAR MANNER WHEN HE WAS COME.
1. He stood, He did not flash across the room like a meteor, but remained in one position as though He meant to tarry. He stood in the midst. There are many preachers, but not one of them is in the midst of the family circle. The Lord alone is there, the centre of all hearts. Others are present, and they shine with differing lights, but He is the sun, the centre and ruler of the system of His Church.
2. He speaks, and His word is, Peace be unto you.
3. He showed to His disciples, not a new thought, a philosophic discovery, a deep doctrine, a profound mystery, or indeed anything but Himself. The most conspicuous thing Be showed in Himself was His wounds, and it He be present here, the chief object of faiths vision will be Himself; and the most conspicuous point in Himself will be the ensigns of His passion.
4. In so doing our Lord opens up the Scriptures. Christs presence is always known by His people by the value which they are led to attach to the Scripture.
5. They then forget all their fears. As He had given them peace with God, so now He puts aside the fear of man.
III. THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST WITH HIS DISCIPLES EXCITED VARIOUS EMOTIONS.
1. The disciples
(1) Were terrified, for they thought Him a Spirit. It is a sign of mans depravity that a spirit should alarm him. If we were more spiritual we should be glad to commune with them.
(2) When this had a little ceased Jesus said to them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? I suppose they began to think of their ill conduct to their Master, and conscience made them tremble.
(3) We are told by Mark that He also upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart.
(4) Meanwhile they doubted whether it could be He, and when they were convinced they greatly rejoiced, and almost at the same time the very vividness of their joy blinded them into another doubt. Like a pendulum, they swung from joy to unbelief.
2. But come to ourselves. Suppose that our Lord were here. We should be filled with–(1)The profoundest awe. Should we not, like John in Patmos, fall at His feet as dead? At any rate, we would devoutly bow the knee before Him, and reverently adore.
(2) Overflowing love I How would our hearts melt while He spake! Brethren, He is here! Let us give that loving adoration to Him even now.
(3) Serene joy.
(4) Deep contribution.
IV. HE LEFT CERTAIN PERMANENT GIFTS, which also can be realized by His spiritual presence.
1. The realization of His person.
2. A commission.
3. The Holy Ghost which He breathed upon them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ among His people:
From this we learn
1. That the primitive disciples were in the habit of meeting for mutual comfort and edification, which says to us, Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, &c.
2. That the time of their religious gatherings was the first day of the week, which supplies authority for our observance of the Lords-day as the Christian Sabbath.
3. That when so assembled they were always visited by Christ; which shows that He keeps His promise–Where two or three, &c.
4. That where Christ presents Himself, He invariably does four things.
I. HE BRINGS A BENEDICTION. One of the last things He promised is the first which He bestows–peace. Observe this is
1. The great blessing of the covenant, including every kind of peace the human heart can want–peace with God, conscience, man.
2. A much-needed blessing, as urgently needed now as then; because of guilt and danger.
3. A purchased blessing; secured by the shedding of Christs blood.
4. An efficacious blessing. It was no mere wish, pleasant to hear, not vague or idle in significance, but an actual communication of the thing desired.
II. HE GIVES A REVELATION. He showed them, &c. This revelation was
1. Divine.
(1) In its origin He, and it is still Christ Himself who bestows upon His people the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
(2) In its character. What He showed was Himself, than which He has nothing higher to impart. Christ crucified and risen is the highest revelation that can be given on the subject of God, man, truth, duty, salvation, eternal life.
2. Sufficient.
(1) Then. The assembled apostles required no more, nor Thomas on the following Lords-day.
(2) Now. It contains all that a sinful man wants to justify his reason in reposing faith in Christ.
3. Cheering. Then were the disciples glad. And so joy and peace to-day are the invariable results of a believing apprehension of the Saviour Rom 15:13; 1Pe 1:8).
III. HE ASSIGNS A COMMISSION. As My Father, &c. This is
1. Authoritative in its source. It emanates from Him to whom all power in heaven and earth has been given by the Father, and to whom by our saintship we owe allegiance. From Him, therefore, who has a right to command, and who cannot be disobeyed without incurring heinous guilt.
2. Imitative in its character, fashioned after the pattern of Christs, by the same authority, in the same manner, and for a similar end.
3. Alternative in its issues, being fraught with either blessing or cursing. Whosoever sins, &c.
IV. HE SUPPLIES A QUALIFICATION. Receive ye the Holy Ghost. A qualification
1. Much needed. Not by might nor by power.
2. Perfectly sufficient. Not that Christs people are to neglect subsidiary helps, such as learning, &c.; only that with the Spirit they will not be left destitute of anything requisite for their work.
3. Very real. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
Peace be unto you
Salutations
How curiously full of meaning are the different forms of salutation which have been in vogue in different countries and ages! The joyous Greek used to say, !–i.e., rejoice, take a cheerful view of what is before you. The sturdy Roman used to say, Ave! Salve! Vale! Be alive, healthy, strong to surmount all enemies and difficulties; override and trample them down. The serious German, Saxon race used to say, Farewell!–fare on, travel on as best you can along this uncertain mysterious road, walk well, discreetly, and then, whatever betide, it shall be well with you. The Christian of modern times, of whatever race, says, Good-day! Good evening! God bless you! Adieu! Good-bye! &c. God and Gods goodness be with you. We commend you to a better guidance than ours. Go on towards God, and may God and all good go on with you. But there is still another form, still universal in the East, Peace be with you!–i.e., peace to the traveller amidst the ceaseless wars and feuds of the desert. Peace from robbers by night, from the enemies snares, from quarrels which embitter life if they do not destroy it, from the alarms which destroy comfort if they do not destroy life. It was this in which our Lord chose to express His best wishes for His disciples. (Dean Stanley.)
Christs salutation
1. The day mentioned is the day in commemoration of which every Sabbath now is kept. There is no difference between the Jewish and the Christian Sabbath, except the difference there is in the landscape when the sun is on it and when the sun is off it.
2. We progress in the actings of faith very slowly. Were faith in lively exercise you would see in the midst of this house a glory brighter than ten thousand thousand mountains of light, with the beams of the meridian sun falling on them. You would see in the midst Jesus; for where two or three, &c.
I. THE SALUTATION–Peace! Of all the words that fall on mans ear, none is more delectable.
1. At the sound, perhaps
(1) We think of our infancy, ere the passions of the heart uncoiled themselves, or the cares and turmoil of life were encountered.
(2) Or of some happy individual hose mind is graced with all scholarship, charmed with all sensibility, cultivated and wrought up to the mastery of the passions, and the education of the faculties, whose mind seems like a piece of music in tune.
(3) Or of some happy family, in which there is such a consentaneousness of thinking and harmoniousness of feeling, such a rippling of kindliness, such a flowing of tenderness that though there are several individuals in the family, it really seems as though they were but one heart beating in the house.
(4) Or of some happy land over which the waves of anarchy never rolled, in which the plaints of discord were never heard; where peace and contentment universally prevail; where every man sits under his own vine and his own fig-tree, having none to make him afraid.
(5) Or of a scene inclusive of and transcending all this, even of the garden of Eden itself.
2. But Christ used it in a more sacred sense than any of these. It signifies peace after a war, calm after a storm, tranquility after confusion. In nature, before the storm comes there is generally a very emphatic calm. When the sea is going to be searched through and through, there comes on the deep hush. And now big come the rain drops, now loud comes the wind, now fierce drives the tempest, and before it everything that is rotten gives way directly. Such a time will overtake us all. The peace of the worldling drifts away at once. If the worldling admit that he had any, it is generally found to consist in some reflection to this effect, that on the whole the world has gone tolerably smoothly with him, and he hopes it will continue to do so. But that is not a peace that will live in the storm. Bat the peace which Christ gives is profound and abiding. When the storm comes down on the water, we, perhaps, suppose that the storm has ploughed the ocean up to its depths. Not so! Down a few yards at most is the body of water lying in a state of perfect repose, as when God first gathered the waters into the sea. Such is the peace which Christ gives. The storm does not destroy it. It is deep, abiding peace.
3. Not indeed that peace can be found in outward things. Take away from the believer in Christ that to which worldly men may look for satisfaction, wealth, station, power, friends, health, and you have not come down to where his peace lies. Certainly, if these outward things could ever have yielded peace, they would have yielded it to Solomon. With astonishing energy and perseverance he worked the problem through; and when he had exhausted his experiments, he summed up the result–Vanity of vanities; all is vanity! And yet very few men are willing to take that lesson from Solomon.
II. THE ACT WITH WHICH THE SAVIOUR ACCOMPANIED HIS SALUTATION. He did something. Actions are more powerful than words.
1. He showed them His hands as much as to say, If these hands had never have been pierced, these lips would not have pronounced, Peace be unto you. The chastisement of your peace has been laid on Me; by My stripes ye are healed. He showed His side, so that we might say, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee!
2. The showing of the hands and the side of Christ is the only symbolical movement that now remains. All types which intimated beforehand the glories of our redemption by the death of Christ are gone but this. So now, the whole of your behaviour in relation to Christ just resolves itself into this–touching the hands and side of Christ. Believing in Christ and touching Him are the same thing.
3. Then observe the point of difference there is between the actions of men and this action of our Lord in showing His hands and His side. You can never depend on the action of man–he is mutable. But Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. He is always showing His hands and His feet in heaven to signify that He is always doing so on earth to faith. Cannot you touch His hands and His side? Oh! you say, it takes such a great effort. Cannot you make a great effort? I know I can. Let your temporal affairs all get into some great extremity, and I know what you are capable of. Suppose you were drowning–some one throws a rope to you–what kind of movement do you make? All I want from you in relation toChrist is a similar effort on the part of the mind which the body takes towards the rope. Conclusion: To those who have this peace, I must speak to them in the language
1. Of congratulation.
2. Of exhortation; for Christ hath said, As my Father hath sent Me, so send I you. You are chartered for usefulness. Is there ignorance in the world–remove it. Is there delusion–dissolve it. Is there infidelity–go and supply the elements of faith. Is there immorality–go and check it. Is there misery–wipe its tears, terminate its sighs. (J. Beaumont, M.D.)
The Tears of Christ
I. THIS GREETING WAS CUSTOMARY AMONG EASTERN NATIONS.
1. It was, with slight variations, of high antiquity, and we meet with it all through the Bible.
2. In our Lords-day it had become as much part of the social habits of the people as Good-morning is among ourselves. In earlier days, no doubt, men had invoked peace from heaven with the utmost seriousness; but by this time it had become a mere conventional phrase; and yet our Lord did not scruple to use it. But it would be a great mistake to infer that He used it conventionally. A conscientious man will mean what he says, even when he uses words prescribed by custom or etiquette. And among great teachers the majority have been less forward to employ new language than to breathe a new meaning into old words. In Christ this latter method is especially observable. He picks up, as it were from the roadside, the common words which fall from men as they saunter unthinkingly through life; and He restores to them their original power and sanctity. His work was to bring reality in all its shapes into human life. Once before, in the supper-room, He rescued the blessing of peace from unmeaning formalism. Not as the world giveth give I unto you.
3. The word peace does not, in the original, mean only or chiefly rest. The Hebrew root-word means whole, entire; a thing as it should be according to its origin or capacity. Of this state of well-being, freedom from disturbance is either a condition or a result. Yet here, as so often else, the incidental meaning has displaced the original. But our Lord had His eye no doubt, at least partially, on its original sense. He meant not merely tranquility but that which leads to it–wellbeing in its largest sense as affecting the highest interests of a being like man.
II. WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE SENSE SUGGESTED BY THE BLESSING TO THOSE WHO HEARD IT.
1. Not peace with the Jews without! That could not be (Luk 12:51). His followers indeed were so much as lieth in them to live peaceably with all men. But this region of possible intercourse could only extend where the truths of faith were not imperilled. Peace with the Jews at that time, like peace with the non-Christian world in later ages, was only to be had by a surrender of the honour and cause of Christ.
2. Nor peace among yourselves! Doubtless this is of priceless value, as involving the best spiritual blessings, and as an evidence to the world of the truth of our Lords religion (Joh 13:35). But this peace was not thenespecially needed. The instinct of self-preservation drew and kept them together. The sad day of divisions among Christians was yet to come.
3. But peace in their individual souls–a sense of protection which conquers or ignores fear. There they were for fear of the Jews. They knew what measure had been dealt to their Master. What could they–His disciples–expect? Then He came and said, Peace. And from His lips the blessing of peace meant safety from every adversary. This is a primary effect of Christs blessing. It distracts attention from things without. It does not destroy them. Sickness, death, the loss of friends, opposition, the bad tempers, prejudices, follies of those around us, &c., remain as before. But they no longer absorb attention. The eye of the soul is fixed on the Divine and the eternal.
III. FREEDOM FROM ANXIETY IS NOT THE ONLY OR THE CHIEF PART OF PEACE. Its root is deeper. The soul must be resting on its true object; or the tumult within will continue in thought, affection, will, conscience.
1. The Crucifixion had thrown the disciples into the greatest mental perplexity. They had trusted that it had been He that should have redeemed Israel. Upon this state of mind the Crucifixion burst like a thunderbolt. True, prophecy and He Himself had foretold it. But the human mind has a strange power of closing its ear to the unwelcome when it is half-comprehended. Christs words then describe the intellectual effect of His mere appearance. The sight of Jesus risen restored order to the thoughts of the disciples. The Crucifixion was no longer the ruin of their faith if it was followed by the Resurrection. The prophecies were consistent after all. This is still the work of Jesus in the world; when He is recognized by souls He blesses them with intellectual peace. Without Him the belief in a Holy God is embarrassed by the gravest perplexities. All the great haunting questions about life and destiny are unanswered, to any real purpose, until Jesus appears. It is indeed sometimes mistakenly supposed that a Christian knows only the peace of mental stagnation; and that in order to be what is oddly called a thinker, a man must needs be a sceptic. It is of course true that a Christian is not for ever re-opening questions which he believes to have been settled on the authority of God Himself. But to believe is not to condemn thought to inertness and stagnation; a man does not do less work at mathematics because he starts with holding the axioms to be beyond discussion. On the contrary, a fixed creed, like that of the Christian, imparts to life and nature such varied interest, that, as experience shows, it fertilizes thought. The human intelligence has, on the whole, been cultivated most largely among the Christian nations.
2. The disciples had, for the moment, by the death of Jesus, lost the object of their affections. How much they already loved our Lord they did not know until He was removed. Now they felt the weary, restless void of an aching heart. When, then, Jesus appeared He brought peace to their hearts Son 3:4). Mental satisfaction does not alone bring peace, if the heart remains unsatisfied. And that which satisfies the heart is beauty; that uncreated and eternal beauty of which all earthly beauty is but the shadow. Sooner or later trouble and death make havoc of temporal peace. Only one Being satisfies the affections in such sort, that the souls peace is insured beyond risk of forfeiture (Isa 26:3).
3. Our Lords crucifixion had disturbed all the plans for action and life which had been formed by the apostles. They had been looking forward to the establishment of a new kingdom, and to their own places in and work for it. These visions now seemed to have vanished. The apostles were like men who had just failed in business–all is despair. And the will, the energetic and sovereign faculty of the soul, suddenly set free from the tension of continuous effort, falls back upon itself, and becomes within the soul a principle of disturbance. No men know less of inward peace than the unoccupied. A leading secret of peace is work. Our Lord then restored that sort of peace which comes with occupation pursued under a sense of duty. Many a working man, who does not know how to get into the day what he has to do, supposes that the condition of idle people is to be envied. No mistake can well be greater. Work guarantees the peace of the soul; because the soul must be active in some way, and work secures healthy action.
4. But the peace which man needs most especially, and which our Lord gives most abundantly, is that of the conscience. Did the apostles as yet understand in detail how their Master would reconcile them to God? It is difficult to say. They knew that this reconciliation was, in some way, to result from His mission and life. But if the violence of His enemies had indeed prevailed, this was a mere matter of phrase and conjecture; His life was essential to the completion of His work. They knew not whether they were saved after all. They had lost that peace which comes from a sense of union with God. When, then, our Lord appeared He restored peace, because He restored the sense, however indefinite as yet, of pardon for past sin, and of reconciliation with God. Without this there can be no true peace for the soul of man. Perhaps no Christian, since the days of the apostles, has illustrated the peace which Jesus gives so fully as Augustine. Read that pathetic story of his early life in his Confessions. What a restless life was his before his conversion I The intellect tossed about on the waves of speculation, without solid hold on any one reassuring truth. The heart distracted between the ideals presented by false philosophies, and the ideals suggested by sensuality. The will unable to fasten on any serious duty; the victim of a feverish unsettlement, or of a capricious languor. The conscience profoundly stirred by the terrible conviction that the Son of Peace was not there, and alternating between the phase of insensibility and the phase of agony. Then came his conversion, and with it what a change! Peace in his understanding, which now surveys with a majestic tranquility, the vast realms of revealed truth; more penetratingly, more comprehensively than any Christian since St. Paul. Peace in his heart, which now turns its undistracted and enraptured gaze upon the Eternal Beauty, who, as he says, is always ancient yet always young. Peace in his will, for which the problem of duty has been simplified; he knows what he has to do, and he does it with all his might. Peace in his conscience. There is no longer any sense of an inward feud with the law of absolute holiness. All has been pardoned through the blood of Jesus; all is possible through His grace. (Canon Liddon.)
Christs peace the antidote for the worlds distractions:
You may have stood by the side of one of those brawling mountain streams which descend from our southern and western coasts into the sea. Such a stream rushes with its noisy waters down its narrow channel, every pebble rattles in the torrent, every ripple makes a murmur of its own. Suddenly the sound ceases, a deep stillness fills the banks from side to side. Why? It is the broad sweep of the advancing tide of the ocean that has checked the stream and occupied the whole space of its narrow channel with its own strong, silent, overwhelming waters. Even so it is with all the little cares, and difficulties, and distractions that make up the noise and clatter of the stream of our daily life. They go on increasing and increasing; they engross our whole attention till they are suddenly met and absorbed by some thought or object greater than themselves, advancing from a wider, deeper, stronger sphere. From a thousand heights the streams of human life are for ever rushing down; but there is another stream advancing into each of those channels, a tide from that wider and trackless ocean, to which they are all tending; and deep indeed is the peace which those tides may bring with them wherever their force extends. The very measure of the greatness of the idea of God and of the things of God is the depth of the peace which that idea is able to impart. (Dean Stanley.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 19. The doors were shut – for fear of the Jews] We do not find that the Jews designed to molest the disciples: that word of authority which Christ spoke, Joh 18:8, Let these go away – had prevented the Jews from offering them any injury; but, as they had proceeded so far as to put Christ to death, the faith of the disciples not being very strong, they were led to think that they should be the next victims if found. Some think, therefore, that they had the doors not only shut, but barricadoed: nevertheless Jesus came in, the doors being shut, i.e. while they continued shut. But how? By his almighty power: and farther we know not. Yet it is quite possible that no miraculous influence is here intended. The doors might be shut for fear of the Jews; and Jesus might open them, and enter in the ordinary way. Where there is no need for a miracle, a miracle is never wrought. See Clarke on Joh 20:30.
The evangelist has omitted the appearing of our Lord to the other women who came from the tomb, Mt 28:9, and that to the two disciples who were going to Emmaus, Lu 24:13, &c., which all happened in the course of this same day.
Peace be unto you.] His usual salutation and benediction. May every blessing of heaven and earth which you need be granted unto you!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Luke expounds this verse, Luk 24:29, where the two disciples told Christ it was towards evening, and the day was far spent; for the Jews called the afternoon evening, as well as the time after sunset; and John tells us expressly, it was yet the first day of the week. This appearance is unquestionably the same mentioned in Luke, Luk 24:36. For it is said, the two disciples went immediately to Jerusalem, where they found the eleven gathered together, and discoursed of the Lords appearance to them; and while they spake, Jesus came and stood in the midst of them, and said unto them, ( as here), Peace be unto you. The disciples had shut the doors of the place where they met, for fear of the Jews. Here is a great question between the Lutherans and Calvinists, how Christ came in amongst them when the doors were shut? Whether he went through the doors remaining shut? Which the Lutherans stiffly maintain, as a strong proof of the possibility of the real presence of the body of Christ in, with, or under the elements of the Lords supper; though we object, that this is to destroy the nature of Christs body, and to assign him a body which indeed is no body, being not obvious to the sense, nor confined to a place; and which must pierce another body, which is contrary to the nature of a body according to our notion of bodies. The Lutherans object:
1. That here is a plain mention of the doors being shut.
2. No mention of the opening of them.
3. Nor of Christs entrance upon opening any doors, windows, roof, or by any ordinary way, as men use to enter into houses.
4. Nor, had he so entered, would there have been any occasion for the disciples taking him for a spirit, as it is plain they did, Luk 24:37.
The Calvinists on the other side object,
1. That it is not said that he went through the doors.
2. That if he had gone through the doors, he would not presently have called to them to have seen him, and handled him; by which he evidenced that his body had such dimensions as our bodies have, and so could not go through a door shut.
In the Lutherans reason, the fourth is only considerable, the three first have no force, because all circumstances of actions are not recorded in holy writ. Nor is there much force in the fourth, for the doors by his miraculous power opened and shut, and he showed himself in the midst of them, and used to them the usual salutation amongst the Jews, Peace be unto you.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19-23. the same day at evening, thefirst day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples wereassembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesusplainly not by theordinary way of entrance.
and saith unto them Peace beunto younot the mere wish that even His own exaltedpeace might be theirs (Joh 14:27),but conveying it into their hearts, even as He “opened theirunderstandings to understand the scriptures” (Lu24:45).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then the same day at evening,…. The same day Christ rose from the dead, and appeared to Mary; at the evening of that day, after he had been with the two disciples to Emmaus, about eight miles from Jerusalem, and they had returned again to the rest; and after there had been such a bustle all day in Jerusalem, about the body of Jesus; the soldiers that watched the sepulchre, giving out, by the direction of the elders, that the disciples of Christ had stolen away the body, while they slept:
being the first day of the week; as is said in Joh 20:1 and here repeated, to prevent any mistake; and that it might be clear what day it was the disciples were assembled together, and Christ appeared to them:
when the doors were shut; the doors of the house where they were, which it is plain was in Jerusalem, Lu 24:33 but whether it was the house where Christ and his disciples ate the passover together, or whether it was John’s home or house, to which he took the mother of Christ, since he and Peter, and the rest, seem to be afterwards together in one place, is not certain: however, the doors were shut; which is not merely expressive of the time of night, when this was usually done; but signifies that they were really locked and bolted, and barred, for which a reason is given as follows:
where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews; after their scattering abroad upon the taking of Christ, and after his crucifixion was over; and especially after the report of his body being took away, they gathered together, and made fast the doors of the place, lest the Jews should come in upon them, and surprise them; for they might fear, that since they had took away their master’s life, theirs must go next; and especially since it was rumoured abroad that they had stole away his body, they might be under the greater fear, that search would be made after them, and they be apprehended and brought into trouble on that account:
came Jesus and stood in the midst of them; on a sudden, at once, and when they had no thought or fear of anyone’s coming upon them, without some previous notice; but he being the Almighty God, did, by his omnipotent power, cause the bars and bolts, and doors, in the most secret and unobserved manner, to give way to him, and let him in at once among them: when as a presage and pledge of the accomplishment of his promise to be with, and in the midst of his, when met together, either in private or public, he stood and presented himself in the midst of them: and to let them know at once he was no enemy,
he saith unto them, peace be unto you: , “peace be unto you”, is an usual form of salutation among the Jews; see Ge 43:23 expressive of all prosperity in soul and body, inward and outward, spiritual and temporal; and here may have a special regard to that peace he said he gave unto them, and left with them, upon his departure from them; and which he had obtained by the blood of his cross, and now preached unto them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Christ with His Disciples. |
| |
19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20 And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. 21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. 24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
The infallible proof of Christ’s resurrection was his showing himself alive, Acts i. 3. In these verses, we have an account of his first appearance to the college of the disciples, on the day on which he rose. He had sent them the tidings of his resurrection by trusty and credible messengers; but to show his love to them, and confirm their faith in him, he came himself, and gave them all the assurances they could desire of the truth of it, that they might not have it by hearsay only, and at second hand, but might themselves be eye-witnesses of his being alive, because they must attest it to the world, and build the church upon that testimony. Now observe here,
I. When and where this appearance was, v. 19. It was the same day that he rose, being the first day of the week, the day after the Jewish sabbath, at a private meeting of the disciples, ten of them, and some more of their friends with them, Luke xxiv. 33.
There are three secondary ordinances (as I may call them) instituted by our Lord Jesus, to continue in his church, for the support of it, and for the due administration of the principal ordinances–the word, sacraments, and prayer; these are, the Lord’s day, solemn assemblies, and standing ministry. The mind of Christ concerning each of these is plainly intimated to us in these verses; of the first two, here, in the circumstances of this appearance, the other v. 21. Christ’s kingdom was to be set up among men, immediately upon his resurrection; and accordingly we find the very day he arose, though but a day of small things, yet graced with those solemnities which should help to keep up a face of religion throughout all the ages of the church.
1. Here is a Christian sabbath observed by the disciples, and owned by our Lord Jesus. The visit Christ made to his disciples was on the first day of the week. And the first day of the week is (I think) the only day of the week, or month, or year, that is ever mentioned by number in all the New Testament; and this is several times spoken of as a day religiously observed. Though it was said here expressly (v. 1) that Christ arose on the first day of the week, and it might have been sufficient to say here (v. 19), he appeared the same day at evening; yet, to put an honour upon the day, it is repeated, being the first day of the week; not that the apostles designed to put honour upon the day (they were yet in doubt concerning the occasion of it), but God designed to put honour upon it, by ordering it that they should be altogether, to receive Christ’s first visit on that day. Thus, in effect, he blessed and sanctified that day, because in it the Redeemer rested.
2. Here is a Christian assembly solemnized by the disciples, and also owned by the Lord Jesus. Probably the disciples met here for some religious exercise, to pray together; or, perhaps, they met to compare notes, and consider whether they had sufficient evidence of their Master’s resurrection, and to consult what was now to be done, whether they should keep together or scatter; they met to know one another’s minds, strengthen one another’s hands, and concert proper measures to be taken in the present critical juncture. This meeting was private, because they durst not appear publicly, especially in a body. They met in a house, but they kept the door shut, that they might not be seen together, and that no one might come among them but such as they knew; for they feared the Jews, who would prosecute the disciples as criminals, that they might seem to believe the lie they would deceive the world with, that his disciples came by night, and stole him away. Note, (1.) The disciples of Christ, even in difficult times, must not forsake the assembling of themselves together, Heb. x. 25. Those sheep of the flock were scattered in the storm; but sheep are sociable, and will come together again. It is no new thing for the assemblies of Christ’s disciples to be driven into corners, and forced into the wilderness, Rev 12:14; Pro 28:12. (2.) God’s people have been often obliged to enter into their chambers, and shut their doors, as here, for fear of the Jews. Persecution is allotted them, and retirement from persecution is allowed them; and then where shall we look for them but in dens and caves of the earth. It is a real grief, but no real reproach, to Christ’s disciples, thus to abscond.
II. What was said and done in this visit Christ made to his disciples, and his interview between them. When they were assembled, Jesus came among them, in his own likeness, yet drawing a veil over the brightness of his body, now begun to be glorified, else it would have dazzled their eyes, as in his transfiguration. Christ came among them, to give them a specimen of the performance of his promise, that, where two or three are gathered together in his name, he will be in the midst of them. He came, though the doors were shut. This does not at all weaken the evidence of his having a real human body after his resurrection; though the doors were shut, he knew how to open them without any noise, and come in so that they might not hear him, as formerly he had walked on the water, and yet had a true body. It is a comfort to Christ’s disciples, when their solemn assemblies are reduced to privacy, that no doors can shut out Christ’s presence from them. We have five things in this appearance of Christ:–
(1.) His kind and familiar salutation of his disciples: He said, Peace be unto you. This was not a word of course, though commonly used so at the meeting of friends, but a solemn, uncommon benediction, conferring upon them all the blessed fruits and effects of his death and resurrection. The phrase was common, but the sense was now peculiar. Peace be unto you is as much as, All good be to you, all peace always by all means. Christ had left them his peace for their legacy, ch. xiv. 27. By the death of the testator the testament was become of force, and he was now risen from the dead, to prove the will, and to be himself the executor of it. Accordingly, he here makes prompt payment of the legacy: Peace be unto you. His speaking peace makes peace, creates the fruit of the lips, peace; peace with God, peace in your own consciences, peace with one another; all this peace be with you; not peace with the world, but peace in Christ. His sudden appearing in the midst of them when they were full of doubts concerning him, full of fears concerning themselves, could not but put them into some disorder and consternation, the noise of which waves he stills with this word, Peace be unto you.
(2.) His clear and undeniable manifestation of himself to them, v. 20. And here observe,
[1.] The method he took to convince them of the truth of his resurrection, They now saw him alive whom multitudes had seen dead two or three days before. Now the only doubt was whether this that they saw alive was the same individual body that had been seen dead; and none could desire a further proof that it was so than the scars or marks of the wounds in the body. Now, First, The marks of the wounds, and very deep marks (though without any pain or soreness), remained in the body of the Lord Jesus even after his resurrection, that they might be demonstrations of the truth of it. Conquerors glory in the marks of their wounds. Christ’s wounds were to speak on earth that it was he himself, and therefore he arose with them; they were to speak in heaven, in the intercession he must ever live to make, and therefore he ascended with them, and appeared in the midst of the throne, a Lamb as it had been slain, and bleeding afresh, Rev. v. 6. Nay, it should seem, he will come again with his scars, that they may look on him whom they pierced. Secondly, These marks he showed to his disciples, for their conviction. They had not only the satisfaction of seeing him look with the same countenance, and hearing him speak with the same voice they had been so long accustomed to, Sic oculos, sic ille manus, sic ora, ferebat–Such were his gestures, such his eyes and hands! but they had the further evidence of these peculiar marks: he opened his hands to them, that they might see the marks of the wounds on them; he opened his breast, as the nurse hers to the child, to show them the wound there. Note, The exalted Redeemer will ever show himself open-handed and open-hearted to all his faithful friends and followers. When Christ manifests his love to believers by the comforts of his Spirit, assures them that because he lives they shall live also, then he shows them his hands and his side.
[2.] The impression it made upon them, and the good it did them. First, They were convinced that they saw the Lord: so was their faith confirmed. At first, they thought they saw an apparition only, a phantasm; but now they knew it was the Lord himself. Thus many true believers, who, while they were weak, feared their comforts were but imaginary, afterwards find them, through grace, real and substantial. They ask not, Is it the Lord? but are assured, it is he. Secondly, Then they were glad; that which strengthened their faith raised their joy; believing they rejoice. The evangelist seems to write it with somewhat of transport and triumph. Then! then! were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord, If it revived the spirit of Jacob to hear that Joseph was yet alive, how would it revive the heart of these disciples to hear that Jesus is again alive? It is life from the dead to them. Now that word of Christ was fulfilled (ch. xvi. 22), I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice. This wiped away all tears from their eyes. Note, A sight of Christ will gladden the heart of a disciple at any time; the more we see of Christ, the more we shall rejoice in him; and our joy will never be perfect till we come where we shall see him as he is.
(3.) The honourable and ample commission he gave them to be his agents in the planting of his church, v. 21. Here is,
[1.] The preface to their commission, which was the solemn repetition of the salutation before: Peace be unto you. This was intended, either, First, To raise their attention to the commission he was about to give them. The former salutation was to still the tumult of their fear, that they might calmly attend to the proofs of his resurrection; this was to reduce the transport of their joy, that they might sedately hear what he had further to say to them; or, Secondly, To encourage them to accept of the commission he was giving them. Though it would involve them in a great deal of trouble, yet he designed their honour and comfort in it, and, in the issue, it would be peace to them. Gideon received his commission with this word, Peace be unto thee,Jdg 6:22; Jdg 6:23. Christ is our Peace; if he is with us, peace is to us. Christ was now sending the disciples to publish peace to the world (Isa. lii. 7), and he here not only confers it upon them for their own satisfaction, but commits it to them as a trust to be by them transmitted to all the sons of peace, Luk 10:5; Luk 10:6.
[2.] The commission itself, which sounds very great: As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
First, It is easy to understand how Christ sent them; he appointed them to go on with his work upon earth, and to lay out themselves for the spreading of his gospel, and the setting up of his kingdom, among men. He sent them authorized with a divine warrant, armed with a divine power,–sent them as ambassadors to treat of peace, and as heralds to proclaim it,–sent them as servants to bid to the marriage. Hence they were called apostles—men sent.
Secondly, But how Christ sent them as the Father sent him is not so easily understood; certainly their commissions and powers were infinitely inferior to his; but, 1. Their work was of the same kind with his, and they were to go on where he left off. They were not sent to be priests and kings, like him, but only prophets. As he was sent to bear witness to the truth, so were they; not to be mediators of the reconciliation, but only preachers and publishers of it. Was he sent, not to be ministered to, but to minister? not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him? not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fill them up? So were they. As the Father sent him to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, so he sent them into all the world. 2. He had a power to send them equal to that which the Father had to send him. Here the force of the comparison seems to lie. By the same authority that the Father sent me do I send you. This proves the Godhead of Christ; the commissions he gave were of equal authority with those which the Father gave, and as valid and effectual to all intents and purposes, equal with those he gave to the Old-Testament prophets in visions. The commissions of Peter and John, by the plain word of Christ, are as good as those of Isaiah and Ezekiel, by the Lord sitting on his throne; nay, equal with that which was given to the Mediator himself for his work. Had he an incontestable authority, and an irresistible ability, for his work? so had they for theirs. Or thus, As the Father hath sent me is, as it were, the recital of his power; by virtue of the authority given him as a Mediator, he gave authority to them, as his ministers, to act for him, and in his name, with the children of men; so that those who received them, or rejected them, received or rejected him, and him that sent him, ch. xiii. 20.
(4.) The qualifying of them for the discharge of the trust reposed in them by their commission (v. 22): He breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Observe,
[1.] The sign he used to assure them of, and affect them with, the gift he was now about to bestow upon them: He breathed on them; not only to show them, by this breath of life, that he himself was really alive, but to signify to them the spiritual life and power which they should receive from him for all the services that lay before them. Probably he breathed upon them all together, not upon each severally and, though Thomas was not with them, yet the Spirit of the Lord knew where to find him, as he did Eldad and Medad, Num. xi. 26. Christ here seems to refer to the creation of man at first, by the breathing of the breath of life into him (Gen. ii. 7), and to intimate that he himself was the author of that work, and that the spiritual life and strength of ministers and Christians are derived from him, and depend upon him, as much as the natural life of Adam and his seed. As the breath of the Almighty gave life to man and began the old world, so the breath of the mighty Saviour gave life to his ministers, and began a new world, Job xxxiii. 4. Now this intimates to us, First, That the Spirit is the breath of Christ, proceeding from the Son. The Spirit, in the Old Testament, is compared to breath (Ezek. xxxvii. 9), Come, O breath; but the New Testament tells us it is Christ’s breath. The breath of God is put for the power of his wrath (Isa 11:4; Isa 30:33); but the breath of Christ signifies the power of his grace; the breathing of threatenings is changed into the breathings of love by the mediation of Christ. Our words are uttered by our breath, so the word of Christ is spirit and life. The word comes from the Spirit, and the Spirit comes along with the word. Secondly, That the Spirit is the gift of Christ. The apostles communicated the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, those hands being first lifted up in prayer, for they could only beg this blessing, and carry it as messengers; but Christ conferred the Holy Ghost by breathing, for he is the author of the gift, and from him it comes originally. Moses could not give his Spirit, God did it (Num. xi. 17); but Christ did it himself.
[2.] The solemn grant he made, signified by this sign, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, in part now, as an earnest of what you shall further receive not many days hence.” They now received more of the Holy Ghost than they had yet received. Thus spiritual blessings are given gradually; to him that has shall be given. Now that Jesus began to be glorified more of the Spirit began to be given: see ch. vii. 39. Let us see what is contained in this grant. First, Christ hereby gives them assurance of the Spirit’s aid in their future work, in the execution of the commission now given them: “I send you, and you shall have the Spirit to go along with you.” Now the Spirit of the Lord rested upon them to qualify them for all the services that lay before them. Whom Christ employs he will clothe with his Spirit, and furnish with all needful powers. Secondly, He hereby gives them experience of the Spirit’s influences in their present case. He had shown them his hands and his side, to convince them of the truth of his resurrection; but the plainest evidences will not of themselves work faith, witness the infidelity of the soldiers, who were the only eye-witnesses of the resurrection. “Therefore receive ye the Holy Ghost, to work faith in you, and to open your understandings.” They were now in danger of the Jews: “Therefore receive ye the Holy Ghost, to work courage in you.” What Christ said to them he says to all true believers, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, Eph. i. 13. What Christ gives we must receive, must submit ourselves and our whole souls to the quickening, sanctifying, influences of the blessed Spirit-receive his motions, and comply with them–receive his powers and make use of them: and those who thus obey this word as a precept shall have the benefit of it as a promise; they shall receive the Holy Ghost as the guide of their way and the earnest of their inheritance.
(5.) One particular branch of the power given them by their commission particularized (v. 23): “Whosesoever sins you remit, in the due execution of the powers you are entrusted with, they are remitted to them, and they may take the comfort of it; and whosesoever sins you retain, that is, pronounce unpardoned and the guilt of them bound on, they are retained, and the sinner may be sure of it, to his sorrow.” Now this follows upon their receiving the Holy Ghost; for, if they had not had an extraordinary spirit of discerning, they had not been fit to be entrusted with such an authority; for, in the strictest sense, this is a special commission to the apostles themselves and the first preachers of the gospel, who could distinguish who were in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity, and who were not. By virtue of this power, Peter struck Ananias and Sapphira dead, and Paul struck Elymas blind. Yet it must be understood as a general charter to the church and her ministers, not securing an infallibility of judgment to any man or company of men in the world, but encouraging the faithful stewards of the mysteries of God to stand to the gospel they were sent to preach, for that God himself will stand to it. The apostles, in preaching remission, must begin at Jerusalem, though she had lately brought upon herself the guilt of Christ’s blood: “Yet you may declare their sins remitted upon gospel terms.” And Peter did so, Act 2:38; Act 3:19. Christ, being risen for our justification, sends his gospel heralds to proclaim the jubilee begun, the act of indemnity now passed; and by this rule men shall be judged, Joh 12:48; Rom 2:16; Jas 2:12. God will never alter this rule of judgment, nor vary from it; those whom the gospel acquits shall be acquitted, and those whom the gospel condemns shall be condemned, which puts immense honour upon the ministry, and should put immense courage into ministers. Two ways the apostles and ministers of Christ remit and retain sin, and both as having authority:– [1.] By sound doctrine. They are commissioned to tell the world that salvation is to be had upon gospel terms, and no other, and they shall find God will say Amen to it; so shall their doom be. [2.] By a strict discipline, applying the general rule of the gospel to particular persons. “Whom you admit into communion with you, according to the rules of the gospel, God will admit into communion with himself; and whom you cast out of communion as impenitent, and obstinate in scandalous and infectious sins, shall be bound over to the righteous judgment of God.”
III. The incredulity of Thomas, when the report of this was made to him, which introduced Christ’s second appearance.
1. Here is Thomas’s absence from this meeting, v. 24. He is said to be one of the twelve, one of the college of the apostles, who, though now eleven, had been twelve, and were to be so again. They were but eleven, and one of them was missing: Christ’s disciples will never be all together till the general assembly at the great day. Perhaps it was Thomas’s unhappiness that he was absent–either he was not well, or had not notice; or perhaps it was his sin and folly–either he was diverted by business or company, which he preferred before this opportunity, or he durst not come for fear of the Jews; and he called that his prudence and caution which was his cowardice. However, by his absence he missed the satisfaction of seeing his Master risen, and of sharing with the disciples in their joy upon that occasion. Note, Those know not what they lose who carelessly absent themselves from the stated solemn assemblies of Christians.
2. The account which the other disciples gave him of the visit their Master had made them, v. 25. The next time they saw him they said unto him, with joy enough, We have seen the Lord; and no doubt they related to him all that had passed, particularly the satisfaction he had given them by showing them his hands and his side. It seems, though Thomas was then from them, he was not long from them; absentees for a time must not be condemned as apostates for ever: Thomas is not Judas. Observe with what exultation and triumph they speak it: “We have seen the Lord, the most comfortable sight we ever saw.” This they said to Thomas, (1.) To upbraid him with his absence: “We have seen the Lord, but thou hast not.” Or rather, (2.) To inform him: “We have seen the Lord, and we wish thou hadst been here, to see him too, for thou wouldest have seen enough to satisfy thee.” Note, The disciples of Christ should endeavour to build up one another in their most holy faith, both by repeating what they have heard to those that were absent, that they may hear it at second hand, and also by communicating what they have experienced. Those that by faith have seen the Lord, and tasted that he is gracious, should tell others what God has done for their souls; only let boasting be excluded.
3. The objections Thomas raised against the evidence, to justify himself in his unwillingness to admit it. “Tell me not that you have seen the Lord alive; you are too credulous; somebody has made fools of you. For my part, except I shall not only see in his hands the print of the nails, but put my finger into it, and thrust my hand into the wound in his side, I am resolved I will not believe.” Some, by comparing this with what he said (Joh 11:16; Joh 14:5), conjecture him to have been a man of a rough, morose temper, apt to speak peevishly; for all good people are not alike happy in their temper. However, there was certainly much amiss in his conduct at this time. (1.) He had either not heeded, or not duly regarded, what Christ had so often said, and that too according to the Old Testament, that he would rise again the third day; so that he ought to have said, He is risen, though he had not seen him, nor spoken with any that had. (2.) He did not pay a just deference to the testimony of his fellow-disciples, who were men of wisdom and integrity, and ought to have been credited. He knew them to be honest men; they all ten of them concurred in the testimony with great assurance; and yet he could not persuade himself to say that their record was true. Christ had chosen them to be his witnesses of this very thing to all nations; and yet Thomas, one of their own fraternity, would not allow them to be competent witnesses, nor trust them further than he could see them. It was not, however, their veracity that he questioned, but their prudence; he feared they were too credulous. (3.) He tempted Christ, and limited the Holy One of Israel, when he would be convinced by his own method, or not at all. He could not be sure that the print of the nails, which the apostles told him they had seen, would admit the putting of his finger into it, or the wound in his side the thrusting in of his hand; nor was it fit to deal so roughly with a living body; yet Thomas ties up his faith to this evidence. Either he will be humoured, and have his fancy gratified, or he will not believe; see Mat 16:1; Mat 27:42. (4.) The open avowal of this in the presence of the disciples was an offence and discouragement to them. It was not only a sin, but a scandal. As one coward makes many, so does one believer, one sceptic, making his brethren’s heart to faint like his heart, Deut. xx. 8. Had he only thought this evil, and then laid his hand upon his mouth, to suppress it, his error had remained with himself; but his proclaiming his infidelity, and that so peremptorily, might be of ill consequence to the rest, who were as yet but weak and wavering.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
When therefore it was evening on that day ( ). Genitive absolute with (, late), old word with (hour) understood and here for the time from six to nine (6:16) and the locative case of time with (day). John often uses this note of time (John 1:39; John 5:9; John 11:53; John 14:20; John 16:23; John 16:26). The addition of (see 20:1 for this use of like ) proves that John is using Roman time, not Jewish, for here evening follows day instead of preceding it.
When the doors were shut ( ). Genitive absolute again with perfect passive participle of , shut to keep the Jews out. News of the empty tomb had already spread (Mt 28:11). See Joh 7:13 for the phrase “for fear of the Jews”; cf. 12:42.
Stood in the midst ( ). Second aorist (ingressive) active (intransitive) of , “stepped into the midst.”
Peace be unto you ( ). The usual oriental salutation as in verses John 20:21; John 20:26; Luke 24:36, here with probable reference to Joh 14:27 (Christ’s legacy of peace).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Assembled. Omit.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
JESUS APPEARS TO DISCIPLES, THOMAS ABSENT V. 19-23
1) “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week,” (ouses oun opsias te hemera ekeine te mia sabbaton) “Then when it was (existed as) early evening, on the first one (day) of the week,” on the new sabbath, the new day of rest and worship, the Lord’s day. Earlier in the evening He appeared to two disciples on the Emmaus road, Mar 16:14; Luk 24:36; 1Co 15:5.
2) “When the doors were shut,” (kai ton thuron kekleismenon) “And when the doors had been shut,” closed or fastened, so that His sudden appearance was surely a miraculous one, reminding them of His miracles in life, Joh 20:30-31.
3) “Where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews,” (hopou esan hoi mathetai dia ton phrobon ton loudaion) “Where the brethren, church disciples were, gathered, had come together, congregated, or assembled, out of fear of the Jews,” Joh 7:13; Joh 12:42; Joh 19:38; Act 12:12-17. They were likely discussing the events of that day in awe and wonder.
4) “Came Jesus and stood in the midst,” (elthen ho lesous kai este eis to meson) “Jesus came and stood and walked in the midst of the seven churches of Asia, Rev 1:12-20; as also He appeared, Luk 24:36-37.
5) “And saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” (kai legei autois eirene humin) “And he said directly personally to them, Peace to you all,” or may peace exist in, to, or for all of you, as they were in awe, Joh 14:27; Eph 2:17. For this was the legacy that He had promised them.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
19. When, therefore, it was evening. The Evangelist now relates that the resurrection of Christ was proved to the disciples by his presence. It did not happen without the providence of God, that all were assembled in one place, that the event might be more certain and more manifest. It is worthy of notice how gently Christ acted towards them, in not keeping them in suspense any longer than till the evening. Besides, he enlightened them, bringing the pledge of a new life, while darkness was overspreading the world.
Where the disciples were assembled. As to their having assembled, it was an indication of faith, or, at least, of religious feelings. As to the circumstance of their keeping themselves concealed by shut doors, we perceive in it some proof of their weakness; for, though the strongest and boldest minds are sometimes seized with fear, yet it may easily be inferred that the apostles, at that time, trembled in such a manner as to manifest the deficiency of their faith. This example is worthy of notice; for, though they are less courageous than they ought to have been, still they do not give way to their weakness. True, they seek concealment for the sake of avoiding danger, but they gather courage so far as to remain together; otherwise they would have been scattered hither and thither, and no man would have ventured to look at his neighbor. In this manner we ought to struggle against the weakness of our flesh, and not to indulge fear, which tempts us to apostacy. Christ also blesses their zeal, when he appears to them while they are assembled; and Thomas is justly deprived of the favor bestowed on all his brethren, because, like a wandering soldier, he had withdrawn from the standard of union. Here, then, is a lesson for those who are excessively timid, to sharpen and encourage themselves to correct their carnal fear; and particularly they ought to beware lest fear should cause them to scatter.
And while the doors were shut. This circumstance was expressly added, because it contains a manifest proof of the Divine power of Christ; but this is utterly at variance with the meaning of the Evangelist. We ought, therefore, to believe that Christ did not enter without a miracle, in order to give a demonstration of his Divinity, by which he might stimulate the attention of his disciples; and yet I am far from admitting the truth of what the Papists assert, that the body of Christ passed through the shut doors. Their reason for maintaining this is, for the purpose of proving not only that the glorious body of Christ resembled a spirit, but that it was infinite, and could not be confined to any one place. But the words convey no such meaning; for the Evangelist does not say that he entered through the shut doors, but that he suddenly stood in the midst of his disciples, though the doors had been shut, and had not been opened to him by the hand of man. We know that Peter (Act 10:10) went out of a prison which was locked; and must we, therefore, say that he passed through the midst of the iron and of the planks? Away, then, with that childish trifling, which contains nothing solid, and brings along with it many absurdities! Let us be satisfied with knowing that Christ intended, by a remarkable miracle, to confirm his disciples in their belief of his resurrection.
Peace be to you! This is the ordinary form of salutation among the Hebrews; and by the word peace they denote all that cheerfulness and prosperity which is usually desired for a happy life. The phrase, therefore, means, “May you be well and prosperous!” I mention this, because there are some who, in explaining these words, enter into unnecessary discussions about peace and harmony, though Christ intended nothing else than to desire that his disciples might be happy and prosperous.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
Joh. 20:19. Evening of that day.I.e. the day on which our Lord rose from the dead.When the doors were shut.St. John notices this fact, not only to show how terror-stricken and despairing the disciples had become, but in order to indicate that Jesus entered the room in a miraculous manner. This fact gives us a glimpse of the power of the spiritual body, showing that it is not confined by material limits such as we know them; but it tells us nothing regarding its nature. Peace, etc.The disciples hearts were still troubled, therefore the first word of Jesus reminds them of one of His most blessed parting promises (Joh. 14:1; Joh. 14:27).
Joh. 20:20. He showed them, etc.The marks of the wounds received in winning redemption for them, to convince them that it was He whom they saw in very truth.
Joh. 20:21. As My Father, etc.Christs work on earth done by Him in actual bodily presence was completed; but the disciples were now to go forth in His strength to continue His work.
Joh. 20:22. Breathed on them, etc. (see Joh. 3:8; Gen. 2:7).The natural meaning of the words of Jesus is, Receive an effusion of the Spirit. What Jesus gives them is not a simple promise, but neither is it the fulness of the Spirit; it is an earnest. Raised Himself to a degree of higher life, He hastes to make them sharers in it as far as that is possible. This communication is to the Resurrection what Pentecost will be to the Ascension. As by Pentecost He will initiate them into His ascension, so by breathing on them now He associates them with His life as the Risen One (Godet).
Joh. 20:23. Whose soever sins ye remit, etc.The words, closely considered, amount to this: that with the gift and real participation of the Holy Spirit comes the conviction, and therefore the knowledge, of sin, of righteousness, and judgment; and this knowledge becomes more perfect, the more men are filled with the Holy Ghost. Since this is so, they who are pre-eminently filled with His presence are pre-eminently gifted with the discernment of sin and repentance in others, and hence by the Lords appointment authorised to pronounce pardon of sin, and the contrary. The apostles had this in an especial manner, and by the full indwelling of the Spirit were enabled to discern the hearts of men, and to give sentence on that discernment (see Act. 5:1-11; Act. 8:21; Act. 13:9). And this gift belongs to the Church in all ages, and especially to those who by legitimate appointment are set to minister in the Churches of Christ: not by successive delegation from the apostlesof which fiction I find no trace in the New Testamentbut by their mission from Christ, the Bestower of the Spirit for their office, when orderly and legitimately conferred upon them by the various Churches. Not however to them exclusively,though for decency and order it is expedient that the outward and formal declaration should be so:but in proportion as any disciple shall have been filled with the Holy Spirit of Wisdom, is the inner discernment, the , his. (Henry Alford, D.D.) See also Mat. 16:19; Mat. 18:18.
Joh. 20:30-31. It cannot be doubted that St. John, at the close of this chapter, before recording the special bearing of the resurrection life and spiritual power of Christ on the subsequent condition of the Church, gathers up the general significance of his Gospel and its relation to other books (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.). But these are written, etc.The Evangelist here states the object of his Gospel. It was not his purpose to write a complete account of Christs life, but to record a selected seriestypical of the wholeof those signs in word and work given by Christ which manifested His glory and proved His divine Sonship, which led to faith and salvation in the case of the disciples, and which thus would lead others also to believe and live.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Joh. 20:19-31
The peace of the Resurrection.The three portions (Joh. 20:19-23; Joh. 20:24-29; Joh. 20:30-31) into which this passage may be divided are not easily brought into unity in treatment. Hence many homilists treat only of one or other of the divisions. The joy of Christs resurrection, the path from doubt to faith, the office of the ministry, its source, its equipment, its mission, are the chief points in the passage. When catechumens are to be admitted (or confirmed) the reference to young believers, their profession, their solemn vows, their work, and their hopes, ought to be especially kept in view.
Introduction.(By His resurrection) Jesus proved Himself to be victor over sin, death, and the evil one. The Risen One has gained this victory for us; therefore those who are His should be sharers in the peace won by Him, and joyful in their faith. Thus the Risen One, even on the day of His resurrection, appeared to His followers in order to make them partakers of this peace. There is something especially blessed in this resurrection peace; and to-day we speak concerning it in order to quicken and increase our desires after it. In regard to this peace as the fruit of Christs resurrection we see
I. That it cannot be found by our own reason.
1. Thomas did not believe the tidings of the Resurrection. He desired to see first in order to believe, and therefore he missed the Easter message of peace.
2. Our natural reason seeks after proof from the senses before it is convinced. It shuts itself out from the fellowship of the faithful; the heart remains empty in its unrest and dejection.
II. How it is accorded by the Lord Jesus.
1. He conveyed it to the assembled disciples with His greeting. He ordained them to His ministry, by which His peace would be spread abroad. He pursued Thomas with compassionate love, and aided him to arrive at the acknowledgment of His divinity.
2. The ministry of the gospel proclaims in Christs stead the peace of the Risen One, imparts it to us in proclaiming forgiveness, follows our erring souls, seeks to persuade them and to lead them to that faith which will lay hold of Jesus peace.
III. It is accompanied by a true (spiritual) life.
1. Thomas confessed Jesus as Lord and God, indeed as his Lord and God, whose possession he would forthwith be, and to whom he looked for his true life.
2. The heart which has found true peace prevails over reason. Faith grows by means of the Word. In believing the life of Christ overflows within us, which blesses us for time and for eternity.J. L. Sommer.
Joh. 20:19-21. The joy of the Resurrection.It was the close of the Resurrection day, a day of gladness for humanity. But that gladness had as yet found entrance into few hearts onlyMary Magdalene and her sisters in sorrow, John the beloved disciple, and Simon (1Co. 15:5), and the two now hastening from Emmaus through the gathering gloom to tell their joyful news to those whom they had left sorrowing (Luk. 24:33). These two have just reached Jerusalem, and entered the house where the disciples had assembled within locked doors, for fear of the Jews; and ere they told their news were met with the words, The Lord is risen indeed, etc. (Luk. 24:24). As they sit pondering on these thingssome doubting, some half-persuaded, some believing, but all sorrowful and depressed, remembering how they had denied the Lord, and all thinking with troubled hearts of what might soon befall themthe Lord Himself suddenly stands in their midst. The bolted doors could not bar His entrance, and at first the disciples are afraid (Luk. 24:37; see Mat. 14:26). This Gospel gives the fullest account of what Jesus appearance brought to the disciples.
I. It brought them peace.
1. This peace they needed. Without were trouble and tribulation, within were fears. The Lords foes were the foes of His disciples.
2. There was little peace in their souls. The cross and shame had shattered their hopes, and were not yet become the symbol of victory and glory to them.
3. Then, even though strange rumours were abroad as to Christs having risen, and some of those present asserted the truth of this from their own personal knowledge, the truth does not seem to have met with anything like full credence, whilst in the hearts of all remained the bitter thought of having left their Lord in His hour of need.
4. Therefore the Lord came to them from the well-won fight to confer on them the firstfruits of His conquest, and raise them from their despondency and fear. Thus His first greeting recalls to their minds one of His last blessed promises (Joh. 14:27).
5. And it is thus the Redeemer brings peace to all waiting hearts. Those to whom the risen Christ has not been revealed have fightings without and fears within. The fear of death and eternity, the unrest of conscience, the feeling of degradation caused by sin, all cease when through the barriers and bolts that close up our hearts Christ comes to reveal Himself in His risen life, and brings with Him His peace.
II. It brought them joy.
1. When Jesus appeared among the disciples in order to allay their fears He showed them His hands and His side (Joh. 20:20 : comp. Luk. 24:39), as if He had said to them, See in these wounds what I have endured for you: why, then, should you fear?
2. Then we read that the disciples were glad, etc. Well might they be glad! The disappointed hopes, gloomy doubts and forebodings darkened their spiritual life. Spiritually, and so far as hope was concerned, they were like the dead host that Ezekiel saw in vision on the battle-plain, when bone had come to bone, etc., but the men lay prone without the breath of life and until the word of life was spoken. But among these spiritually torpid disciples the Life Himself now appeared, and as they felt the quickening influence of His presence, the darkness, the clouds and mists of doubt and fear began to disperse, and as the new day of hope arose upon them, no wonder they were glad.
3. They were glad to see their Lord again, to hear His voice, to rejoice in His presence. They rejoiced, for now the mystery of the cross and the grave would be becoming clear to them; the promise of His resurrection, and all it involved would now be recalled vividly. The conviction that He was indeed the Messiah, and that the things which He suffered, and which had almost bereft them of faith and hope, He ought to have suffered and to enter into His glory (Luk. 24:26), would come home to them with power, dispelling and scattering doubt and fear.
4. And they would be glad also that, in spite of their faithlessness in forsaking Him in the garden, and their want of trust in His teaching, their forgetfulness of His mighty works, He had not forsaken themthat He appeared to them so graciously, that His first greeting was one of peace.
5. And that gladness which Jesus brought to His disciples was not confined to them nor to the day of His resurrection. He brings not only peace but gladness into the hearts into which He enters. Because His entrance means forgiveness of the sinful, unbelieving past, it brings comfort to troubled souls; it gives assurance that the promises of Christ are yea and amen; it dispels the darkness that hitherto, through sin, has shut out the light of Gods countenance; and in the risen Christ, baring the marks of His soul-travail, it makes men rejoice in the revelation of infinite, eternal love.
Joh. 20:19-23. The Risen One for the first time among His disciples.The whole life of the Christian should be one of joy in the Resurrection. (This idea seems to meet us in our Gospel, in that it shows us the Risen One among His followers.) Our gaze is directed to
I. The closed doors through which He entered.All the witnesses, whose words agreed with so many clear predictions, could not confirm and make joyful the hearts of the disciples. The timorous little company sat anxiously behind closed doors. Our hearts also are often foolish and dejected, for which cause the Lord must often come unto us too through closed doors. Evil warders refuse Him entrance to us: the fear, that He may blame in place of comforting us; the doubt, that He cannot heal our sorrows; shamefacedness, lest He may find us all too unclean; anxiety, lest He should demand that which our heart will not let go; hesitancy, in view of what the world would say were He to come in unto us. Through closed doors the Lord must come to us, and only then will it be Eastertide in our souls.
II. The greeting He gave to the disciples.When the Risen One stepped into the circle of the disciples He did not at first reprove them, but absolved them and greeted them with unspeakable graciousness, Peace be with you! Thereby He called to their minds the fulfilment of His promises (Joh. 14:27; Joh. 16:33), and represented Himself as the Prince of Peace who had effected complete reconciliation. Thereby also He offers to each one who will have it the complete salvation won on the cross, the fulness of His grace.
III. The marks of the wounds which He showed them.The Lord showed them His hands and His side, and in these they beheld marks of love, marks of victory, marks of peace.
IV. The ordination that He imparted to them.The Lord imparted that ordination to His apostles, upon which afterward at the Ascension followed their introduction to the office of the ministry (comp. Mat. 28:18-20). The act of ordination has three steps: their sending forth (As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you); their equipment for the office (He breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost); their authority (Whose soever sins ye remit, etc., Joh. 20:23). This is an authority and prerogative, but also a responsibility, such as no monarch possesses, yet which is imparted, and will continue to be, to all servants of the divine Word.Appuhn, in J. L. Sommer.
Joh. 20:20. Faiths view of Christ.When the Lord of glory left His Fathers bosom and came into this world we are sure it was for a purpose suited to His divine nature. Christ came to make men glad. It was said of Him, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord hath appointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek, etc. (Isa. 61:1).
I. What it was not that made the disciples glad.
1. It was not riches. They were all poor fishers: none of them bad nets of their own. Like their Lord, they were poor. One of them once said, Lord, I will follow Thee, whithersoever Thou goest. Jesus said, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath nowhere to lay His head. When Jesus rose again He did not give His disciples riches.
2. It was not friends that made the disciples glad.
3. Their joy did not proceed from their own righteousness. Some have all their joy from looking at themselves. The disciples did not do this. Ah, no! What would they have seen had they done so? They had once known the Lord; but they had all forsaken Him in His sufferings; one of them had denied Him: they were cast down; they did not know what to do; but they were glad when they saw the Lord.
4. The disciples joy did not flow from a sight of Christ with the bodily eyes. Ah! some of you may think, Oh, if I had been there, I would have been glad; but it was not seeing Him with the bodily eye that made them glad, for two reasons. First of all, because many saw Him, and only wagged the head and spat upon Him. Second reason: It was not by seeing Christ with the bodily eye, for many have felt the same joy that the disciples did who never saw Christ with the bodily eye.
5. The disciples joy did not proceed from seeing their Master again. The joy they had flowed from looking at His hands and side.
II. What it was that made the disciples glad.
1. It was the sense they had got that His work was finished. When they saw His hands and His side, they saw His work was all completed.
2. The disciples were glad, for they saw Jesus was their living Head. Because I live, ye shall live also. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. The disciples were no doubt sadthey felt a load of guilt; but now they would rejoice, for they had got a sight of Him as an ever-living Saviour.
III. You may learn from this if you are disciples.
1. What does your joy flow from? Does it flow from riches, from friends? The disciples joy proceeded from a spiritual sight of the Lord Jesus.
2. Seek a sight of Jesus. Oh! seek this joya joy that will not pass away.
3. To you that are seeking Christ night and day. Oh! how glad you will be when you find the Lord! Look away from all to Jesus. Oh! look to Him as a crucified, risen Saviour.
4. To you that once had this joy, but have backslidden and lost it. Ah! you must look again to Jesus. Learn, all of you, the folly of self-righteousness. Suppose the disciples had looked to themselves, what would they have seen? One had denied, all of them had forsaken Him in His sufferings; but the disciples looked only to Jesus, Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Look, then, to Jesus, and you will have true peace, true joy, fulness of joyjoy that the world cannot give nor take away. You that are Christs Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice.McCheyne.
Joh. 20:21-23. A divine mission and a divine power.Not only did Christ reassure His disciples, and make them glad by His greeting and presence at the close of the Day of Resurrection; He gave them a mission which would further increase their joy, and fill their hearts with grateful love. For it would show them that they were still to be privileged to remain in His service after all that had come and gone during the past few days.
I. The mission on which the disciples were to be sent.
1. This commission Christ gave them was in reality a proof of their reinstatement into the apostolic officethe assurance that it was still theirs, though they had brought grievous shame on it by their want of faith and fortitude.
2. It was a mission analogous to that on which He Himself had come to the world (Joh. 17:18). He had been sent into the world to redeem it through His life and works, His truth and His atoning death. But now, though He was ascending to His Father, that work was not to cease; and its instruments for the beginning of it were before Him. Already with awakening faith and hope, with hearts beating with a new gladsome energy, they were being made fit for that work, and to be the precursors of a mighty army of labourers in the worlds harvest fields, who should reap and gather fruit unto life eternal (Joh. 4:36-37).
3. But this work was all dependent on Christs work. Had He not laboured and travailed the reaping would have been one of wrath only, and not of joy. And although Christs work is far above that of the apostles, and members of the Christian Church to-day, yet it had, it has, the same end, the glory of God in the redemption of men. This is the mission confided to the whole Christian Church. But how remiss many of its members are! They pray, Thy kingdom come, yet stand coldly looking on whilst others labour in the harvest field, and others still bring help and sustenance to the actual labourers. When will all Christians rise to a sense of their lofty duty and heavenly calling?
II. Power for the exercise of their high office was then given by the Lord to His apostles (Joh. 20:22).
1. It was as when the word of power in prophetic vision was spoken (Eze. 37:9). Those who were spiritually meet, etc., were quickened for service.
2. And it was not a promise merely of what should follow at Pentecost; it was a real gift, though not the full outpouring of the Spirit. It was, as it were, a seal of their new call to the apostolic office, and an earnest of the fuller, richer outpouring yet to follow, when Jesus had ascended to the Fathers right hand. But ere that it was needful that a special gift should be imparted, so that in the interval the feeble Church might be strengthened to cohere and endure. And by breathing on them now, and giving them an effusion of the Spirit, Christ associated them with Himself in His life as the Risen One.
3. And it must be remembered that this divine breathing of the Spirit was not conferred on apostles alone; others were present. It is therefore typical and prophetic of the fuller outpouring on Pentecost proceeding from the Father and the Son. And this incident teaches that it is not intellect, or knowledge of tongues, or eloquence that makes a man an apostle, a missionary, one sent. It is now, as then, the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is not baptism or Church membership or knowledge of Scripture that makes men and women true disciples of Christ. Now, as of old, it is a gift of the Holy Ghost. Is it the lack of this gift that makes the Church so weak, and hinders the love for and the advance of the kingdom of God?
III. The power to remit and retain sins was given to the apostles with the divine office and gift.
1. This power, promised before (Mat. 16:19; Mat. 18:18), was now conferred not on the apostles individually, or as apostles only (for others were presentLuk. 24:33), but on those there assembled as representing the whole Church. 2. Only he who believes in the Risen One, who seeks and finds forgiveness on the way of true repentance and genuine faith, is in a position to pass a just sentence, and to use aright the keys of the divine kingdom. Such a one will testify with unwavering freedom against sin wherever and whenever he may find it, and shut it out with Gods word and in His name. But yet with tireless patience will he seek to erect the broken reed and to warn the erring, and entreat, invite, entice, so that they, coming in repentance and faith, may have the kingdom opened to them. Both are necessarythe retaining as well as the remission. Where there is no power to retain, neither is there power to declare remission. It is indeed an act of divine love to keep back the impenitent and openly sinful from holy things. And there need be no fear of a misuse of this power when the Holy Spirit dwells in the Church and its ministers (F. Arndt).
3. This power is given to the whole Church; but as all the members cannot exercise it, it is committed to the regularly appointed servants of the Church. They exercise it for the community. But if the spiritual life of the community be low and the servants hands be not upheld by prayer, then this power may fall into disuse, and the Church be corrupted and weakened. But in that case, though not openly, yet really, the binding and loosing are still exercised from the heavenly throne.
Joh. 20:24-30. Thomas.
I. The character of Thomas.In the very few words the gospel narrative has given us concerning this man, how clearly it has set his character before us! A plain-sailing, common-sense, practical, matter-of-fact man, with no idea of grasping anything supernatural; but lovingdevotedly and bravelyJesus as a Teacher, a Master, a Man. A few weeks before this, when he thought his Master was madly rushing to His death at the hands of the priests and Jewish mob, Let us go with Him and defend Him, cried this true-hearted follower, and if we cannot save Him, let us die with Him! And when what he had feared at length happened, and his Master died in the hands of His enemies, no heart more truly than that of Thomas mourned his murdered Lord. And no heart more sorely mourned for the Masters cause, which he looked on as lost and gone for ever.
II. The unbelief of the disciple.The disciples told him of the Master risenthe Master appearing to them, speaking to them. Thomas sadly shook his head. No, no! that was something he could not believe! That a man, crucified and buried, should come alive and rise! It was some wild delusion of theirs! He did not care to join them in their meetings. He went about alone, cheerless, hopeless, in melancholy musings, thinking of Him whom he had loved so dearly, gone from his sight for ever. And the kingdom he had hoped his Lord was to establish! that had perished with Him! Thomas was no infidel, no traitor, no turncoat, no faithless forsaking disciple. His faith in his Lord was strong as ever. His love to the memory of his Lord was true as ever. But Thomas could not, would not, believe anything except it was attested to him on the evidence of his senses: And such was his answer when they told him they had seen their Lord. Only if that testimony were given him which his mind demanded as necessary would he believe that his Lord had risen.
III. The Redeemers dealing with Thomas, and the disciples confession.How well the Saviour knew all His followers in all their varying shades of characterin all their strength and all their weakness, in all their individual peculiarities! And how considerately and tenderly He dealt with each! How gently condescending was He with the special weakness of this one man! Had they told Jesus, think you, those words, that bold demand of Thomas? Nay! we may be very sure Jesus needed not to be told. Another first day of the week came round; and they met again, Thomas with them. No door was opened. No one saw His entrance. But suddenly the risen Lord was there! To all in the room there His peace was spoken; and then He turned to Thomas. The test the disciple had demanded was before him now, was within his reach. But the Bible does not tell us that Thomas applied the test. There is a marked silence as to that, which one would imagine leads most readers to understand that the spear-wound in the side and the nail-prints on feet and hands were not needed now, when Thomas looked on the face he knew so well, and heard the voice-tones that thrilled his very heart. He was practical and common-sense, and what not; and he needed, poor man, the very plainest proof. But he had it. His living Lord was before him in that room, looking on him, speaking to him. And Thomas made the confession of his faith in two wordsof wondrous meaning. My Lord! Yes; all doubt had vanished, and he knew that Jesus, the Lord, the Master he had loved and followed, was before him. And my God he addedfor his faith, once set in motion, bounded high into the world unseen; and he owned his earthly Lord as more, far morealmighty, the Son of God.
IV. The blessedness of faith.The Saviour said that day to Thomas something which concerns us. We have not seen. But oh, let us seek by His grace to be of those who yet have believed. And if so, then we arefor the Lord said it that dayblessed.
We stood not by the empty tomb
Where late Thy sacred body lay,
Nor sat within that upper room,
Nor met Thee in the open way;
But we believe that angels said,
Why seek the living with the dead?
Rev. Thomas Hardy.
Joh. 20:29. The blessedness of those who have not seen, yet believe.The presence of Thomas among the disciples and the record of his experience should teach the Church to be patient in dealing with doubt and unbelief. Here was one who was evidently an attached follower of the Saviour, who had been drawn to Jesus by the magnetism of love, but whose materialistic and pessimistic cast of mind, which had already more than once shown itself (Joh. 11:16; Joh. 14:5), led at last after the Crucifixion to sullen and even bitter despair and unbelief. Yet, in the end, of all the disciples it was he who gave utterance to the highest expression of faith in our Lords divinity.
I. The proximate cause of the unbelief of Thomas.
1. The remark in Joh. 20:24 appears to intimate that there was a certain amount of blame in the absence of Thomas. This was a result of that weak side of his character which he had not yet learned to distrust: that trust in his own judgment, the refusal to see or believe nothing but what came within his limited ken. He could see nothing but the outward aspect of the crossthe awful tragedy which had shattered his hopes, and filled him with gloomy despair.
2. All the words of Jesus as to what was to come after the death which He foretold were either forgotten by Thomas or relegated to the region of idle dreams. The scene at the grave of Lazarus was forgotten. If he did remember it, it might only be to put aside the thought. A living Christ might do such mighty works; but One who was crucified, dead, buriedthe dream for Thomas was over. It had been pleasant whilst it lasted; but now had come the awful awakening, and with it bitter grief, unbelief, despair.
3. Thus he had refrained from meeting with his fellow-disciples. Of what use were it to dwell on past hopes, and thus increase the burden of present sorrow? What comfort could they bring each other? Better with set face and resolved heart to forget the past, and front what they had to meet in the hopeless future. And when the disciples met him and told of the risen Redeemer, not only did the story seem to him, as at first it appeared to the others, an idle tale (Luk. 24:11), but there appears to be a ring of hardness in his voice as he lays down the only conditions on which he will believe. There is a touch of impatience in his words, as if he had said, You say you saw the wound in His side, etc.; you will not find me so easily convinced. Except I shall put my finger, etc. And thus for the time at least he remained, proud perhaps of his superior insight and rationality.
II. The blessedness of faith.
1. It is possible that before Thomas became a disciple he had been influenced to some extent by that philosophical rationalism prevalent at the time, which found its chief expression among the Jews in the sect of the Sadducees. A mind of his caste could hardly fail to have been troubled by the new thought of the time.
2. The words of the disciples would seem, however, to have awakened a glimmer of hope in his darkened soul. And when after eight days had passed Jesus again appeared among the disciples, Thomas was one of the company. The Lord offered him the proof he demanded. But to see was enough for him. At once his despair and unbelief were swept away, and in a transport of joy and adoration he testified to the foolishness of his unbelief, and made full confession of the Godhead of the risen Lord.
3. Whilst in the words of Jesus in Joh. 20:29 there is certainly a gentle reproof of His disciples faithlessness, and consequently of all similar unbelief at all times, there is yet more of comfort and joy for faithful disciples who have not seen and yet believe.
4. Our Lord does not mean here to inculcate a blind unthinking faith, or require that men should not seek to be able to give a reason for the faith that is in them. But Thomas, confident in his own rationalistic way of thinking, refused to accept the testimony of the others, because it did not coincide with what seemed to him must be the truth. His mind, like that of many, was keenly alive to the things of sense and time, but contracted in its outlook on spiritual realities. In the words of Christ, in the testimony of others, he had sufficient proof of the Lords resurrection, and yet he refused to look at the evidence.
5. Mere sight, sure evidence, may not lead to faith. Many of our Lords contemporaries saw Christ, heard His teaching, beheld His mighty works, and yet believed not. Their lot was not blessedness, but woe (Mat. 11:20-24; Mat. 23:13).
6. The blessedness of those who believe, although they do not see, consists in the possession of the spiritual mind which discerns spiritual things (Joh. 3:5-6; Joh. 3:12; Rom. 8:6). This lifts them above the tyranny of the seen and temporal, which by their continual fluctuation cause unrest in the spiritual life, and often deprive the soul of comfort and peace. Those who through faith have learned to rest on Him who is the same yesterday, etc. (Heb. 13:8), have an unmovable foundation on which to build lifes activity (1Co. 3:12). In all this there is blessedness.
7. And all may have this blessedness. All could not see Christ, although certainly it was a source of joy to the disciples to have done so. But even for them it was expedient that He should go away (Joh. 16:7). The disciples saw Him, and their testimony, confirmed by arduous labour, and in most cases by martyrdom, should be sufficient to convince. And all may have the spiritual gifts Christ bestows from His throne; being born from above, and receiving that influence of the Spirit which began at Pentecost, they may have the witness in themselves and the blessedness of those who have not seen, etc.
Joh. 20:19-29. What we may learn from the intercourse of Jesus with His disciples after the Resurrection.
I. How gentle was Jesus with His disciples.True He upbraided them with their unbelief, etc. (Mar. 16:14). But whilst He reproves, it is for their profit. This Gospel tells of His tenderness and loveHis reassuring greeting, His blessed gift, etc. It specially records His gentle dealing with Thomas, and thus gives a pattern to the Church in all time as to the manner in which troubled, doubting disciples should be dealt with.
II. The materialistic spirit which refuses credence to what cannot be tested, etc., by the senses, is to be avoided and repressed.Are the senses themselves infallible? Do they never err? Is there no truth above and beyond material fact? Far otherwise, say the great thinkers of all ages. They realise that knowledge is limited, that there are spheres beyond mens reach both in the world of matter and mind, that the wisest is a very infant in knowledge, with infinitude around him. Happy he to whom spiritual discernment is given to receive the great truths revealed by God concerning the higher life. Then his lifes path will stretch before him, cleared from uncertainty and brightened with hope and promises as he presses toward the mark.
III. It is not well to forsake the assemonies of Christs people, lest a blessing be lost.Had Thomas been among the disciples on the morning of resurrection he might not have fallen so deeply into unbelief. It is not wise for any simply because they cannot understand some of Gods ways or part of His word to forsake the worship of His houseto imagine that because one point cannot be understood the whole must be obscure, and that ministers as fallible men, like their hearers, will not be able to clear up what seems mysterious, etc. Spiritual truth is not grasped by the intellect. One of moderate intellectual ability may make spiritual truth clear. And, however that may be, where Christs people wait on Him, He will be present; and to those souls who long to know Him He will reveal Himself, however simple or humble the worship and thought.
Joh. 20:30-31. The purpose of Johns Gospel.The declaration of these great truths was fitted to lead those who received them to faith, and those who already believed to deeper trust, more close and abiding union with the living Vine, and therefore to life. And thus John fitly states here the purpose of his Gospel, when he has shown how it has led even the doubting disciple to adoring faith. And there was no need for the apostle to narrate the ascension of our Lord. To the disciples that was implied in His resurrection (Joh. 20:17). It did not need that event to confirm their faith.
I. The limitations laid down in carrying out his purpose.
1. The Evangelist simply drew what was sufficient for his purpose from a full store, reverently gathered by him (see Introduction, pp. 710).
2. He did not think it necessary in this book to go over ground already occupied by other books, i.e. the other Gospels. It was sufficient for him to record from his own personal experience such signs as Jesus did, both in word and deed, in the presence of His disciples, as chosen witnesses of the truth; which signs having led him and his fellow-disciples to faith and higher life, would be fitted to lead others also to the same blessed haven.
3. Doubtless there were many other details of the life of Jesus which might have been recorded. But it is not necessary to record every word and every action of a life in order that we may know what manner of life it was. The multiplication of incidents, etc., might only tend to burden the mind and lead to a confused rather than to a clear image.
4. The Gospel writers, guided by the Spirit, were true artists in divine biography. They display what is characteristic of all the books of Scripturea wise reticence. The result is not only clearness in details, but a succinctness which brings the whole history within a moderate compass.
II. The record is that of an eye-witness confirmed by others.
1. The signs which Jesus did were not done in a corner. They were done in the presence of faithful men, some of whom suffered martyrdom, and all of them persecution for their faith, thus witnessing to the sincerity of their testimony.
2. Thus the writer did not set down cunningly devised fables; he recorded facts which he could personally vouch for, and words which no one but the eternal Logos could have spoken. Those facts thus attested, and those words of heavenly wisdom, bring their own evidence with them. Johns book is therefore no fiction, but a record of divine truth, testifying to the divine Sonship of Christ.
III. The chief purpose of the record.
1. It is that which Christ Himself brought to Johnlife through believing in Christs name, i.e. through trust in His divine power.
2. It was for this purpose that the wonderful life was manifested (Joh. 1:4; Joh. 1:12). This Gospel shows how through faith, leading to trustful abiding in Christ, unity with Him results, and the participation in His life which is life eternal. I am come that they might have life, etc. (Joh. 10:18).
3. This life begins on earth, but is neither of the world nor influenced by it (Gal. 2:20). It is above the worldhid with Christ in Godleading men to set their affections on things above, to have their conversation in heaven.
4. The Church to-day witnesses to the truth of this record. Believing in Christs name still brings life into the soul, makes men new creations. Men may have the witness in themselves. Happy are those who have. Then it will be their joy to spread this faithful record, so that others may be moved to believe, and may attain to life, and that thus over the whole earth the true Life and Light of men may bring salvation (Isa. 60:1-3).
HOMILETIC NOTES
Joh. 20:19-20. The risen Redeemers greeting of peace.
I. It is to the disciples a most joyful word (Joh. 20:19-20).
II. It is to the world an acclaim full of blessing.
III. It is to the wavering a great, divine power.M. Herold.
Joh. 20:21-23. How the Lord equips His servants for their office.He gives them
I. For their hearts, His peace.
II. For their preaching, His Spirit.
III. For their activity, His authority.
IV. For the result, His promises.J. L. Sommer.
Joh. 20:23. The power of forgiving sins.The result of a careful examination of Biblical teaching upon this subject is the acceptance of the following propositions:
1. That the power of forgiving sins is divinely bestowed upon the disciples of Jesus Christ in their corporate capacity, and that such power is in harmony with the purpose of Jesus Christs mediation and the genius of the religious epoch in which we live.
2. That Jesus Christ taught the doctrine of individual confession to the offended individual, and called upon the offended individual to forgive the offender upon receiving such confession.
3. That nowhere in the sacred Scriptures is forgiveness promised apart from confession and restitution, whether the sin lies between man and man, or between man and God.
4. That nowhere in the sacred Scriptures is there any authority given to any official person, bishop, priest, minister, or deacon, to receive secretly and confidentially a confession of sins.
5. That the confession of sins is too sacred a duty, involving consequences too many and important, to be reduced to a system and presided over by any single human being.
6. That all overt sin has a human as well as a divine aspect, and that the Church, inspired and sanctified by the Holy Ghost, has power to deal with the human aspect, according to the nature of the confession which the sinner may make.
7. That to shrink from receiving confession of sin, and dealing with it according to its merits, may have the appearance of great reverence and humility, without the realitymay show that the Church has part in the first baptism only, and not in the baptism of fire.
8. That to avoid all priestly pretension, and destroy the confessional, that infinitely hateful institution which has degraded and oppressed every nation in which it has found an existence, and further to show that all who have the Holy Ghost are kings and priests unto God, the sinner should openly confess his overt sins in the presence of the Church (which could be done by writing, or before such a number of witnesses as the Church itself might appoint), and receive from the Church such comfort as can never be refused to those who truly confess and heartily repent their sins.Dr. Joseph Parker.
Joh. 20:28. The worship of Jesus.At other times such visible worship of our Saviour was an act of acknowledgment or of thanksgiving for mercies received. Thus the holy women when the risen Jesus met them, saying, All hail, came and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him (Mat. 28:9). Thus apparently, Mary of Magdala, in her deep devotion, had motioned to embrace His feet in the garden, when Jesus bade her Touch Me not (Joh. 20:17). Thus the eleven disciples met our Lord by appointment on a mountain in Galilee, and when they saw Him, as it would seem, in their joy and fear, they worshipped Him (Mat. 28:17). Thus, pre-eminently, St. Thomas uses the language of adoration, although it is not said to have been accompanied by any corresponding outward act. When, in reproof for his scepticism, he had been bidden to probe the wounds of Jesus, he burst forth into the adoring confession, My Lord and my God.[8] Thus when the ascending Jesus was being borne upwards into heaven, the disciples, as if thanking Him for His great glory, worshipped Him, and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy.H. P. Liddon (Bampton Lectures).
[8] Against the attempt of Theodore of Mopsuestia and others to resolve this into an ejaculation addressed to the Father, see Alford, in loc.
Joh. 20:29. The certainty of our Saviours resurrection.The resurrection of a body, before its total dissolution, is easier to be believed, than after it; and it was this last sort of resurrection which puzzled Thomass reason. Various objections being removed, Christs resurrection is proposed to our belief upon certain and sufficient grounds:
I. The constant, uniform affirmation of such persons as had sufficient means to be informed of the truth, and were of an unquestionable sincerity.
II. The miracles which confirmed the apostles words.
III. That such tradition has greater reason for its belief, than can be suggested for its disbelief.
We ought to admire the commanding excellency of faith, which can force its way through the opposition of carnal reason, with an entire submission to divine revelation.South.
Joh. 20:30-31. The object which the Evangelist had in view in writing this Gospel we are not left to find out for ourselves. He explicitly says that his purpose in writing was to promote the belief that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (Joh. 20:31). This purpose, he judges, he will best accomplish, not by writing an essay, nor by framing an abstract argument in advocacy of the claims of Jesus, but by reproducing in his Gospel those manifestations of His glory which elicited faith in the first disciples and in others. That which had produced faith in his own case and in that of his fellow-disciples, will, he thinks, if fairly set before men, produce faith in them also. He relates, therefore, with the utmost simplicity of language, the scenes in which Jesus seemed to him most significantly to have revealed His power and His goodness, and most forcibly to have demonstrated that the Father was in Him. At the same time he keeps steadily in view the circumstance that these manifestations had not always produced faith, but that alongside of a growing faith there ran an increasing unbelief which at length assumed the form of hostility and outrage. This unbelief he feels called upon to account for. He feels called upon to demonstrate that its true reason lay, not in the inadequacy of Christs manifestations, but in the unreasonable and unspiritual requirements of the unbelieving, and in their alienation from God. The Gospel thus forms the primary apologetic, which by its very simplicity and closeness to reality touches at every point the underlying causes and principles of faith and unbelief.Marcus Dods.
Joh. 20:30-31. St. Johns method as an Evangelist.As a polemical writer, St. John selects and marshals his materials with a view to confuting, from historical data, the humanitarian or docetic errors of the time. St. John is anxious to bring a particular section of the life of Jesus to bear upon the intellectual world of Ephesus. He puts forward an aspect of the original truth which was certain to command present and local attention; he is sufficiently in correspondence with the age to which he ministers, and with the speculative temper of the men around him. He had been led to note and to treasure up in his thought certain phases of the teaching and character of Jesus with especial care. He had remembered more accurately those particular discourses, in which Jesus speaks of His eternal relation to the Father, and of the profound mystic communion of life into which He would enter with His followers through the Holy Spirit and the Sacraments. These cherished memories of St. Johns earlier years, unshared in their completeness by less privileged apostles, were well fitted to meet the hard necessities of the Church during the closing years of the beloved disciple. To St. John the gnosis of Cerinthus must have appeared to be in direct contradiction to the sacred certainties which he had heard from the lips of Jesus, and which he treasured in his heart and memory. In order to confute the heresy which separated the man Jesus from the on Christ, he had merely to publish what he remembered of the actual words and works of Jesus. His translation of those divine words may be coloured, by a phraseology current in the school which he is addressing, sufficiently to make them popularly intelligible. But the peculiarities of his language have been greatly exaggerated by criticism, while they are naturally explained by the polemical and positively doctrinal objects he had in view. To these objects, the language, the historical arrangement, the selection from conversations and discourses before unpublished, the few deeply significant miracles, the description of opponents by a generic namethe Jewswhich ignores the differences of character, class, and sect among them, and notices them only so far as they are in conflict with the central truth manifested in Jesus,all contribute. But these very peculiarities of the Fourth Gospel subserve its positive devotional and didactic aim even more directly than its controversial one. The false gnosis is refuted by an exhibition of the true. The true is set forth for the sake of Christian souls. These things are written that ye might, etc.H. P. Liddon (Bampton Lectures).
ILLUSTRATIONS
Joh. 20:19-29. The manner in which Christ manifested His resurrection.Christ, the great Sun of righteousness and Saviour of the world, having by a glorious rising, after a red and bloody setting, proclaimed His deity to men and angels, and by a complete triumph over the two grand enemies of mankind, sin and death, set up the everlasting gospel in the room of all false religions, has now, as it were, changed the Persian superstition into the Christian devotion; and, without the least approach to the idolatry of the former, made it henceforth the duty of all nations, Jews and Gentiles, to worship the rising Sun. But as the sun does not display his rising to all parts of the world together, nor to the same region shows his whole light at the same instant, but by weaker glimmerings at the first gradually ascends to clearer and clearer discoveries, and at length beams it forth with full diffusion; so Christ here discovered Himself after His rising, not to all His apostles at once, nor to any of them with the same evidence at first, but by several ascending instances and arguments, till in the end He shone out in His full meridian, and made the proof of His resurrection complete in His ascension. Thomas we have one of the last in this chorus, resolving to tie his understanding close to his senses; to believe no further than be could see, nor to venture himself out but where he could feel his way. He would not, it seems, take a miracle upon hearsay, nor resolve his creed into report, nor, in a word, see with any eyes but his own. No; be must trace the print of the nails, follow the spear into our Saviours side, till he even touched the miracle, and felt the article of the resurrection. But as in the too inquisitive beholder, who is not content to behold the Sun by reflection, but by a direct intuition of His glorious body, there comes such a light, as at the same time both informs and chastises the over-curious eye; so Christ here, in His discovering Himself to this doubting apostle, condescends indeed to convince him in his own way; but so, that while He complies with his infirmity, He also upbraids his infidelity; humouring His patient, but not sparing his distemper; and yet all this with so gentle a hand, and such an allay of sweetness, that the reproof is only collateral or consequential, not directly reproaching him for his unbelief, but implicitly reflecting upon it, by commending the belief of others; nothing in the meantime sharp or corrosive dropping from His healing lips, even in passing such a reprehension upon His disciple. He only shows him his blind side in an opposite instance, and so leaves him to read his own case in an antithesis, and to shame himself by a comparison.South.
Christ, in manifesting His resurrection to the world, proceeded, after a very different way from what mere human sense or reason would probably have suggested, or looked for in such a case.Calvin.
Joh. 20:19. Peace be unto you.Nature prescribes reprisals; for nature is only flesh and blood, and vehement desires and hot passions, ordinarily controlled only by considerations of social prudence. Leaning upon nature, we may as well despair of getting beyond her as of forcing water to rise permanently above its natural level. But if we will we may reach a higher standard, since we are not really left to our own resources. It is the Spirit that quickeneth. He does not merely prescribe, He transforms. He is perpetually asserting His presence by His spiritual transformations; He makes the feeble strong, and the melancholy bright, and the cold-blooded fervent, and the irascible gentle, and the uninstructed wise, and the conceited humble, and the timid unflinching. And now, as of old, He filleth the hungry with good things, but the rich He hath sent empty away. He has but a scant measure of endowments to bestow on those who find in the things of sense, in the pursuit or worship of wealth and rank and reputation, their deepest and most solid satisfaction. He gives Himself most fully to those who ask for Him secretly and often. O blessed gift, so bounteously given in baptism, and then again and again repeated, of the Spirit of Christ! We seek Him without, and we find Him within us; we seek Him in great assemblies, and find Him in solitude; we seek Him in the understanding, we find Him in the heart. He enters the soul when all the doors of sense are shut; He gives His benediction to each and all of its faculties: Peace be unto you (Joh. 20:21). The soul hears him, it sees Him not; the soul feels Him, yet as if insensibly; and His presence is itself that peace of God which passeth all understanding. Henceforth enriched by His indwelling, the souls desire is to desire nothing, its will to will for nothing, its care to care for nothing, its wealth to possess nothing, out of God, its one, its everlasting treasure. This is not mysticism; it is the experience of those who have heard within themselves that there is a Holy Ghost. This is the subjective side of lives which have been spent in the purest and most unselfish benevolence, but the secret of whose strength has escaped the notice of ordinary lookers-on. Depend upon it, the kingdom of the Spirit is as near to us as it was to our fathers, and that no changes of human opinion can affect the irrevocable gifts of God. One day, each and all, we shall look back upon its blessed opportunities, upon its high responsibilities, with what feelings of self-reproach or of gratitude, who shall say? Let us be wise while we may. Let us lay not up for ourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but let us lay up, etc. (Mat. 6:19).H. P. Liddon.
Joh. 20:19. The blessedness of those who have Christs peace.If we would live peaceably ourselves, we should endeavour to preserve peace and prevent differences, and reconcile dissensions among others, by doing good offices and making fair representations of intercurrent passages between them; by concealing causes of future disgust, and removing present misunderstandings, and excusing past mistakes; by allaying their passions and rightly informing their minds; by friendly intercessions and pacific advices. For the fire that devoureth our neighbours house threateneth and endangereth ours; and it is hard to approach contention without being engaged therein. Tis not easy to keep ourselves indifferent or neutral, and doing so we shall in likelihood be maligned and persecuted by both the contending parties. Blessed are the peacemakers, saith our Saviour; for they shall be called the sons of God: that is, they shall be highly esteemed and reverenced for this divine quality, wherein they so nearly resemble the God of peace and His blessed Son, the great Mediator. But, further, without respect to other recompense, and from the nature of their employment, such are immediately happy; and in this their virtuous practice rewards itself, that by appeasing others quarrels they save themselves from trouble, and enjoy themselves that tranquillity which they procure to others. But those informing sycophants, those internuncios of pestilent tales, and incendiaries of discord, that (from bad nature or upon base design) by the still breath of clandestine whispers, or by the more violent blasts of impudent calumnies, kindle the flames of dissension, or foment them among others, separating between chief friends, and widening the distance between others, reap in the end mischief and disturbance to themselves, nor can expect to enjoy the benefit of that quiet which they labour to deprive others of.Isaac Barrow.
Joh. 20:21. Living as children of the Resurrection.Why wonder that all around us Christians in the Church is supernatural, if it be thus a continuous exercise of the power which raised Jesus from the dead? Or that our Bible is essentially unlike all merely human books? Or that the Church, our mother and our home, is distinct in essence from the perishing politics and societies around it? Or that in the holy sacraments we have the sources and supports of a life that nature could neither create nor sustain? Or that in Christian souls we behold graces of which nature is incapable; faith, hope, charitycharity of the deepest, tenderest kind toward God, and for Gods sake toward man; humility, purity, patience; a joy which no earthly pleasure could minister; a peace which passeth all understanding? For all that really quickens and strengthens the Christian soul is His work who raised Jesus from the grave. The resurrection of our Lord is the measure of the risen life. The risen life is, in the mental and moral order of things, what the Resurrection is among the phenomena which are discerned by the senses. The reality of the moral fact before our eyes is bound up with the reality of its historical counterpart. If Christs resurrection is not a fact, then is Christianity false from the first and altogether, and its spiritual no less than its intellectual life is a delusion. If Christs resurrection be a factso certain that Christians would die to attest itthen the supernatural character of the Christian life around us corresponds with the strictly supernatural fact from which it dates its origin. And as we take the measure of the beauty and power and glory of this new and higher life which has been thus bountifully bestowed on men, what remains but to lift up heart and voice to God, and cry, It is meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O Lord, holy Father, almighty, everlasting God? Yes! one thing else remains: to see that we are living as those who are risen with Christ. This glorious life has manners, a temper, a bearing, a line of conduct, a code of honour, peculiarly its own. The grace of God does not put force upon our wills: we are free to obey or to resist it. Therefore the apostle adds, Seek those things that are above. Surely, brethren, there is need for this warning; even when, as we trust, the light of heaven is already beaming on our understandings, and the love of God is already Warming our hearts.H. P. Liddon.
Joh. 20:25. Faith and evidence.There is not a little of unbelief in these words. Thomas impugned the truth of all the testimony he had listened to. He wounded his fellow-disciples most deeply, while he apparently considered them all visionaries or liars, and himself alone wise; and trusted more to the evidence of his fingers than the testimony of his ten fellow-disciples. He boldly and pertly prescribed to the Lord the only kind of evidence he (Thomas) would be willing to receive; he laid down the most definite conditions as to the only manner in which he would be willing to acknowledge Christ as the risen One, and brought his incredulity to wear an aspect of sheer obstinacy. But is this not the manner of unbelievers in all times? Is it not so to-day? Is it not the characteristic mark of unbelief that it demands that everything should be proved, vouched for, immediately and palpably to the senses? And are not the head shaken and the shoulders shrugged by many, when belief is asked for on what cannot be seen by the eyes or grasped by the hand? And is it not frequently said in the way of excuse that the Lord Himself demands no blind faith, and that St. Paul exhorts men to prove all things, and hold fast what is good? that it is impossible, even unjustifiable, for one to believe everythingthat, above all, a man must be thoroughly convinced of the grounds of belief? that it is natural for sober and reasonable men not to credit all at once and without proof, on the word of the narrator, extraordinary facts as being absolutely true? that to err is human, and that the wisest of men have been deceived, not to speak of enthusiastic, imaginative Eastern women, or of a Peter who was always precipitate in his assertions, or a John who was the youngest of the apostles, with the most mobility of mind? A faith which knows not why it believes is not a true, firm faith, but a reed shaken with the wind, exposed to be influenced by every storm, by new teachers and novel opinions. In these assertions there is almost as much of what is false as of what is true. It is true we must not believe without solid ground for doing so, and must avoid credulity. But the truths of Holy Writ are truths which stand on a most firm foundation, and can point to an authority for themselves which is as eternal as God Himself. Are some of these truths beyond our reason? They are yet not contrary to it; and the reason why men do not believe them lies not so much in the doctrine and facts of Scripture, as in the hearts of men themselves.Translated from F. Arndt.
Joh. 20:28. The faith of Thomas an argument to convince and a lesson to instruct us.When St. Paul, after his conversion, preached the name of Jesus in the synagogues of the Jews, the Scripture says that he confounded the Jews. And why? Because he had been a well-known persecutor of the name of Jesus, and therefore the Jews could neither challenge nor reject the testimony which he gave in favour of the God-man. For you know (he said), my brethren, in what manner I lived in the Jews religion, and with what excess of rage I waged war on the new Church which I acknowledge to-day to be the Church of God. It is true I was an unbeliever as you were, and more opposed to the light of grace than you. But it was for this reason that God looked on me and Jesus Christ exercised His mercy toward me, that I might become an example which would lead you to believe in Him. Yes, He Himself spoke to me; and what is the most wonderful of all wonders, has bestowed on me the disposition which you see to be in me, who laid me low that He might raise me, who blinded me that He might enlighten me, who made me, once a blasphemer, an apostle, and who, that I may now undo the evil I have done, desires that I should serve Him as a witness among you. These words in the mouth of St. Paul, I say, would come home with a divine power. And St. Luke adds that it was sufficient for the apostle to prove that Jesus was the Christ to close the mouths of all the enemies of the Christian name. Now, I say, it would be the same in the case of St. Thomas. In order to confound unbelief in the Resurrection, and therefore in the divinity of Jesus Christ, St. Thomas had only to show himself and to say aloud: I impugned His resurrection; I was greatly opposed to believing in it; but I am now forced to acknowledge its truth, and do not desire to live except to publish it abroad. To do so may cost me my life, but it shall be to me the greatest joy, if by the shedding of my blood I can witness for such a sacred truth as I ought to do. This witness-bearing may draw on me the hatred of my people; but I shall count it as nothing to be exposed to all their hatred, if I can proclaim the glory of my God. Yet once more. What could inspire this apostle with such noble feelings? Was there prepossession in his case? Was it self-interest? Was it aberration of mind? Or rather is it not evident that it was nothing of the sort? And whilst the conversion of this apostle cannot be explained otherwise than by affirming that it was the effect, incontestable and palpable, of the truth revealed to him, what more should we desire for the confirmation of our faith? And not only is the faith of St. Thomas an argument which should convince us, but a lesson which may instruct us. After it has shown us the reasonableness of faith, it teaches what we should believe, i.e. that Jesus Christ is God.Translated from Bourdaloue.
Joh. 20:29. The necessity for Christs resurrection.Christ rose from the dead, not to startle godless and truth-hating men into faith, but to furnish all mankind with a new and better temple, with the means of spiritual worship and constant fellowship with God. There was a necessity for the Resurrection. Those who became intimately acquainted with Christ slowly but surely became aware that they found more of God in Him than ever they had found in the temple. Gradually they acquired new thoughts about God; and instead of thinking of Him as a sovereign veiled from the popular gaze in the hidden Holy of holies, and receiving through consecrated hands the gifts and offerings of the people, they learned to think of Him as a father, to whom no condescension was too deep, no familiarity with men too close, Unconsciously to themselves, apparently, they began to think of Christ as the true revealer of God, as the living temple who at all hours gave them access to the living God. But not till the Resurrection was this transference complete. Nay, so fixed had their hearts been, in common with all Jewish hearts, upon the temple, that not until the temple was destroyed did they wholly grasp what was given them in the resurrection of Jesus. It was the Resurrection which confirmed their wavering belief in Him as the Son of God. As Paul says, it was the Resurrection which declared Him to be the Son of God with power. Being the Son of God, it was impossible He should be held by death. He had come to the temple calling it by an unheard-of name: My Fathers house. Not Moses, not Solomon, not Ezra, not the holiest of high priests, would have dreamt of so identifying himself with God as to speak of the temple, not even as our Fathers house or your Fathers house, but my Fathers house. And it was the Resurrection which finally justified His doing so, declaring Him to be, in a sense no other was, the Son of God.Dr. Marcus Dods.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
THE APPEARANCE TO TEN DISCIPLES
Text: Joh. 20:19-25
19
When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
20
And when he had said this, he showed unto them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord.
21
Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace be unto you: as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
22
And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit:
23
whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.
Queries
a.
Why did Jesus show them His hands and His side?
b.
What is the significance of the commission by Jesus in Joh. 20:21?
c.
Does Joh. 20:23 teach that the apostles were the successors to the sacerdotal authority of Jesus in right to forgive men their sins?
Paraphrase (Harmony)
Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city, and told unto the chief priests all the things that were come to pass. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave much money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governors ears, we will persuade him, and rid you of care. So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying was spread abroad among the Jews, and continueth until this day.
And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was threescore furlongs from Jerusalem. And they communed with each other of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, while they communed and questioned together, that Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What communications are these that ye have one with another, as ye walk? And they stood still, looking sad. And one of them, named Cleopas, answering said unto him, Dost thou alone sojourn in Jerusalem and not know the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: and how the chief priests an our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we hoped that it was he who would redeem Israel. Yea and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things came to pass. Moreover certain women of our company amazed us, having been early at the tomb; and when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. And certain of them that were with us went to the tomb, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. And he said unto them, O foolish men, and slow of heart in all that the prophets have spoken! Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself, And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they were going: and he made as though he would go further. And they constrained him, saying; Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. And he went in to abide with them. And it came to pass, when he had sat down with them to meat, he took the bread and blessed; and breaking it he gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Was our not our heart burning within us, while he spake to us in the way, while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose up that very hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they rehearsed the things that happened in the way, and how he was known of them in the breaking of the bread, and that he appeared to Cephas.
When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto the, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they beheld a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and wherefore do questionings arise in your heart? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold me having.
And when he had said this, he showed unto them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord. Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace be unto you: as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit; whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.
And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here anything to eat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish. And he took it, and ate before them.
But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord, But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.
Summary
The Lord, after appearing to Mary Magdalene and the other women, chooses to manifest His resurrected glory to two of His disciples on the way to Emmaus. Overjoyed with their experience they return to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples. Jesus then appears before all the disciples except Thomas, commissions them, empowers them and eats with them.
Comment
Between the appearance to the women and the appearance to the ten disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem, Jesus appeared to two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus. These two disciples were despondent at the death of Jesus because all their glorious Messianic hopes had died, they thought, with Him there on Golgothas brow. They had heard rumors that He was aliveHis tomb was emptybut they had not seen Him. Perhaps these disciples were going to Emmaus to rest, get away from all the uproar in Jerusalem, and to think over the events of the last few days. Emmaus was probably only 7 or 8 miles from Jerusalem. Jesus met them or overtook them and walked on with them to Emmaus but they did not recognize Him . . . their eyes were holden. Barnes notes that it was not some miraculous veiling of their own eyes that occurred but that He appeared to them in a form they were not used to seeing (cf. Mar. 16:12) and they were not expecting to see Him anyway and they simply did not recognize Him as He walked and talked with them. As He began to remind them of the Old Testament Messianic prophecies and apply them to Himself, their hearts began to burn within them. And then, as they were eating with Him, the familiarity of it all opened their eyes and they recognized Him. And they arose that very hour and hurried back to Jerusalem to report to the rest of that little band of despondent disciples. Just who these two disciples are we are not certain. One was Cleopas and the other seems to be most probably, Peter. There are some commentators who believe the second disciple was Luke because of the fact that only Luke records the event and his record has the flavor of that of an eyewitness. Just how Jesus vanished out of their sight is not certain either. The account seems to indicate that it was a miraculous vanishing. This would be in keeping with His miraculous entrance into a room which had the doors shut to outsiders.
In Joh. 20:19 we notice a special emphasis on the first day of the week. John might just as well have said, Now when it was the evening of the first day. But he emphasizes by saying, Now when it was evening of that day, the first of the week. The first day of the week, being the day of Christs resurrection, is the chief of days, the day of Christian worship (cf. Mat. 28:1; Mar. 16:2; Luk. 24:1; Joh. 20:1; Act. 20:7; 1Co. 16:2; Rev. 1:10).
There was something about the sudden appearance of Jesus in their midst where they were gathered on that evening that must have been beyond natural for the disciples were terrified and affrighted. John seems to record that the doors were fastened to show some significant difference regarding the properties of the risen body of Jesus. The idiom of the Greek indicates that the Lords appearance in their midst was with breath taking suddenness and completely unexpected. They had fastened the doors on account of their fear of the Jews, Their Master had been slain and there may have been word rumored that the Sanhedrin was looking now for the disciples of the Nazarene to condemn them also.
Jesus was suddenly in their midst, speaking in a calm and soothing manner, Peace be unto you. It was a familiar phrase for He had used it often in addressing His disciples. The disciples were terrified believing they were beholding one who had returned from the unseen realm of the deada spirit, Luke tells us. But immediately Jesus held forth His hands and showed His feet which were pierced with the prints of the nails. He commands, handle me, and see! To dispel their doubts and fears He bids them prove to themselves beyond any doubt that the One in their midst is the same One with whom they walked and talked the last three years.
This is one of the unique features of the revelation of Jehovah-God, whether that revelation be in the Old Testament, in the Incarnate Word, or in that revelation given by the apostlesthe invitation, yea, the command, to test and prove the credibility and authenticity and divine nature of such a revelation. No other religion has ever been so insistent; that its claims be tested and verified and none has ever offered such undisputable evidence, for such verification. The disciples were not asked to place their trust in some mystic philosophy, nor in imaginative man-made godsthey were given empirically verifiable evidence for the supernaturalness of Christ. The resurrection of Christ was not only His spirit but His body also.
But how, if Christ was resurrected in a body, was He able to be suddenly in their midst if the doors were fastened. We like the conclusion given by Hendriksen, Scripture gives no answer. Some day well understand.
Our text here in John does not say whether they handled Him or not, Luke (Luk. 24:41) seems to indicate that they did not but still disbelieved for joy, and wondered until He ate the broiled fish with them. Then they were glad and rejoiced.
So Jesus said again, Peace be unto you, Then He gives them their commission: As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you. There is more than a command herethere is also a warning and a promise, Just as the great Apostle, Jesus, was sent to preach the will of God and to be persecuted and suffer for His glory, even so the apostles were sent to preach and be persecuted for His glory. They were to fellowship His sufferings (Php. 3:10). There is also the promise of victory. They would also know the power of His resurrection (Php. 3:10). They were to receive a divine commission and they were to be given divine credentials through the power to work miracles (cf. Heb. 2:4).
So send I you, to labor unrewarded
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing,
So send I you, to toil for me alone
Joh. 20:23 has long been a problem. The Roman Catholic Church has used this verse to teach that the so-called successors of the apostles (the popes and priests) have the authority to forgive men of their sins. Such a doctrine is technically called absolution. Not even the apostles themselves had any authority of their own to grant absolutionthe forgiveness of sins. One need only to turn to Act. 8:14-24 to find one example of an apostle being asked to grant absolution in the case of a man confessing his sin. The answer of the apostle Peter is, Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray the Lord, if perhaps the thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee. This passage in Joh. 20:23 does not grant the apostles the power of absolution. The verbs apheontai (they are forgiven) and kekratentai (they are retained) of this verse are in the perfect tense in the Greek. Now the perfect tense means an action having been completed in past time with a continuing result. Literally translated Joh. 20:23 would read, whose soever sins ye forgive, they have already been forgiven them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they have already been retained. It is very interesting indeed that in the other two instances where Jesus similarly commissioned the disciples (Mat. 16:19; Mat. 18:18) the verbs are also in the perfect tense! There the verbs are dedemena (has already been bound) and lelumena (has already been loosed).
In founding the church, declaring the will of God and preaching the gospel of repentance and remission of sins by the blood of Christ and mens obedience to the gospel, the apostles merely declared on what terms, and to what people God extended forgiveness of sins. What ever they preached on earth had already been decided in heaven. Only God can forgive sins. The apostles and all who have preached since are merely heralds of the covenant which has already been ratified, once for all, in heaven.
The apostles were given here by Jesus a symbolic prophecy of the special baptism of the Holy Spirit when He breathed. The literal baptism of the Spirit would come upon them on the day of Pentecost and would empower them with miraculous power in order to confirm the already-ratified message which they were to preach afterward. The Holy Spirit did not give them any inherent authority to grant absolution of sin.
Quiz
1.
How does John put emphasis on the first day of the week?
2.
How did Jesus get into the room of the doors were fastened?
3.
What, according to Luke, did Jesus say when He showed them His hands and His feet?
4.
What all did Jesus mean when He said, As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you?
5.
Show how Joh. 20:23 does not give the apostles or any other mortals the right to forgive men their sins.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(19) For this appearance to the disciples (Joh. 20:19-25) comp. Mar. 16:14 and Luk. 24:36-43. Between the last verse and this we must suppose to occur the bribing of the guard (Mat. 28:11-15), and the conversation on the way to Emmaus (Luk. 24:13-35; see also Mar. 16:12-13, and comp. Chronological Harmony of the Gospels, p. 37)
When the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled . . .This fact is noted here and in Joh. 20:26, and the obvious intention is to point out that the appearance was preternatural. The body of the risen Lord was indeed the body of His human life, but it was not subject to the ordinary conditions of human life. The power that had upheld it as He walked upon the Sea of Galilee (Joh. 6:16-21) made it during those forty days independent of laws of gravitation and of material resistance. (Comp. Notes on Luk. 24:15-16; Luk. 24:31; Luk. 24:39.) The supposition that the doors were shut, and were miraculously opened (comp. Act. 12:10), is opposed to the general impression of the context, and the incident is one which would probably have been mentioned.
The fear of the Jews naturally followed the Crucifixion. The Shepherd was struck, and the flock was scattered. They would remember, too, His own words, which foretold persecution for them (Joh. 15:18 et seq.), and there may have been definite charges against some of them. Peter, e.g., had drawn upon himself the hostility of the high priests household, and John was known to be among the disciples. (Comp. Joh. 18:8; Joh. 18:25 et seq.)
Peace be unto you.The salutation is given also in Luk. 24:36. (Comp., in this Gospel, Note on Joh. 14:27.) The well-known words of greeting would come to them now, as her own name came to Mary (Joh. 20:16), bringing, as the familiar tones fell upon the ear, the assurance of the Masters presence in their midst. But the words would also have the fuller meaning of a message from the spirit-world to them. It is a voice from the darkness beyond the grave into which the living have tried in vain to see, and that voice is one of peace. It is the message of the conqueror of death to man who has conquered in and through Him, declaring that the victory is won. It is the message of atonement, declaring the peace which flows from pardoned sin and reconciliation with God to the disciples themselves, and through them-as the apostles of peace, to all mankind.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
151. JESUS APPEARS TO THE APOSTLES IN THE ABSENCE OF THOMAS, Joh 20:19-23 .
Mar 16:14-18
John here corroborates, and adds to all of Luke’s narrative, the fact of our Lord’s appearance to the eleven, in consequence of their disbelief of the testimony of the two of Emmaus.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Judaisers, Jesus came and stood among them and says to them, “Peace to you”. And when He had said this He showed them His hand and His side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord.’
All of the eleven disciples apart from Thomas would appear to have been present at this time. They were gathered in a locked room no doubt discussing the strange things that they had been hearing about, and it is clear that there were others with them when they were joined by the two from Emmaus (Luk 24:33).
‘For fear of the Judaisers.’ This was a wise precaution not due to a lack of faith. At this stage they did not know whether they would be hunted down. It has never been spiritual to court danger unnecessarily. Everything points to the reliability of the accounts. The women’s experiences, the locked door, none of this would have been invented. It all put the disciples in a bad light. No one who wanted to convince the world would have had women seeing Jesus first, unless that was the way it happened.
‘Jesus came.’ Jesus now revealed Himself alive to His disciples. He showed them His hands and His side to confirm through the nail prints and the wound in the side that it was He the crucified One Who was now risen. The nature of His resurrection body must ever remain a mystery to us. He could somehow enter rooms that were locked (here and Joh 20:26) and appear and disappear at will. Yet His essential marks and characteristics were there and He could be touched and felt. On the other hand He was now surely seen as clothed with clothes that could only be heavenly, as was His body.
We would be unwise to argue from all this that our resurrection bodies will be similar. Jesus’ resurrection was totally unique. It guarantees the resurrection of His own but not the form that that resurrection will take. Indeed if our resurrection bodies are to be anything like our own present ones there would surely have to be a renewing and an unageing in many. All we know is that we will have a ‘spiritual body’ (1Co 15:44).
“Peace to you.” A standard greeting (Gen 43:23; Jdg 6:23; 1Sa 25:6; Dan 4:1; Dan 6:25), but what meaning it attains here. Peace from God (Rom 1:7 and often in introductions; Joh 15:13) and peace with God (Rom 5:1) and the peace of God (Php 4:7) is theirs. Its repetition in the next verse demonstrates that it is more than just a greeting.
‘Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.’ An understatement because no statement could be enough. ‘Ecstatic’ may be a better word but is insufficient. They were filled with overflowing and indescribable joy and ecstasy. John, however, abbreviates this first appearance. For more detail see also Luk 24:36-43.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jesus Appears To All The Apostles Apart From Thomas ( Joh 20:19-23 ).
Two Appearances to the Assembled Disciples.
On the evening of Easter Day:
v. 19. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
v. 20. And when He had so said, He showed unto them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.
v. 21. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you; as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.
v. 22. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost;
v. 23. whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.
Jesus gave His disciples sufficient evidence of His resurrection. On that very same day, in the evening, after He had appeared to various individuals and small groups, He showed Himself alive to ten of the apostles. They were assembled together in some house in Jerusalem and had carefully locked the doors, lest a sudden attack of the Jews make them, too, victims of their hatred. But for the glorified body of the resurrected Lord neither locked doors nor heavy walls were a hindrance. His being was no longer circumscribed by the confines of space and time. They had been alone but a moment ago, and now Jesus stood in their midst. And His was the greeting of the resurrected Savior: Peace to you! The purpose of His coming was now realized, the enmity between God and man had been removed. God was reconciled to His wayward and erring children. The peace of the risen Lord is the comfort and joy of all believers. “For that reason Christ became man, for that reason He died on the cross and arose on the third day, in order that, wherever our hearts, the devil, and the whole world cry about and against us because of our sins as though we were not at peace, that God did not want us, -that He might say to us: No, dear man, not thus, but peace with thee, God is not angry; on that account do not fear, for thy sins I have paid, death I have killed. In this be comforted, that I have done it; then all warfare must have an end and peace must come. ” When the disciples were surprised at the risen Lord’s coming and filled with superstitious fear, as though they were seeing a ghost, Jesus showed them His hands, where the marks of the nails were still plainly visible; and His side, where the soldier’s lance-head had left a deep gash. This demonstration convinced the disciples; they were glad that they actually saw the Lord. It was the same body which had hung on the cross and thus earned and merited redemption for all men. His resurrection is not only a guarantee of our resurrection, but also of the fact that our vile bodies will be changed to conform to His glorified body, and that we shall be able to recognize our loved ones in heaven. Thus there is great, overwhelming joy for all Christians in the appearances of the risen Lord. Jesus now repeats His greeting as an introduction to a commission which He is about to give to them as His representatives. As the Father had sent Him into the world, so He now transferred the authority and the power of His calling to them. They were to carry the message of the peace of Easter into all the world. He sent them forth to preach the Gospel. For that is the summary and content of the Gospel, peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And having named them thus as His messengers, as His ambassadors, the Lord formally inducts them into this office. He breathed on them, thus symbolizing the transmission of, and actually conveying to them, the Spirit who lived in Him, and whom He had the authority to bestow. The power of the Spirit was to be with them in the Word: If you remit the sins of any, they are remitted to them; if you retain those of any, they are retained. Thus they received the power to pronounce forgiveness of sins; thus was the Office of the Keys instituted. The forgiveness of sins which Jesus earned by His suffering and death should be imparted and given to men through the announcement of the Gospel, publicly and privately, to single persons and to large congregations. This is the absolution of sins. That is Christ’s will and commission: His disciples should pronounce forgiveness, should take away sins, and then everyone should know and believe that by such absolution his sins are actually forgiven and taken away. The Gospel is not only a report of the salvation earned by Jesus, but it is the application of this message, the imparting of the forgiveness of sins. Only he that will not accept this forgiveness, this mercy, this salvation, thereby excludes himself from the grace of God. If such a one is told this fact, his sins are thereby retained. This power and authority was not the sole prerogative of the apostles, nor is it now in the hands of any hierarchy, but it accompanies the Gospel, it is contained in the commission of Christ to all His disciples to preach the Gospel to all nations. To the believers in general, to the Christian congregation that proclaims the message of the Gospel, the keys are given. The pastors that exercise this authority do so in the name of the congregation.
Joh 20:19. Then the same daywhen the doors were shut, &c. “After this, in the evening of the very same day on which he arose and appeared to Mary Magdalene, that is to say the first day of the week; when the disciples were gathered together in a private room, and were comparing their informations concerning his resurrection (Luk 24:33-36.) after the doors were fastened ( ) for fear of being discovered and broke in upon by the Jews, Jesus himself, whose divine power could easily make his way, came in his usual form, before they were aware, to confirm his love to them, and their faith in him; and, standing in the midst of them, he, instead of upbraiding them for, or taking any notice of their having so shamefully deserted him in his late distress, saluted them in a friendly, affectionate, and authoritative manner, saying, All safety, comfort, and quietness, and the best of prosperity, be to you, as consisting of peace with God, with each other, and in your own souls.”
Joh 20:19-20 . Comp. Luk 24:36 ff., where, however, the handling and the eating is already added from tradition. The account in Mar 16:14 is different. Schweizer’s reasons against the Johannean origin of Joh 20:19-29 amount to this, that, according to John, the resurrection of Jesus was no external one on this side of the grave, and that consequently the appearances could only be visionary. Against this Joh 2:21-22 , Joh 10:17-18 are already decisive, as well as the faith and the testimony of the entire apostolic Church.
. .] can all the less be without essential significance, since it is repeated in Joh 20:26 also, and that without . . It points to a miraculous appearance, which did not require open doors, and which took place while they were closed. The how does not and cannot appear; in any case, however, the , Luk 24:31 , is the correlate of this immediate appearance in the closed place; and the constitution of His body, changed, brought nearer to the glorified state, although not immaterial, is the condition for such a liberation of the Risen One from the limitations of space that apply to ordinary corporeity. Euth. Zigabenus: . More minute information concerning this change withdraws itself from more definite judgment; hence, also, the passage can offer no proof of the Lutheran doctrine of ubiquity, especially as the body of Jesus is not yet that which is glorified in . According to B. Crusius, and already Beza and several others (comp. also Thenius, Evangel. der Evangelien , p. 45), the doors must have suddenly opened of themselves. But in this way precisely the essential point would be passed over in silence. According to Baeumlein, nothing further is expressed than that the disciples were assembled in a closed room . [266] But how easily would John have known how actually to express this! As he has expressed himself, . . is the definite relation, under which the , . . . took place, although it is not said that He passed . . . , as many Fathers, Calovius and others, represent the matter.
] into the midst , after , as in Herod. iii. 130, and frequently. Comp. on Joh 20:7 ; Joh 21:3 .
] The usual greeting on entrance: Peace to you ! This first greeting of the risen Lord in the circle of disciples still resounded deeply and vividly enough in the heart of the aged John to lead him to relate it (in answer to Tholuck); there is therefore no reason for importing the wish for the peace of reconciliation (comp. , Joh 14:27 ).
, . . .] In proof of the corporeal identity of His Person; for on the hands and on the side they must see the wounds . This was sufficient; it was not also required to exhibit the feet . Variation from Luk 24:40 , when the feet are shown instead of the side, the piercing of which is not related by the Synoptics. All the more groundlessly is the present passage employed against the nailing of the feet (see generally on Mat 27:35 ); the more groundless also is the opinion that the of Christ was only the already laid-aside earthly envelope of the Logos (Baur). Comp. on Joh 1:14 .
] In consequence of this evidence of identity. Terror and doubt, certainly the first impression of miraculous appearance, now gave way to joy . And from out their joyful thoughts comes the utterance of John: .
[266] Schleiermacher, L. J. p. 474, does not make the room at all, but only the house to be closed, and says there “may also have been somebody who had been appointed to open.” Schenkel, to whom the Risen One is “ the Spirit of the Church ,” can, of course, only allow the entrance through closed doors to pass as an emblem . Scholten, who considers the appearances of the Risen One to be ecstatic contemplations of the glorified One , employs the closed doors also for this purpose.
III Joh 20:19-23
(Mar 16:14; Luk 24:36 ff.; Joh 20:19-31, pericope for Quasi modo geniti).
19Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut [When therefore it was evening on that day, the first of the week, and the doors had been shut, or, the doors being shut, , ], where the disciples were assembled [omit assembled] 18 for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. [And having said this, he showed unto them both19 his hands and his side]. Then were the disciples glad [The disciples therefore were glad], when they saw the Lord. 21Then said Jesus20 [he said] to them again, Peace be unto you: as my [the] Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost 23 [lit., Receive Holy Spirit, ]John 21 : Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted [have been remitted, ]22 unto them; and whosesoever sins [omit sins] ye retain, they are retained [have been retained, ].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The parallel-passage in Mark recounts how Jesus after His entrance into the circle of disciples, rebuked their unbelief; the parallel in Luke makes the entrance of the Emmaus disciples into the circle of apostles precede the Lords appearance, and makes Peter and the two journeyers to Emmaus exchange Easter-messages; Luke also hints at the gentle reproof of the disciples unbelief,the feature more powerfully brought out by Mark He likewise reports, more explicitly than John, Jesus invitation to the disciples to touch His hands and His feet, His eating before them, and His exposition of the Scripture concerning His sufferings and resurrection. Tholuck justly remarks that Luk 24:44-49 bears a relation to Joh 20:22-23 in our passage. Individual traits in this section of Luke may belong to a later meeting, or have been amplified later; assuredly, nothing but the section beginning with 20:50 belongs to the last manifestation of Jesus. The most important thing remaining for John, was to supply the facts of Jesus appearing to the disciples as they were sitting with shut doors, His announcing to them His return by bestowing upon them His peace-greeting (Joh 14:27), and His re-ratifying of their apostolic calling (forfeited by their flight), accompanying this act by a breathing upon them, which was preparatory to the outpouring of the Spirit.
Joh 20:19. When therefore it was evening on that day. [ .]The evening of that Sunday, the first resurrection day.
And the doors had been shut. [ ].This circumstance is emphasized, as Joh 20:26; comp. Act 12:13.
1. Unfounded softening of the expression. Calvin and others, Baumg.-Crus.: The doors had suddenly opened ad nutum divin majestatis ejus. According to Lcke, the statement is even reducible to a mere unexpected, sudden appearing.
2. Unfounded intensification of the expression. He pressed bodily through the closed doors. In the interest of the [Lutheran] ubiquity-doctrine, Quenstdt.
3. A miraculous appearing, unqualified as to its manner, indicative of the higher condition in which He found Himself subsequently to His transformation (Luk 24:31 : ; Joh 21:1; Mar 16:12 : . F. Khn: Wie ging Christus durch die Grabesthr? 1838. Tholuck). A. Tholuck: The description leads to the conception of an unconfinedness to the limits of spacebounds of locality.Primarily it indicates nothing but a simple power of the glorified life of Christ to move unrestrainedly, to appear and disappear;His local definedness, which is one with bodily circumscribedness, remaining the while undestroyed. According to Baur, an immaterial constitution was ascribed to Jesus; according to Meyer, the body of Christ was not yet glorified; as according to Lcke, who, in opposition to Olshausen (who distinguishes between the docetic and glorified body), remarks that a something intermediate betwixt the ethereal consistency of angels and material, corporeal solidity is to him inconceivable. Nevertheless, the idea of the body as dynamically transformed into the pure organ of the spirit is everywhere established in the New Testament (see 1Co 15:49).
Peace unto you [ ].The customary greeting is here filled with the weight of the resurrection-message and all that proclamation of salvation therewith connected; at the same time it is a fulfilment of the promise, Joh 14:27. See Exeg. Notes there. [Ministers are messengers of peace.]
Joh 20:20. He showed unto them [ ].See Luk 24:40. According to Meyer, a difference is constituted by the mention in that passage of the feet instead of the side.
Joh 20:21. As the Father hath sent Me [, ].Comp. Matthew 10; John 13; Mat 16:19; chap. 18. The second solemn, more definitely proclamatory of the infinite import of the salutation,not, however, a farewell-greeting, as Kuinoel and others have interpreted it.Even so send I you [ ].Analogy of dynamical authority. The Father now sends Him out of the kingdom of resurrection and reconciliation to them; so likewise the Son sends them out of this kingdom to the world. That therewith their reinstitution into office is simultaneously expressed, in connection with an amplification of that office (henceforth they are witnesses for the Crucified and Risen One), is obvious, in accordance with the stronger analogy of Joh 21:15 ff. But as at the first bestowal of apostolic dignity, Peter took precedence of the others, so now the general restitution of the whole body precedes a more explicit restitution of Peter. Comp. Joh 17:18.
Joh 20:22. He breathed on them [ . The verb occurs in the N. T. only here, but is used in the Sept. to express the act of God in the original infusion of the spirit of life into man (Gen 2:7 : , ). This act is now by God incarnate repeated, sacramentally, representing the infusion of the new life, of which He is become by His glorified Humanity the source to His members: see Job 33:4; Psa 33:6; 1Co 15:45 (Alford).P. S.] Different interpretations:
1. Simply the prophetico-symbolical heralding of the Holy Ghost (Theod. Mopsueste, Bullinger, Lampe, etc.). This view is contradicted by: a. the act, b. the Aorist Imperative , c. the remark that in this case the act were but a repetition of the promise contained in the farewell-discourses.
2. It is the gratia ministerialis, rather than the former gratia sanctificationis, not, however, as yet, the pentecostal communication or gratia (Theophylact, Maldonat and others).
3. It is holy spirit ( , without the article), but not yet the Holy Spirit, nor yet the Spirit of the new birth, of the world-mighty Jesus (Hofmann and Luthardt [also Gess]; see thereupon Tholuck and Meyer).
4. It is a quantitative, precursive communication of the Spirit, in accordance with Christs not yet perfected state of glorification (Origen, Calvin, Neander, Stier, Tholuck. Meyer: A veritable of the Holy Ghost). [Similarly Bengel (arrha pentecostes), Brckner, Hengstenberg, Godet, Ewald, Alford. The full communication of the Holy Spirit did not take place before the day of Pentecost, comp. Joh 7:39; Joh 16:7; Acts 2.P.S.])
We have to consider on the one hand the afflation, and on the other hand the design of this bestowal of the Spirit. The afflation is an afflatus with the new life of the resurrection, and so the symbol, as the commencement, of the communication of His resurrection-life, i. e. life in His Holy Spirit. The degree of this communication, however, is determined in accordance with their present need; they must even now have power to gather the Resurrection-Church and to distinguish it from the world, in like manner as it, as the substratum of the peoples Church shortly to be established, is to be thoroughly distinguished from the Israelitish Church. In respect of this consideration, this gratia is doubtless specially ministerialis. They have not yet the gift of communicating the Holy Ghost, but they do possess that of discerning the Holy Spirit when already communicated.
Joh 20:23. Whose sins ye remit [ ].By proclaiming and promising to them forgiveness while ye receive them into your fellowship.They are (have been) remitted unto them [].See Text. Notes. Meyers antithesis: They become (will be) remitted (according to the reading ) and they are (have been) retained (),23 is to be refuted first by the Codd. which read [perf. pass.=.P. S.], secondly by the exegetical demand that the two terms should form a parallel. Their remitting of sin and. retaining of sin will, as a prophetically ministerial act, rest upon corresponding acts of God, already accomplished in the Spirit,not, however, have these acts as a result or, still less, effectuate them. They will be influenced in these acts by Christ; they will not influence Him.24 The term, remit sins [], is akin to the term, loose [], Mat 16:19; the term, retain [], or retain together, is akin to the term, bind []. See Comm. on Matthew at the passage designated, note (Leben Jesu, II., p. 889). The Lord does here but invert the expression, thereby indicating the now decided, New Testament stand-point, in which redemption [loosing], forgiveness, advances into the foreground. Here, then, as in those other passages, Mat 16:19; Mat 18:18, it is the potestas clavium in its broader sense, not merely, in accordance with the Heidelberg Catechism, the preaching of the holy Gospel and Christian penitential discipline (if it were confined to these, the latter branch would have to be considered as having reference also to reception into the Church: open the kingdom of heaven to believers), but in a still more extended sense in accordance with the Artic. Smalc.: Mandatum docendi evangelium, remittendi peccata, administrandi sacramenta, prterea mandatum excommunicandi; in which summing up the second and fourth items should really be regarded as expressed in the third: administrandi sacramenta. In reality the stations of the potestas are these: 1. The preaching of the gospel; 2. establishment of the preliminary conditions of reception; 3. reception into the Church; 4. penitential discipline in the real sense of the term. In a narrower sense it is undoubtedly the potestas of reception through baptism and of reception through repentance and absolution, together with the potestas of the opposite denial of reception, or exclusion. The symbolic prefiguration of the administration of the Church by the administration of the keys of the house of David, Isa 22:22, is, in consciously symbolic terms, continued in the Revelation (Joh 3:7). See Tholuck, p. 441 ff.; Julius Mller, Deutsche Zeitschrift, 1852, p. 55 [on the power of the keys, in an essay on the Divine Institution of the Ministry, reprinted in Mllers Dogmatische Abhandlungen (1870), p. 496 ff.P. S.].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Christ, the Risen One, first appeared unto individual souls, then to the congregation of the faithful. We find a repetition of this in the history of the Church.
2. The night of Christmas, the darkness of Good Friday, the evening of the Supper, the first Easter evening; glorious hours of the ever brighter shining of the Dayspring from on high (Luk 1:79). At evening time it shall be light, Zec 14:7.
3. How Christ, as the Risen One, bursts though, the fear of the company of disciples: (1) the fear of the Jews; (2) the fear of His own ghost-like apparition; (3) the fear of the whole world (Joh 20:21); (4) the fear of the power of sin and guilt (Joh 20:23); (5) the fear of the terrors of judgment (whosoesoever sins ye retain, etc.).
4. The first Easter Church in its changing forms: a. a Church of secret, fugitive disciples, b. a Church of festive, glad believers, c. a Church of anointed and commissioned apostles.
5. How Christ cometh into the midst of His people: (1) in spite of closed doors: (2) with the salutation of peace; (3) with the firstling gift of the Spirit; (4) with the commission of the apostolic embassy; (5) with the bestowal of apostolic plenipotence.
6. The entrance of Jesus whilst the doors were shut, an evidence of His higher, glorified corporeality.
7. The peace-greeting, or the transformation of the every-day formula of salutation into the loveliest, richest Evangel by the mouth of Christ.
8. The mission of the disciples from Christ measured in accordance with the mission of Christ from the Father.
9. The first gift of the Spirit, or how, in the Easter feast of Christ, the last shadows of Good-Friday (fear of the Jews) come in contact with the first light of Pentecost (He breathed on them).
10. The inseparable connection of apostolic plenipotence with the apostolic embassy. See Mat 16:10; Joh 18:18.
[11. Forgiveness of sins the fruit of the resurrection (and death of Christ). The triumph over death is also a triumph over sinthe cause of death.P. S.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
See Commentary on Mark, p. 163 f., Luke, p. 398 f. The Doct. Notes.
Quasi modo geniti: or Christ the First-born from the dead, Col 1:18.The transformation of the apostles fear of the Jews into the loftiest feeling of triumph over the whole world (Joh 20:21).How all things ensue from the peace of the Risen One: 1. The joy, the mirth of the disciples; 2. spiritual life; 3. the evangelic mission; 4. apostolic spiritual severity and clemency in the administration of the Gospel.When the doors are shut to the world, then are they (in the highest sense) open to the Lord.The union of familiarity and majesty in the first manifestation of the Risen One in the Church.The first great fulfilment of the promise, Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.The day of Christs heavenly birth from the dead, a birthday of all Christian blessings: 1. Of peace and joy in believing; 2. of Sunday and the feast-days (for now, for the first time, do the remaining festivals receive their true signification); 3. of religious worship (cultus), and of rest from labor, in the Spirit; 4. of the apostolic mission, and of preaching; 5. of New Testament discipline and social consecration.The life-breath of Christ, the true mission to the world.The judicial sentence of the apostolic Church: 1. In respect of its divine institution; 2. in respect of its historical obscuration; 3. in respect of its eternal import.Or: 1. As a sacred power; 2. as an accountable right; 3. as a solemn duty.The great word: Sent from Christ as Christ from the Father.
Starke: The experience of an afflicted and tempted person may be very different in the evening from what it was in the morning.The lying in wait of the wicked must conduce to the best interests of the godly, in this respect also, viz. that the godly refrain themselves from them, and hence are not led away by intercourse with them, nor condemned with them.Zeisius: What a precious and unspeakable fruit of the merit and resurrection of Christ, is peace with God in the conscience!Yea, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost are two particular, precious fruits of the resurrection of Jesus and of His spiritual kingdom.Hall: When Christ, the Morning Star, riseth upon the soul and discovereth Himself unto it, nothing but joy can spring up.Zeisius: So soon as Christ rose from the dead, He instituted the office of the ministry: of what exceeding importance then must this office be.Hall: He who desires that Christ should entrust to him the great embassy of His Gospel must likewise first receive His Spirit.A testimony of the divinity of Jesus Christ, for the Holy Ghost is God, and therefore no one can give that Holy Ghost who is not himself God, Joh 15:20.In the evening and at night Jesus did take in hand many momentous things for our sake: He was born in the night, He suffered Himself to be taken prisoner in the night, He instituted the Lords Supper in the night, and in the evening, when He was risen from the dead, He instituted the ministry of the New Testament. If we pondered these things every evening, we should make a holier use of the evening hours, and not perform so many works of darkness in the night!
Braune: In so far as we are sinful, Christ is sent unto us from the Father, but in so far as we are redeemed, we are sent, as His witnesses, unto others, that we may be co-laborers, not in our, but in His work. Amid the consciousness of our weakness and frailty, we should hold fast the sense of the loftiness of our calling as redeemed ones, and by the former feeling be but the more impelled to suffer ourselves to be redeemed and reconciled to God, to the end that the latter feeling may become true and strong; whoso but suffereth himself to be redeemed will draw others also into this beatific fellowship.He breathes on them; like a friends breath upon the cheek, shall the Holy Spirit of God come unto mans spirit.Unto sanctified [consecrated] personalities the Redeemer commits the forgiveness of sins; these commissioned ones are a terror and vexation to the wicked, but friends to the good. That which the Redeemer here says concerning the remitting and retaining of sins may be compared with what He says of loosing and binding for the Kingdom of Heaven, Mat 16:19; Mat 18:18.Sanctified [consecrated] personalities are, as St. Paul says of the Gospel, 2Co 2:16, unto some a savor of life unto life, unto others a savor of death unto death.
Gossner: He, therefore, who is sent from Christ, who is Christs messenger, must needs have received the peace of Christ, which is higher than all reason, must likewise needs have received the Spirit of Christ, and this seal of the Spirit and of peace must give evidence of itself in him by the devolving of peace and anointing from him to others again, by others being filled and anointed therewith. All this is contained in that little word as.But when ministers make their appearance who have nothing to recommend them save that they are puffed up by the spirit of this world, what will they accomplish? They will puff up others also with the same spirit of the world.
Heubner: In the evening. H. Mller, Herzenssp. p. John 241: The Saviour will visit us in the evening. When the sun of the world hath set in our heart, the Sun of Righteousness ariseth.Christians have often enough been obliged to assemble in secret; the Waldenses, for example, the Moravians, the Reformed in France, and others.If Jesus come not into the assembly of Christians, it is cold, heartless, unfruitful.Christs peace-greeting was the spoil of victoryspoil which He won by death and resurrection.Whoso hath followed Christ unto Golgotha, to him doth He shout His word of peace.Augustine; Cicatrices tituli gloriarum.Crucifixion and resurrection are inseparableone is incomplete without the other. This is the sum of Christianity.The disciples were glad; Behold the power of the appearing, the peace, of Jesus. From His peace comes joy.Peace is indispensable to the mission of Jesus. A man must have Jesus peace in his own heart if he would be a messenger of peace to others; he must first be redeemed himself, if he would preach redemption to others. Luther, in the postil to Quasimodog. Sunday, XI. 1040, writes this to all true Christians, after applying it to the Apostles and the ministry; they can meet these requisites, not by their own strength, but in Christs name, in the might of the Holy Ghost.Schleiermacher, Pred. iii. p. 563.Couard, ii. p. 326.Marheineke, ii. p. 45.
[Craven: From Augustine: Joh 20:19. If thou comprehendest the mode [of entering] it is no miracle: when reason fails, then is faith edified.
Joh 20:20. The nails had pierced His hands, the lance had pierced His side. For the healing of doubting hearts, the marks of the wounds were still preserved.From Chrysostom: Joh 20:21. He shows the efficacy of the cross, by which He undoes all evil things, and gives all good things; which is peace.To the women above there was announced joy; for that sex was in sorrow, and had received the curse.From Gregory: Joh 20:21. I love you, now that I send you to persecution, with the same love wherewith My Father loved Me, when He sent Me to My sufferings.
Joh 20:23. The disciples who were called to such works of humility, to what a height of glory are they led! Lo, not only have they salvation for themselves, but are admitted to the powers of the supreme Judgment-seat.From Bede: Joh 20:21. A repetition is a confirmation: whether He repeats it because the grace of love is two-fold, or because He it is who made of twain one.
[From Burkitt: Joh 20:19. It has been no strange thing in the Church, that the best members of it have been put to frequent their assemblies with great fear, and been forced to meet in the night with great caution, because of the fury of the persecutors.Let Christs disciples meet together never so privately, and with never so much hazard and jeopardy, they shall have Christs company with them.
Joh 20:21. The repetition of, Peace be unto you, was not more than needful to signify His firm reconciliation to the disciples, notwithstanding their late cowardice in forsaking Him.As My Father hath sent Me, so send I you; By the same authority, and for the same ends, in part; namely, to gather, govern, and instruct My Church.
Joh 20:22. He breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost; When Christ sends forth any about His work, He will furnish them with endowments answerable to their vast employment; and the best furniture they can have, is the Holy Spirit in His gifts and qualifications suitable to their work.
Joh 20:23. There is a twofold power of remitting sins; the one magisterial and authoritative; this belongs to Christ alone: the other ministerial and declarative; this belongs to Christs ambassadors.Christ first conferred the Holy Ghost upon His apostles, and then said, Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted. Thereby intimating that it is not they, but the Holy Ghost by them, that puts away sin; For who can forgive sin, but God only? (Augustine). The power of forgiving sin, that man hath, is only to declare that if men be truly and really penitent, their sins are forgiven them for the sake of Christs satisfaction.
[From M. Henry: Joh 20:19. The disciples of Christ, even in difficult times, must not forsake the assembling of themselves together, Heb 10:25.It is a comfort to Christs disciples, when their solemn assemblies are reduced to privacy, that no doors can shut out Christs presence from them.His speaking peace, makes peace, peace with God, peace in your own consciences, peace with one another; all this peace be with you; not peace with the world, but peace in Christ.
Joh 20:20. Conquerors glory in the marks of their wounds.Christs wounds were to speak on earth, that it was He Himself, and therefore He rose with them; they were to speak in heaven, in the intercession He must ever live to make, and therefore He ascended with them, and appeared in the midst of the throne, a Lamb as it had been slain, and bleeding afresh, Rev 5:6. Nay, it should seem, He will come again with His scars, that they may look on Him whom they pierced.When Christ manifests His love to believers by the comforts of His Spirit, assures them that because He lives, they shall live also, then He shows them His hands and His side.A sight of Christ will gladden the heart of a disciple at any time; the more we see of Christ, the more we shall rejoice in Him; and our joy will never be perfect till we come there where we shall see Him as He is.
Joh 20:21. Christ was now sending the disciples to publish peace to the world (Isa 52:7); and He here not only confers it upon them for their own satisfaction, but commits it to them as a trust to be by them transmitted to all the sons of peace, Luk 10:5-6.He sent them authorized with a divine warrant, armed with a divine power; sent them as ambassadors to treat of peace, and as heralds to proclaim it; sent them as servants to bid to the marriage:hence they were called Apostlesmen sent.
Joh 20:22. What Christ gives, we must receive, must submit ourselves and our whole souls to the quickening, sanctifying influences of the blessed Spirit; receive His motions, and comply with them; receive His powers, and make use of them; and they who thus obey His word as a precept, shall have the benefit of it as a promise; they shall receive the Holy Spirit as the guide of their way, and the earnest of their inheritance.
Joh 20:23. Two ways the apostles and ministers of Christ remit and retain sin, and both as having authority: 1. By sound doctrine; 2. By a strict discipline, applying the general rule of the gospel to particular persons.
[From A Plain Commentary (Oxford): Joh 20:19. Peace be unto you! Can we forget that this was the salutation of Shiloh (that is, Peace), even the Prince of Peace Himself? of Him who is delared to be our Peace: who bequeathed His peace to the disciples; and promised that Peace should be their abiding portion; and directed them to salute with Peace every house into which they entered. Peace was the subject of the angels carol on the night of the Lords nativity: behold, Peace is the first word He pronounces in the hearing of His disciples now that He is risen from death.
Joh 20:22. O most solemn and mysterious incident, as well as most solemn and prevailing words! The action of our Saviour here described may have shown emblematically (as Augustine suggests) that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Son. It may further have served to show that this was He by the breath of whose mouth all the hosts of heaven were made; and especially (as Cyril supposes), that Christ was the same who, after creating man in the beginning, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul. But more than that is here intended. For it is to be thought that, at the time of mans creation, together with his soul, or the principle of his natural life, he received also the grace of the Holy Spirit as a principle of the Divine Life to which he was also designed. (Bishop Bull). That is, the soul of man received from the very first the peculiar impress of the Holy Spirit super-added, as Clement of Alexandria writes. And Basil, expressly comparing the Divine insufflation upon Adam with that of Christ upon the Apostles, tells us that it was the same Son of God by whom God gave the insufflation: then indeed, together with the soul, but now, into the soul. Eusebius is even more explicit. The Lord (he says), renews mankind. That grace which man enjoyed at first, because God breathed into his nostrils,that same grace did Christ restore when He breathed into the face of the Apostles, and said, Receive the Holy Ghost.At the first institution of certain mysteries of the Faith, there was not wanting the outward emblem of an inward grace; which grace was afterwards conveyed without any such visible demonstration. Thus, at the Baptism of Christ, the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him. And now, at the ordination of His Apostles, our Lord is found to have breathed into their faces, when He would convey to them the gift of the same Blessed Spirit.
From Barnes: Joh 20:19. True Christians will love to meet together for worship; nothing will prevent this.
Joh 20:21. As My Father hath sent Me; As God sent Me to preach, to be persecuted, and to suffer; to make known His will, and to offer pardon to men; so I send you.From Jacobus: Joh 20:19. Glad; So He had promised to them (Joh 16:20), Your sorrow shall be turned into joy.]
Footnotes:
[18]Joh 20:19. [assembled: text. rec. with E.G. K. L. Vulg.] is omitted in accordance with . A.B.D., etc. Lachmann, Tischendorf. An exegetical addition. [Treg., Alf., Westc. likewise omit it.]
[19]Joh 20:20.[The text. rec. omits the before with . D.; but Lachm., Tischend. (in former edd., not in ed. 8), Treg., Alf., Westc. retain it with A. B. Syr.P. S.]
[20]Joh 20:21.[ is omitted by . D. L. X., Treg., Tischend.; bracketed by Alford and Westcott; retained by Lachmann and Lange with A. B.P. S.]
[21]Joh 20:22[The absence of the article before may indicate the partial or preparatory inspiration, as distinct from the pentecostal effusion. See the Exeg.P. S.]
[22]Joh 20:23.The reading in accordance with A. D. L. O. X., Lachmannin opposition to the reading , B. E. G. K etc., Tischendorf. On instead of , see Winer, p. 91. [Tischend. ed, 8, Treg., Westc. and H. read , Alford . . is also found Mat 9:2; Mat 9:5; Mar 2:5; Luk 5:20; Luk 5:23; Luk 7:47; 1Jn 2:12. The old grammarians differ as to this form, some declaring it to be identical with . (as Homer has for , others regarding it as the perf. pass, . Winer adopts the latter view, Gr. p. 77, ed. 7. The bearing of this reading on the sense is important; see the Exeg.P. S.]
[23][Similarly Bengel: , remittuntur retenta sunt: illud, prsens; hoc prterilum. Mundus Est sub peccato.)
[24][An important remark. Ministerial acts are not creative but declarative of the preceding acts of Christ and the Holly Spirit. Dean Alford remarks in loc, that ministers have the power of the keys not by successive delegation from the Apostles,of which fiction I find in the New Testament no trace (the italics are Alfords), but by their mission from Christ, the Bestower of the Spirit, for their office when orderly and legitimately coferred upon them by the various Churches. Not however to them exclusively,though for decency and order it is expedient that the outward and formal declaration should be so:but in proportion as any disciple shall have been filled with the Holy Spirit of wisdom, is the inner discernment, the , his.P. S.]
19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
Ver. 19. When the doors, &c., for fear of the Jews ] The sheep had been scattered, but now were by the great Shepherd recollected (according to the promise, Zec 13:7 ; “I will turn my hand upon the little ones”); yet, sensible of their late fright, they show some trepidation. Afterwards, when the Spirit came down upon them, they not only set open the doors, but preached Christ boldly in the temple without dread of danger. So did Basil; when the emperor threatened him with bonds, banishment, &c., he wished him to frighten babies with such bugbears; his life might be taken away, but not his faith; his head, but not his crown, a So Luther, at first so fearful and faint hearted, that in the year 1518, he wrote thus to the Pope Leo X: Vivifica, occide, voca, revoca, approba, reproba, vocem tuam vocem Christi in te praesidentis et loquentis agnoscam: I lay myself prostrate at your holiness’ feet, together with all that I am and have; quicken me, kill me, call me, recall me, approve me, reprove me, I shall acknowledge your voice to be the very voice of Christ, ruling and speaking in you. Yet afterwards he took more courage; witness among many other things, that brave answer of his to one that told him that both the pope and the emperor had threatened his ruin, Contemptus est a me Romanus et favor et furor. I hold in contempt both Roman goodwil and wrath. And when Spalatinus had sent unto him to inquire whether he would go to Worms, and appear in the gospel’s cause, if Caesar summoned him? Go, said he, I am resolved to go, though I were sure to encounter so many devils there as are tiles upon the houses. Omnia de me praesumas praeter fugam et palinodiam. Fugere nolo, multo minus reeantare. (Luth. Epist.)
a Pueris illa terriculamenta preponenda.
19 23. ] In the freedom of His spiritual and triumphant life, He appears to and commissions His own . Compare Luk 24:36-49 ; Mar 16:14-18 .
19. ] The circumstance of the doors being shut is mentioned here and in Joh 20:26 , to indicate what sort of appearances these were. Suddenly, unaccounted for by any approach, the Lord rendered Himself visible to His disciples. Nor did this affect the truth of that resurrection Body, any more than his withdrawing himself from mortal sight occasionally affected the truth of His fleshly Body. Both were done by that supernatural power dwelling in Him, by which His other miracles were wrought. It seems to have been the normal condition of His fleshly Body, to be visible to mortal eyes: of His risen Body, not to be. But both these He could suspend when He pleased, without affecting the substance or truth of either.
. . . . ] This was natural enough; the bitter hatred of the Jews (both people and rulers) to their Master, and his own prophetic announcements, would raise in them a dread of incipient persecution, now that He was removed.
not, by ordinary approach; nor, through the closed doors; nor in any visible manner; but ( subjectively , of Himself ) the word describes that unseen arrival among them which preceded His becoming visible to them.
. . ] Compare Luk 24:36 , . The , as in ch. Joh 21:4 , denotes the coming , and standing, in one the standing without motion thither , which in ordinary cases would be standing as the result of motion thither; so that in this case itself is the verb of motion.
. . ] See on Luk 24:36 , and ch. Joh 14:27 .
Joh 20:20 answers to Luk 24:39 .
] The first and partial fulfilment of ch. Joh 16:20-22 : see notes there.
The disciples seem to have handled Him: see Luk 24:39 ; 1Jn 1:1 , and below, Joh 20:25 .
Joh 20:19-29 . Manifestations of the risen Lord to the disciples, first without Thomas, then with Thomas .
Joh 20:19 . The time of the manifestation is defined, it was “on that day, the first of the week,” and during the evening, , which agrees with Luke’s account, from which we learn that when Jesus and the two disciples reached Emmaus, two hours from Jerusalem, the day was declining. The evening was chosen, probably because then the disciples could be found together. The circumstance that the doors were shut seemed to John significant regarding the properties of the risen body of Jesus. , “the doors having been shut,” i.e. , securely fastened so that no one could enter, because the precaution was taken . So soon had the disciples begun to experience the risks they ran by being associated with Jesus. Calvin supposes Jesus opened the doors miraculously; but that is no suggested in the words. Rather it is indicated that His glorified body was not subject to the conditions of the natural, earthly body, but passed where it would. Suddenly ( cf. Luk 24:36 ). “Phrasis notat se in publico omnium conspectu sistere.” Kypke. Not only as the ordinary salutation, but to calm their perturbation at this sudden apparition ( cf. Luk 24:37 ), He greets them with , and to assure them of His identity .
Matthew
THE RISEN LORD’S GREETINGS AND GIFTS
Mat 28:9 So did our Lord greet His sad followers. The first of these salutations was addressed to the women as they hurried in the morning from the empty tomb bewildered; the second to the disciples assembled in the upper room in the evening of the same day. Both are ordinary greetings. The first is that usual in Greek, and literally means ‘Rejoice’; the second is that common in Hebrew. The divergence between the two may be owing to the Evangelist Matthew having rendered the words which our Lord actually did speak, in the tongue familiar to His time, into their equivalent Greek. But whatever account may be given of the divergence does not materially affect the significance which I find in the salutations. And I desire to turn to them for a few moments now, because I think that, if we ponder them, we may gain some precious lessons from these Easter greetings of the Lord Himself.
I. First, then, notice their strange and majestic simplicity.
For, as I have remarked, unnatural as it seems at first sight, if we think for a moment, the very simplicity and calm, and, I was going to say, the matter-of-factness, of such a greeting, as the first that escaped from lips that had passed through death and yet were red and vocal, is congruous with the deepest truths of His nature. He has come from that tremendous conflict, and He reappears, not flushed with triumph, nor bearing any trace of effort, but surrounded as by a nimbus with that strange tranquillity which evermore enwrapped Him. So small does the awful scene which He has passed through seem to this divine-human Man, and so utterly are the old ties and bonds unaffected by it, that when He meets His followers, all He has to say to them as His first greeting is, ‘Peace be unto you!’-the well-worn salutation that was bandied to and fro in every market-place and scene where men were wont to meet. Thus He indicates the divine tranquillity of His nature; thus He minimises the fact of death; thus He reduces it to its true insignificance as a parenthesis across which may pass unaffected all sweet familiarities and loving friendships; thus He reknits the broken ties, and, though the form of their intercourse is hereafter to be profoundly modified, the substance of it remains, whereof He giveth assurance unto them in these His first words from the dead. So, as to a man standing on some mountain plateau, the deep gorges which seam it become invisible, and the unbroken level runs right on. So, there are a marvellous proof of the majesty and tranquillity of the divine Man, a glorious manifestation of His superiority over death; a blessed assurance of the reknitting of all ancient ties, after it as before it, coming to us from pondering on the trivial words-trivial from other lips, but profoundly significant on His-wherewith He greeted His servants when He rose again from the dead.
II. Then note, secondly, the universal destination of the greetings of the risen Lord.
But be that as it may, I cannot help feeling that in this fact, that the one salutation is the common greeting among Greek-speaking peoples, and the other the common greeting amongst Easterns, we may permissibly find the thought of the universal aspect of the gifts and greetings of the risen Christ. He comes to all men, and each man hears Him, ‘in his own tongue wherein he was born,’ breathing forth to him greetings which are promises, and promises which are gifts. Just as the mocking inscription on the Cross proclaimed, in ‘Hebrew and Greek and Latin,’ the three tongues known to its readers, the one kingdom of the crucified King-so in the greetings from the grave, the one declares that, to all the desires of eager, ardent, sensuous, joy-loving Westerns, and all the aspirations of repose-loving Easterns, who had had bitter experience of the pangs and pains of a state of warfare, Jesus Christ is ready to respond and to bring answering gifts. Whatsoever any community or individual has conceived as its highest ideal of blessedness and of good, that the risen Christ hath in His hands to bestow. He takes men’s ideals of blessedness, and deepens and purifies and refines them.
The Greek notion of joy as being the good to be most wished for those dear to us, is but a shallow one. They had to learn, and their philosophy and their poetry and their art came to corruption because they would not learn, that the corn of wheat must be cast into the ground and die before it bring forth fruit. They knew little of the blessing and meaning of sorrow, and therefore the false glitter passed away, and the pursuit of the ideal became gross and foul and sensuous. And, on the other hand, the Jew, with his longing for peace, had an equally shallow and unworthy conception of what it meant, and what was needed to produce it. If he had only external concord with men, and a competency of outward good within his reach without too much trouble, he thought that because he ‘had much goods laid up for many years’ he might ‘take his ease; and eat, and drink, and be merry.’ But Jesus Christ comes to satisfy both aspirations by contradicting both, and to reveal to Greek and Jew how much deeper and diviner was his desire than he dreamed it to be; and, therefore, how impossible it was to find the joy that would last, in the dancing fireflies of external satisfactions or the delights of art and beauty; and how impossible it was to find the repose that ennobled and was wedded to action, in anything short of union with God.
The Lord Christ comes out of the grave in which He lay for every man, and brings to each man’s door, in a dialect intelligible to the man himself, the satisfaction of the single soul’s aspirations and ideals, as well as of the national desires. His gifts and greetings are of universal destination, meant for us all and adapted for us each.
III. Then, thirdly, notice the unfailing efficacy of the Lord’s greetings.
Now I want to know-what bridges that gulf? How do you get the Peter of the Acts of the Apostles out of the Peter of the Gospels? Is there any way of explaining that revolution of character, whilst yet its broad outlines remain identical, which befell him and all of them, except the old-fashioned one that the something which came in between was the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the consequent gift of joy and peace in Him, a joy that no troubles or persecutions could shake, a peace that no conflicts could for a moment disturb? It seems to me that every theory of Christianity which boggles at accepting the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as a plain fact, is shattered to pieces on the sharp-pointed rock of this one demand-’Very well! If it is not a fact, account for the existence of the Church, and for the change in the characters of its members.’ You may wriggle as you like, but you will never get a reasonable theory of these two undeniable facts until you believe that He rose from the dead. In His right hand He carried peace, and in His left joy. He gave these to them, and therefore ‘out of weakness they were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens,’ and when the time came, ‘were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.’ There is omnipotent efficacy in Christ’s greetings.
The one instance opens up the general law, that His wishes are gifts, that all His words are acts, that He speaks and it is done, and that when He desires for us joy, it is a deed of conveyance and gift, and invests us with the joy that He desires if we observe the conditions.
Christ’s wishes are omnipotent, ours are powerless. We wish for our friends many good things, and the event turns wishes to mockery, and the garlands which we prepared for their birthdays have sometimes to be hung on their tombs. The limitations of human friendship and of our deepest and sincerest wishes, like a dark background, enhance the boundless efficacy of the greetings of the Master, which are not only wishes but bestowments of the thing wished, and therein given, by Him.
IV. So, lastly, notice our share in this twofold greeting.
Now, in all these three aspects-as proof of Messiahship, as the pattern and prophecy of immortality, and as the symbol of the better life which is accessible for us, here and now-the Resurrection of Jesus Christ stands for us even more truly than for the rapturous women who caught His feet, or for the thankful men who looked upon Him in the upper chamber, as the source of peace and of joy.
For, dear brethren, therein is set forth for us the Christ whose work is thereby declared to be finished and acceptable to God, and all sorrow of sin, all guilt, all disturbance of heart and mind by reason of evil passions and burning memories of former iniquity, and all disturbance of our concord with God, are at once and for ever swept away. If Jesus Christ was ‘declared to be the Son of God with power by His Resurrection from the dead,’ and if in that Resurrection, as is most surely the case, the broad seal of the divine acceptance is set to the charter of our forgiveness and sonship by the blood of the Cross, then joy and peace come to us from Him and from it.
Again, the resurrection of Jesus Christ sets Him forth before us as the pattern and the prophecy of immortal life. This Samson has taken the gates of the prison-house on His broad shoulders and carried them away, and now no man is kept imprisoned evermore in that darkness. The earthquake has opened the doors and loosened every man’s bonds. Jesus Christ hath risen from the dead, and therein not only demonstrated the certainty that life subsists through death, and that a bodily life is possible thereafter, but hath set before all those who give the keeping of their souls into His hands the glorious belief that ‘the body of their humiliation shall be’ ‘changed into the likeness of the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.’ Therefore the sorrows of death, for ourselves and for our dear ones, the agitation which it causes, and all its darkness into which we shrink from passing, are swept away when He comes forth from the grave, serene, radiant, and victorious, to die no more, but to dispense amongst us His peace and His joy.
And, again, the risen Christ is the source of a new life drawn from Him and received into the heart by faith in His sacrifice and Resurrection and glory. And if I have, deep-seated in my soul, though it may be in imperfect maturity, that life which is hid with Christ in God, an inward fountain of gladness, far better than the effervescent, and therefore soon flat, waters of Greek or earthly joy, is mine; and in my inmost being dwells a depth of calm peace which no outward disturbance can touch, any more than the winds that rave along the surface of the ocean affect its unmoved and unsounded abysses. Jesus Christ comes to thee, my brother, weary, distracted, care-laden, sin-laden, sorrowful and fearful. And He says to each of us from the throne what He said in the upper room before the Cross, and on leaving the grave after it, ‘My joy will remain in you, and your joy shall be full. My peace I leave to you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.’
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joh 20:19-23
19So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23″If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
Joh 20:19 “when it was evening on that day” Jewish time begins and ends at twilight (cf. Gen 1:5), which here is about 6:00 p.m., on Sunday.
“the first day of the week” Sunday was the first work day, like our Monday. This became the meeting day of the Church to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection. He Himself set the pattern by appearing in the Upper Room three Sunday nights in a row (cf. Joh 20:19; Joh 20:26; Luk 24:36 ff; Act 20:7; 1Co 16:2).
The first-generation believers continued to meet on the Sabbath at the local synagogues and at the temple on set feast days. However, the rabbis instituted a “curse oath” that required synagogue members to reject Jesus as the Messiah (after A.D. 70). At this point they dropped the Sabbath services, but continued to meet with other believers on Sunday, the resurrection day, to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection.
“doors were shut” This is a perfect passive participle. The plural implies that both the downstairs and upstairs doors were locked. This was mentioned to (1) accentuate Jesus’ appearance or (2) to show their fear of arrest.
“the disciples” Thomas was not present. Other disciples besides the eleven Apostles were present (cf Luk 24:33).
“Peace be with you” This shows their surprise, and possibly fear. Jesus had promised them peace (cf. Joh 14:27; Joh 16:33). This probably reflects the Hebrew greeting shalom. Jesus repeats it three times (Joh 20:19; Joh 20:21; Joh 20:26).
Joh 20:20 “showed them both His hands and His side” John apparently focuses on the piercing of Jesus’ side more than the other Gospels (cf. Joh 19:37; Joh 20:25). His feet are not mentioned except in Luk 24:39 and Psa 22:16. Jesus’ glorified body retains the marks of His crucifixion (cf. 1Co 1:23; Gal 3:1).
“Lord” This title is used here in its full theological sense which relates to YHWH of the OT (cf. Exo 3:14). Applying an OT title for God the Father to Jesus was one way NT authors affirmed Jesus’ full Deity. See Special Topic at Joh 6:20.
Joh 20:21 “as the Father has sent Me” This is a perfect active indicative (cf. Joh 17:18). The Church has a divine mandate (cf. Mat 28:18-20; Luk 24:47; Act 1:8). Believers have also been sent on a sacrificial mission (cf. 2Co 5:14-15; 1Jn 3:16).
Jesus uses two different terms for “send.” In John these are synonymous. This is clearly seen in chapter 8, where pemp is used of Jesus’ being sent by the Father (cf. Joh 8:16; Joh 8:18; Joh 8:26; Joh 8:29), yet apostell is used in Joh 8:42. This same thing is true of chapters 5,6. See Special Topic Send (Apostell) at Joh 5:24.
Joh 20:22 “He breathed on them” This is a word play on the term “breathed.” The Hebrew ruach and Greek pneuma can mean “breathe,” “wind,” or “spirit.” This same verb in the Septuagint was used in the OT of God’s creative activity in Gen 2:7 and the revitalization of Israel in Eze 37:5; Eze 37:9. The pronoun “them” refers to a wider group than just the Apostles (cf. Luk 24:33).
“Receive the Holy Spirit” This is an aorist active imperative. How this relates to the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost is uncertain. Jesus fulfilled everything that He promised the disciples at this first appearance. It is related to Jesus’ equipping them for their new ministry assignment as the Spirit equipped Him at His baptism.
This verse was used in the early church’s fight over the question of the Spirit proceeding from the Father or from the Father and the Son. In reality all three persons of the Trinity are involved in all the acts of redemption.
In A Theology of the New Testament, George Ladd summarizes the possible interpretations of this passage:
“This passage raises difficulties in the light of the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, which may be solved in one of three ways. Either John did not know about Pentecost and substitutes this story so that it becomes in effect the Johannine Pentecost; or there were actually two gifts of the Spirit; or Jesus’ breathing on the disciples was an acted parable promissory and anticipatory to the actual coming of the Spirit at Pentecost” (p. 289).
The footnote #24 (p. 1965) in the NET Bible asserts that this recalls Gen 2:7 (LXX). As physical life was given in Genesis, eternal life is given in the NT. This emphasis on “the breath of God” is paralleled with Ezekiel 37, where YHWH brings new life to His people by the breath of the Spirit.
Joh 20:23 “If you forgive the sins of any” These are two third class conditional sentences with an which is usually used with second class conditional sentences, not ean. This mixed condition heightens the contingency which relates both to those who share the Gospel and to those who respond by faith. Someone with the gospel knowledge chooses to share it and someone hears it and chooses to receive it. Both aspects are required. This verse does not give arbitrary authority to clergy, but wonderful life-giving power to believing witnesses! This authority was evidenced in the mission trip of the seventy during Jesus’ life.
“their sins have been forgiven them” This grammatical construction is a perfect passive indicative. The passive voice implies God’s forgiveness, available completely through gospel proclamation. Believers have the keys of the kingdom (cf. Mat 16:19) if they will only use them. This promise is to the Church, not individuals. This is theologically similar to “the bound and unbound” of Mat 18:18.
where. Probably the upper room. See Mar 14:15. Luk 22:12. Act 1:13.
assembled. All the texts omit.
for = on account of. Greek. dia. App-104. Joh 20:2.
Peace. Compare Joh 14:27; Joh 16:33.
19-23.] In the freedom of His spiritual and triumphant life, He appears to and commissions His own. Compare Luk 24:36-49; Mar 16:14-18.
Joh 20:19. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
He has not risen from the tomb many hours before we find him thus coming to his disciples. His love to them was too great to permit him to be long absent from them. He had said to them, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me; so he kept his word. He stood in their midst, and said unto them, Peace be unto you. He is the Lord and Giver of peace just as much now as he was then. Oh, that he would speak peace to the hearts of all his people now! May each believing soul among you have a deep peace! May all your troublous thoughts come to an end, and every anxious mind be calmed! Peace! Blessed peace. Oh, that the Spirit of peace would breathe it upon us all! Peace be unto you.
Joh 20:20. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side.
These were the marks to help their recognition of him. These were the memorials to excite their gratitude. These, too, were the tokens of his condescension; for a man does not show his wounds to any but to those whom he loves; He showed unto them his hands and his side. You cannot see that sight, brethren, but you can meditate upon it. Think how he gave those blessed hands to the nails, and that precious side to the soldiers spear; and, as you think of them, let your love flow forth unto him who suffered thus for you.
Joh 20:20. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.
I should think they were glad. They had been afraid of the Jews; but they forgot that fear when they saw the Lord. I suppose that, at first, when he suddenly appeared in their midst, they were afraid of him; but now there was first a sacred calm, and then there was a ripple of holy gladness on the surface of the still waters of their souls. We cannot see him, brethren, with these eyes of ours; but by faith we can behold him, so we may have gladness even as the disciples had. We ought to be the gladdest people in all the world, because Christ is ours, and is spiritually with us as he promised that he would be.
Joh 20:21. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
You are to go forth and to bless the world, even as I have done. My Father hath sent me; and even so send I you. You are to be my delegates, to carry on my service; my commissioned officers, to go forth to conflict and to conquest in my name.
Joh 20:22-23. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.
This is as much as for Christ to say, I will back up your ministry. When you preach that men are condemned for sin of which they have not repented, I will make it to be so as a matter of fact. When you declare pardon to all who trust in my precious blood, I will make it so. That truth, which you preach, shall have my seal of approval set upon it. My power shall go forth with your proclamation of the truth, so that it shall be seen that you are not proclaiming a fiction. When you preach my gospel, I will remit the sins of all who believe it; and when you pronounce sentence of condemnation on such as remain in unbelief, I will confirm your declaration!
Joh 20:24. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
Very likely, loving Jesus, as he evidently did, very much, Thomas was broken-hearted when he found that his Master was dead; so, when his fellow-disciples told him that Jesus was alive again, he could not believe it, he felt that the news was too good to be true. He had fallen into a fit of despondency, and got away, as broken-hearted, depressed people often do, trying to get quite alone, when Christian company would be one of the best ways of finding comfort and solace. So, Thomas was not with them when Jesus came.
Joh 20:25. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord.
We have seen the Lord; there is no mistake about the matter, for we have all seen him. And thus, with loving, anxious desire, they tried to cheer him, and to make him participate in the gladness which they themselves had enjoyed. Dear friends, always look after your weak brethren. If there is a Thomas, who is depressed and sad, and who therefore shuns you, do not you shun him; but find him out, and try to tell him what you have learned by way of comfort for your own heart. Mayhap, God will use it to comfort him also.
Joh 20:25. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
Thomas should not have said that, because, after all, it was not true. I do not suppose that he did put his finger into the print of the nails, and thrust his hand into Christs side, yet he did believe. We sometimes say a great deal that would have been far better left unsaid; and, especially, when our spirit is depressed, it is a token of wisdom to feel, We are hardly in a condition of mind in which we can speak as we ought, so we had better remain silent.
Joh 20:26. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them:
That is better. His love brought him out, you see, away from himself; and it often happens that, by getting a man away from himself, we get him away from his worst enemy.
Joh 20:26. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
His first salutation, after his resurrection, was such a choice one that there could not be a better, so he repeated it when he appeared the second time. Peace is so rich a blessing that even the Divine Master can say nothing sweeter to his faithful followers; so again he says to them, Peace be unto you.
Joh 20:27. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
Our dear and condescending Master would give to his feeble, and somewhat petulant disciple, all the proofs he had himself asked to have. He shall have evidence clear as noonday if he must have it; Thomas, however, as I suppose, was wise enough not to accept the gracious offer of his Lord. Sometimes, it is wise not to take what God himself may put in our way. You remember how Balaam was allowed to go with the men sent to him by Balak, and he did so; yet it would have been much wiser of him if he had not gone. I do not think that Thomas did put his finger into the print of the nails, or thrust his hand into his Masters side. On the contrary, we read:
Joh 20:28. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
Leaping out of the slough of doubt, on to the rock of confidence, by a single spring, and getting further, perhaps, than others had done who had before outstripped him. He inferred the Deity of Christ from his wounds and his resurrection, a grand chain of argument of which we have not the intervening links. His thoughtful mind made him feel that, if Christ was indeed risen, the same Christ who had died, it was proved, by those death-wounds, that he was both Lord and God; while his personal, appropriating faith, realizing the identity of the Saviours person, made him say, My Lord and my God.
Joh 20:29. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed:
That is well.
Joh 20:29. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
That is better.
Joh 20:30-31. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
Now, dear friends, has the purpose, for which this Book was written, been answered in your case? Have you been led to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so to believe that you have life through his name? If not, why not? May you have grace to answer that question, for the Lord Jesus Christs sake! Amen.
Joh 20:19. [ , on the first day of the week) It was not the Sabbath, but the day of the Resurrection, Sunday.-V. g.]-, on account of) This assigns the reason why the disciples were met together, and why the doors were shut.-, came) when the disciples were not thinking of Him, much less opening the doors.- , peace be unto you) A most appropriate and seasonable salutation, whereby their fear of the guilt which they had incurred by their flight, was removed; and the offence [their stumbling at Him because of the cross] was healed. A usual formula, of extraordinary power. [Thrice the same formula is repeated, Joh 20:19; Joh 20:21; Joh 20:26. The choice and peculiar gifts of the true Passover were, Peace, the mission, the Holy Spirit, remission of sins.-When about to go away, He had left and had given peace to them, ch. Joh 14:27, Peace I leave unto you; My peace I give unto you; ch. Joh 16:33, That in Me ye might have peace. He now imparts peace to them.-V. g.]
Joh 20:19
Joh 20:19
When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews,-The crucifixion of Jesus filled his disciples with fear as to their fate. So at evening they were met together to discuss the wondrous reports they had heard during the day. They did it within closed doors lest they should attract the attention and incur the hostility of the Jews.
Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.-[He suddenly appeared among them. How he did it, by miracle, or otherwise, it is useless for any one to discuss, since it is an untaught question. It is enough for us to know and accept the fact.]
the Risen Christ Brings Peace
Joh 20:19-25
Evidently our Lord was clothed in the spiritual body of which the Apostle speaks, not subject to the laws governing physical life. Twice He uttered the salutation, Peace be unto you. The first time He accompanied His words with the indication of His wounds: He showed unto them His hands and His side. This was the peace of forgiveness, falling on conscience-stricken hearts as the dew distils on the parched herbage. Look at the wounds of Jesus! cried Staupitz to Luther, and there is, indeed, no other sign which can give rest to the penitent. This is the peace of the evening hour, when we come back from the soil and fret of the world, and need to have our feet washed and our heart quieted.
The second time the message of peace was accompanied by an injunction to go forth into the world, as He was sent from the Father, on the great errand of world evangelization. Then He breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, which shortly after was to descend as a rushing, mighty wind. There is no way of remitting sin but by preaching the gospel of reconciliation, with the Holy Spirit accompanying our message. This is the peace of the morning, when we go forth to our post of duty or danger.
Joh 20:19-31
Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
No one gospel gives us all the various appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples after His resurrection. In fact, all of them together do not give us every such appearance. For while we have a number of instances mentioned in each of the different Gospels, we are told that our Lord showed himself alive after his passion [after he was raised from the dead] by many infallible proofs (Act 1:3). For forty days He continued with His disciples, teaching them and instructing them pertaining to the kingdom of God, so that on many other occasions than those definitely mentioned in the Gospels the Savior appeared to them and outlined the marvelous program with which He expected them to cooperate as they went forth as His messengers into all the world.
But of these instances that are recorded we might say that each one seems to have some special lesson for us. Here we have two definite appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ in the same place, an upper room in Jerusalem, possibly in the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark. And on these occasions He appeared, first of all, to ten of the apostles and then to eleven, Thomas being absent the first time but present the second time. And He gave them, in a very definite way, their commission to go out as His representatives.
We are told in verse 19, Then the same day [that is, the day on which John, Peter, and Mary Magdalene had visited the sepulcher early in the morning] at evening, being the first day of the week [for, as the seventh day was the Sabbath of the old dispensation, the memorial of creation, so the first day of the week became the rest day of the new dispensation, the memorial of new creation, the day on which our Lord Jesus Christ arose from the dead], when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, suddenly they looked up and there stood the blessed Lord in their midst. Not a door had been opened to admit Him. That gives us some idea of the difference between the resurrection body and these present bodies that are subject to their various limitations. When our Lord Jesus was here on earth, He allowed Himself to be self-limited, but after resurrection, He came out of the grave cloths, as we have seen, without disturbing them. We might even say He left the tomb without opening the door, for the stone was not rolled away to let Him out, but to let the women and the disciples in.
Now He is able to present Himself in a material body of flesh and bones but no longer subject to the former laws, appearing in a room without coming through a door or entryway! Some day we shall have bodies like His, and throughout the glorious kingdom age we shall be able to flit from place to place at His command, unhindered by what men call the law of gravitation.
Came Jesus and stood in the midst (v. 19). This was His rightful place. What infinite grace! He took the place in the midst on the cross. There, we read, they crucified Him and two thieves with Him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. He was numbered among the transgressors, and He took the central place as though of all of the malefactors He was the worst. There He was bearing our sins in His own body on the tree.
But before He went away He gave this promise to His disciples, Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst (Mat 18:20). This was the first time since His resurrection that His disciples were gathered together, and they were there because of their mutual love for Him. They were meeting in His name, and suddenly He manifested Himself among them, fulfilling His words. So, though now we cannot see Him with the mortal eye, whenever we are gathered together in His name, He is always in the midst. We do not need to ask Him or plead with Him to be in our midst. He says He is there. What we do need to ask for is opened hearts that we may discern Him.
Why is He in the midst of His friends? In the second chapter of Hebrews He says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee (Psa 22:22). That is one reason He is in the midst. He is in the midst of His saints in order to draw out their thanksgiving and praise. I love to think of Him as the great Choir Leader. These hearts of ours are the instruments with which we make melody to the Lord, and it is He who touches the strings of one heart after another. He is in the midst as our great Intercessor. It is His presence in the midst of the gatherings of His people in the power of the Holy Spirit that gives each meeting its peculiar character. I think that if we always remembered this it would have a very sobering influence upon us. It would make us realize that in the holy assembly of the saints of God nothing should be done or said or sung that could not have His approval. By and by when we gather home to glory, He will still be in the midst.
John tells us that he looked up into heaven and that he saw the throne of God surrounded by the living creatures and the twenty-four elders, representing all the ransomed saints. He says, And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth (Rev 5:6). Jesus in the midst is the glory, bearing upon His glorified body the marks of His passion, the reminder of all He suffered for sinners when He died on Calvarys cross!
And so we see Him on this resurrection evening in the midst of His gathered people. They were not very clear as to what had taken place and did not understand very much, but they loved Him. When they were thus together He fulfilled His word and manifested Himself to them.
And now He speaks. What is His word of greeting? Peace be unto you (Joh 20:19). That is the way one oriental greets another even today: Peace be unto you. But oh, how much meaning there was in this salutation coming from the lips of our precious Lord. He had just been to Calvary, where He made peace by the blood of His cross. He said to them before He went away, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (14:27). And as He stood in the midst of them He seems to say, It is all done. I have been through the sorrows of the cross. I have made peace, and now it is yours. Enter into and enjoy it.
Do you enjoy the peace that has been made? Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 5:1), a peace we did not make, a peace He made for us, and that we enter into and enjoy when we believe the word of the truth of the gospel. We are told, He is our peace (Eph 2:14). Oh, the blessedness of knowing Him who is our peace! Peace in the midst of all the trials of earth. Peace in the day when everything that men have counted upon is being shaken. If you do not enjoy this peace, it is for you. But in order to enjoy it, you must receive the One who made it. You must trust Christ for yourself.
He said to them, Peace be unto you. He showed them His hands and feet, the wound in His side. Here are the wounds that tell you it is I, and not another, and I have borne all this for you!
We, too, may see those marks of His love in the glory, and when we look upon those pierced Hands and upon the wound in His side, how they will speak to us and move our hearts. We will say to ourselves, That is the most lovely thing about Jesus, for those wounds tell what He thought of us. He might have gone out free when He finished those wonderful years of service here. He might have gone back to the glory from which He came. But He went to that cross of shame, and there he received those wounds that tell of a love that was stronger than death. And He will bear the scars for all eternity.
You say, But how do you know that He still has those wounds upon His body, that He still bears those scars? I know because in Zechariah we read, And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends (12:10; 13:6).
And so those wounds will be the perpetual token of His love for the church and His love for Israel.
He showed unto them his hands and his side (Joh 20:20). Have you not sometimes gone to a gathering of the Lords people feeling depressed, troubled? You had wondered whether to go or remain at home. But you went and took your place with them. As the hymns were sung, the Word was read, and Gods truth declared, your eyes were opened. You looked up and saw the Lord Jesus, and you went away refreshed, saying, I have seen the Lord. We do not just come together to meet with one another. It is a great mistake if we think we come together merely for a social time. We come to meet Him.
Then Jesus again said, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you (v. 21). Why did He say it again? Well, I do not think it is too farfetched to say that it was because He knew they were going into the world and they would meet with suffering, persecution, and disillusionment. Paul could say, And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Php 4:7). The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Now He sends His servants to tell the story to lost men everywhere, and as they go He will keep their hearts in peace, if they but confide in Him.
And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost (Joh 20:22). That carries our minds back to the creation of man in the first place. God formed man from the dust of the earth. He breathed into the man the breath of the spirit of life, and man became a living soul. Now here are the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, born again, it is true, but going forth upon that great mission, and the Lord breathed upon them. Just as of old, God breathed upon Adam and he became a living soul, so it was when the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost. The first Adam was a living soul; the last Adam, we are told, is a quickening spirit. And here the Lord Jesus Christ breathes upon them. It was not that He actually gave them the Spirit at that time, but they would understand when, later at Pentecost, the Spirit actually descended and abode upon them and dwelt with them, that He was given by their exalted Lord.
With this He gives them a marvelous word of authority: Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained (v. 23). What does this mean? It has been claimed by some that these disciples were the first bishops of the church, and the Lord was giving them the authority to remit sin and retain sin. That they were to go out into the world and people were to confess sins to them. They would tell them what penance to do and thus obtain remission of their sins. I do not find anything like that here.
One of the most important of the group, the apostle Peter, was there that day, and Peter went forth in the name of the Lord to proclaim remission of sins. How did he do it? Did he say, You come to me and confess your sins to me, and I will forgive them? Did he say anything like that? Let us see. In Acts 10 we find Peter preaching the gospel in the household of Cornelius. He tells of Christs wonderful life. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever (confesseth his sins to a priest) shall receive remission of sins (vv. 36, 43). Is that right? Do you have your Bible open? What does it say? That through His name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. Believe on Jesus and you will get remission. That is the commission that every servant of Christ has. We go out to the world and say, We are commanded by Jesus Christ to offer you remission of sin if you will believe on Jesus. And when they do, we dare to say, Your sins are forgiven or remitted. And if they will not believe, what then? We say to them, Your sins are retained. How do we know it? Because He said so. There is nothing sacramental here. This is just a clear, definite gospel statement.
But we are told that Thomas was not present. You know, sometimes people do not realize what they lose by not attending where Gods saints are gathered together when Jesus comes to take His place in the midst. They lose out. We can imagine the disciples saying to Thomas when they again see him, Oh, Thomas, we have had a wonderful time! We have seen the Lord! Thomas looks up in a hopeless kind of way, and replies, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe (Joh 20:25). And so Thomas goes on all through the week without getting any assurance, until eight days. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst (v. 26). He knows what Thomas said. He heard him. And He turns to him and says, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing (v. 27). We do not read that he attempted to reach out his hand. But the sight of the risen Christ was apparently enough, and he exclaimed with adoring love, My Lord, and my God! (v. 28).
And what did Jesus say? Did He say, You must not call me God. I am only the Son of God. Dont do that. That is a great mistake? Did He do that? That is what He ought to have said if the Unitarian is right. But what did He say? Thomas had called Him, My Lord and my God. Jesus said, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed (v. 29). Is that blessing yours? We have never seen Him with mortal eyes but we gladly confess Him as our Lord and our God.
John closes this section by saying, And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name (vv. 30-31).
The selected instances recorded here are written that we might know who Jesus is. And if you have any doubt about it, read Johns gospel over and over again.
Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.
Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?
To do the will of Jesus, this is rest.
The Saviours Easter Greeting
When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had said this, he shewed unto them his hands and his side.Joh 20:19-20.
1. It is the evening of the first Easter Day. In an upper chamber in Jerusalemin all probability in the upper chamber which had been the scene of the institution of the Holy Eucharist, and was to be the scene of the baptism of the Church by the descending Spirit, and then to be the place of the first of Christian assemblies, the mother of all Churchesit is in this upper chamber that we see gathered together a band of men and women. They are in a position of restlessness up to the point of fear. They feel the restlessness of men whose lives are in great danger. The tomb of the Master whom they loved was found empty. The foes of Jesus imagined that this was by the connivance of the disciples themselves. His disciples had come, they said, and stolen the body whilst the guards placed to keep watch over it slept. The disciples accordingly anticipated that that fury of the Jews which had burst with such force upon their Master would now descend upon their heads. But they were not only in this bodily fear. This bodily fear would not have been in them if they had not been restless in mind. They did not know what to believe, they were in perplexity. The tomb of Christ was empty. By a resurrection? They could not believe that. True, their Lord again and again had tried to prepare them for that mystery of His resurrection, but they could not understand it. How then was it empty? Not by any act of their own, they knew very well. And the perplexity was increased in this waysome people said He was risen; some women said they had seen Him. Were these but womens stories after all? If they were not true, what was true? Was He risen or was He not?
Jesus came, unannounced and unexpected, into the midst of these perplexed disciples. Their very fear drew Him to them. They wanted Him: He knew it, and could not keep away. It was the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut. They wanted the old familiar times back again. If He would come and bring them how much more faithful they would be to Him than in the past. But He was gone, and they dare not keep the door ajar, for they had no courage and much fear. And then, lo! He was there, standing in the midst of them, with the old kind smile upon His face, and the calm strong greeting on His lips. Peace be unto you, He said, and showed them His hands and His side.
2. This was the greeting He would naturally have given them on any occasion on which He came to them in the days of His earthly life in the body. Those who have lived in Eastern lands seem to hear the Lords voice when they read His salutation, the sound of which from the lips of all visitors they know so well. But we must believe that the words Peace be unto you had a more than ordinary significance on this occasion. They were intended to convey a real inward comfort, and to produce, in the mind of those who heard them, the assurance that a new and blessed influence had entered into them. In the darkest hour of their earthly companionship, when the deep shadow of approaching separation was resting upon them, the Lord had said Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Their hearts were too sad at the time to receive any comfort from the saying, sweet and soothing though the sound of the words must even then have seemed. But now, in the very first words He speaks to them after His Resurrection, He fulfils His promise, and proves to them the reality of His own gift. Then, having allayed their terror, He certifies them of His bodily identity by showing them His hands and His side. There was no longer any possibility of doubting the truth of His Resurrection, and feelings of gladness at once dispelled the former doubts and apprehensions.
For those disciples that day had been a very restless one. They had been troubled by what the women said, and by their own many questionings and thoughts. Sin came back on Peter and on others, and the very thing they needed most was that He should stand and say, Peace be unto you; see my hands and my side. And do we not realize that very often at the end of the day Christ comes to us, when we are troubled with a sense of sin? And those of us who are trying to live nearest the true Light are most conscious of sin and imperfection. There never was a day we ever lived in which there were not many things that came short of the glory of God, and there is never an evening in which we do not have to say, Forgive us our debts, our shortcomings, even if we do not need to say, Forgive us our trespasses, our transgressions. There is always the coming short of His glory, even if there is not voluntary transgression of His will. And so there never is a time when we do not need that He should show us His hands and His side, and say, Beloved, there is the guarantee that your sin is put absolutely away, that there is nothing between God and you but one clear heaven of love.1 [Note: F. B. Meyer, in The Keswick Week (1900), 132.]
I happened to drop into a house where there was a large family, and I found the mother very busy about the room. What are you doing? I asked. Oh, when the children have gone to bed I have to tidy up after them, and I make straight what they have left amiss. And there she was, just going over all the broken fragments of the childrens work, and taking up the stitches that her little daughter had put all across the piece of work she had given the child to do. I could see quite well the big cross stitches, and how the mother was taking them up and making them good. I said to myself: Yes, that is just what Christ does. He comes into the days life and work, when all the mistakes have been made, and the poor sermons have been preached, and the mis-statements have been uttered, and one looks back with such a sense of infinite regret and failure, and He says: Peace be unto you. I am going over all the mistakes to put them right, and help to make powerful that which you left impotent and useless.2 [Note: Ibid.]
I
The Appearance Behind Closed Doors
When the doors were shut.
1. Barriers are often raised unwittingly against Christ. When the disciples shut and locked the doors of the upper chamber, they never meant to bar them against Jesus. They were afraid of the Jews, and acted only in self-defence. And there are lines of conduct in common life we may pursue, and we never dream that we are raising barriers between ourselves and the highest and the best: but in the end of the day for us, as for the disciples, it will be found that we have done more than we imaginedwe have closed the door unwittingly on Christ.
It is the tragedy of many a life that its doors are shut. Sometimes it is engrossment in pleasure, in business, in friendship, that bars the door against the ingress of the Saviour. All these things, lawful in themselves, and having indeed a right and necessary place in any life, may gain such an ascendancy as to become its masters, demanding all thought, all energy, all strength of life, until the man over whom they have gained control is himself behind closed doors. Sometimes it is by selfishness of joy or sorrow that the doors are closed. There is a joy which is regarded as incommunicable, or a sorrow which is regarded as unshareable, and He who is the Author of each is excluded from life by His own providences misreceived and misinterpreted. Often, too, it is with us as with these His earliest disciples, fear of the consequences of identification with Him causes the door to be tightly barred. We are afraid of the disfavour of men, and in shutting out the Jews we really shut out Jesus. But chiefly it is sin that excludes the Son of God from the life in which He seeks to be known and served. And this, too, may be of unintentional beginning. For sin at its commencement is often merely thoughtlessness. Persisted in, however, despite the correcting light which God is unceasingly shedding upon us, it becomes actually wilfulthe rebellious barring of the door against the Son of God.
Every morning that we rise, every day that we go forth, our choices make us or our choices mar us. Some day a choice more momentous than usual comes. We are face to face with one of lifes great decisions. And we have not been living on high levels, and so we choose amiss, for a mans whole life is in every choice he makes. Then the days pass, and the issues show themselves, and the choice works itself out in life and character, and a hundred glorious things are tarnished and are tainted as the result of one disastrous choice. We never meant to shut out power and purity, but they have receded into the dim distance ever since. We never thought to grow heart-weary and world-weary, but that may follow from one mismanaged choosing. Like the disciples, beset by some poor fear, unwittingly we have closed the door on Christ.1 [Note: G. H. Morrison, The Unlighted Lustre, 115.]
And Life with full hands came,
Austerely smiling.
I looked, marvelling at her gifts
Fortune, much love, many beauties,
The deed fulfilled man ponders in his youth,
Gold of the heart, desire of the eyes come true!
And joyously
With these, I said with these, indeed,
What spirit could miss delight?
And paused to dream them over.
But even then
Choose, she said.
One gift is yoursno more,
And bent that grave, wise smile
Upon me, waiting.2 [Note: M. MNeal-Sweeney, Men of No Land, 107.]
2. He came; they knew not how; they knew only that the chamber was strongly secured against intrusion or surprise. No bolt was withdrawn; no door was opened; no breach was made in the wall of their place of assembly; there was no visible movement as from without to within, or from point to point. One moment they were, as they thought, alone; and the next, they looked, and lo! an outline, a form, a visible body and face, a solid human frame was before them, as if created out of the atmosphere which they breathed. Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. They gazed at Him; they gazed at each other in bewilderment and terror. They supposed that they had seen a spirit; they were with difficulty reassuredso St. Lukes report seems to implyby the means which our Lord took to convince them that a body of flesh and bones was before them. At last they were glad when they saw the Lord.
Christ is inevitable, unavoidable; you cannot stop or stay Him. That is the first great lesson of the Resurrection. No one can follow the story of His life, without feeling that Christ is inevitable. It is the key to the whole record. We are swept into a movement which we realize is irresistible, and the secret of its power is the irresistible Christ. We feel this not merely because Christ exercised an extraordinary influence and became the centre of a unique attraction, but because of what He was. His words and His works alike are significant first and chiefly of what He is in Himself; they are the revelation of a Person who more and more completely wins our absolute trust. When the Cross comes into view, crowning the path up which He is moving, we follow Him, knowing that, though it seems to be inexplicable, it comes within His purpose of redemption, and He fully understands it, however blind we may be to what it means. I lay down my life for the sheep. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. It is all a complete unity, the one perfect whole in a world of fragments. And when we hear the It is finished ring out through the gloom of His death-hour, we are ready for the glory which will soon be breaking from the opened grave. And as at last we see Him coming to the disciples on Easter evening, though the doors are shut against Him, we know that always and everywhere He is and must be resistless. Always and everywhere He is the inevitable Christ.
For weal or woe, whatever walls you raise, Christ passes through them all and gets to you. There are deeds that we did long since, perhaps twenty years ago, but to this hour unexpectedly they rise and meet us. There were moments of exquisite happiness in our past, and even to-day their memory is like music. You cannot shut out the thought of intense hours: no change of years will prevent them winning through. And like the ineffaceable memory of such scenes is the presence and the beauty of the Lord. Christ is inevitable. Christ is unavoidable. Sometimes He comes through the closed door, just because all life is penetrated with Him. We talk of the Christian atmosphere we breathe, but the atmosphere is more than Christian, it is Christ. This is the Lords daywho then is this Lord? We may have closed the door on Him, but He is here. We cannot date one letter in the morning, but we mean that more than one thousand nine hundred years ago Christ was born. He meets us at every turn of the road, in every newspaper and in every problem. Our life is so interpenetrated with Christ Jesus that to avoid Him is an impossibility.1 [Note: G. H. Morrison, The Unlighted Lustre, 119.]
Men who lived and fought for Napoleon have told the world how they gradually came to believe him to be resistless. He had only to appear before His troops on his white charger, and down the lines of French bayonets flashed an electric confidence which made them mighty, as soldiers had seldom been mighty before, and enabled them to carry all before them. So with the Captain of our salvation. In the New Testament Christ goes forth conquering and to conquer, and He intends His Church to live in the power of that inspiration. It is nothing to Him that doors are shut, and men are weak and helpless. You may as well try to stifle the springtide or struggle to fetter the feet of the summer morning as strive to bar out the coming of Jesus risen. You will draw a curtain over the dawn and shut down the sunrise behind the darkness before you will banish the inevitable Christ.1 [Note: F. B. Macnutt, The Inevitable Christ, 8.]
Francis Thompson has told with marvellous beauty of imagery and breadth of expression the story of the pursuit of the soul through all its manifold experience by the Hound of Heaven, which will not let it escape Him.
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase
And unperturbd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat and a Voice beat
More instant than the feet
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me.
So the foolish soul perseveres in flight from its Saviour, and on and on after it come those persistent feet which will not be denied. It tries to hide in strange and distant places; it rings itself in with forbidden pleasures; it lavishes its love upon tender and beautiful human affections, and still
Fear wist not to evade as love wist to pursue
till at last the chase is ended, and the Voice is round him like a bursting sea.
Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
Ah! fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.
3. But while Christ forces Himself thus upon our attention He never compels our submission. It is always a matter of choice and will with us as to the reception He receives when He appears. For when once He has secured our ear and engaged our thought He subjects Himself to our will. The crowning pathos and tragedy of life is to close the door more closely when we have been made aware of His Presence. Its crowning glory is to open it wide that the King of Glory may come in.
A Sunday spent at Cambridge in order to preach before the University came to Creighton as a welcome break. He chose as the subject of his sermon Liberty. Some years before at breakfast at Lambeth Palace, he had propounded the question what was the most important object of pursuit, and had maintained amidst the friendly and animated contradiction which never failed in that circle, that liberty was the most precious possession of man. This conviction only deepened as the years passed. But he felt also increasingly the tremendous responsibility of liberty, and said that, instead of snatching at it as a prize, it would be more true to speak of the burden of liberty. In this sermon at Cambridge he said: If we try to grasp the meaning of progress as it is shown in the history of the past, it is to be found only in the growing recognition of the dignity of man, which is another form of expressing human freedom, and is the ground of its calm.1 [Note: Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton, ii. 320.]
II
The Message of Peace
Peace be unto you.
This invocation of peace, at beginning or ending of intercourse, was already ancient. In our Lords day it had become just as much part of the social habits of the people as the custom of saying Good-morning is among ourselves. All the Semitic peoples, the Syrians, the Arabians, and, as we know from the Talmud, the Jews of the Dispersion, used it as a matter of course. In earlier days, no doubt, men had invoked peace from heaven with the utmost deliberation and seriousness. In the age of the kings and prophets the phrase had still a living meaning: the speaker actually prayed for the blessing of peace on the person whom he addressed. It is a gradual process by which the real fresh language of primitive times is stiffened into the unmeaning forms of the society of a later age; but as far as this expression is concerned, the process was already complete in our Lords day. And yet He did not scruple to avail Himself of the conventional phrase.
But this was not merely the familiar greeting of friend to friendthough it was thatin that strange moment when two worlds met. Nor was it merely a kindly wordthough it was that, tooto pacify their terror, as this apparition from another world stood silently and suddenly before them. It was a word of larger, more majestic scope. Spoken to men who had met in fear, and who looked forward to troubled days, it had a wonderful power to soothe, coming from the lips of the Lord, fresh from His victory over death. The disciples, therefore, were glad when they saw the Lord, glad with a great gladness which we cannot know till we have fathomed the depths of their sorrow and despair as they saw Jesus taken from His cross and laid in Josephs tomb. Jesus is strangely earnest about this peace. Those worn, hunted men need it; and He will not leave them till He has made them sure of it. Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace be unto you.
A great soul can redeem his words from triviality. He takes the most conventional expressions, the small change of ordinary courtesy, which on the lips of other men mean nothing, and in his mouth they have such heart and substance that you go on cheered and bettered by his greeting. Peace is one of the anointed words which hold rank in human speech by native dignity, but in Palestine it had been degraded to the level of a customary civility, with which the most indifferent acquaintances met and parted. And Jesus takes the word, humbled and impoverished, and makes such use of it that it is no longer trivial but has the force of a command for their hearts.1 [Note: W. M. Macgregor, Jesus Christ the Son of God, 165.]
Professor Johnston Ross relates that he once visited a furniture-dealers shop in West London. The man was a Jew, and, noticing that his visitor wore clerical dress, he began to talk on religious matters. After an interesting conversation the Professor mounted his bicycle, saying, Good-bye, when the dealer called out in Hebrew, Peace be unto youusing the plural form. The Professors curiosity was aroused, and he asked: Why do you put it so? Is there another that you wish peace to? Yes, replied the Jew, Peace be to you and to the angel over your shoulder.
1. The first gift that Jesus had for them was a high confidence in their cause. Without that a Christian life cannot well be lived. He does not mean that we should live by sufferance, creeping timidly under the shadow of mens example; we are to have eyes and a conscience to know the truth, and courage to maintain it. The Christian Church has been built up by the fidelities of true men, and it gains no strength from those who have not courage to be faithful. These will come in thousands when the fashion once is set, but they bring nothing with them. They, certainly, can never be described as the city set on a hill which cannot be hid. Jesus Christ is the Lord of all the brave, and His gift is the high heart which sees its course and does not reckon odds.
Peden, the Covenanter, speaks for all right Christians when he says, For my part, I seek no more, if He bids me go. And in one of his sermons the refrain is this: They sought no more than His commandment; they went and He carried them well through.1 [Note: W. M. Macgregor, Jesus Christ the Son of God, 173.]
2. But the deepest hurt in the life of a man is not the ill his neighbour threatens; there is a controversy behind that, a war in his own conscience, a sense that his own life is wrong, and that God and he are somehow not at one. And Christ preached peace. He brought forgiveness to men, the assurance of Gods forgetfulness. To the most faulty He declared the goodwill of God, assuring them of a place in His heart from which all their sin and folly have not banished them. There are powers in God to part us from our sin, so that it can never rise against us any more; and these powers are centred in the Cross of Christ, in which right was done to justice by Him who came to rescue men from what they had deserved.
Christian peace, the peace which Christ gives, the peace which He sheds abroad in the heart, is it aught else than a glorified harmony; the expelling from mans life of all that was causing disturbance there, all that was hindering him from chiming in with the music of heaven, in which now shall mingle for ever the consenting songs of redeemed men and elect angels?1 [Note: Archbishop Trench, in The Literary Churchman (1892), 167.]
I couldnt live in peace if I put the shadow of a wilful sin between myself and God.2 [Note: Maggie Tulliver, in The Mill on the Floss.]
The realization of our peace with God, which constitutes or causes peace with ourselves, presupposes the reality of that peace with God; it does not create it. The fact must precede the knowledge of the fact, it cannot result from it. The ear does not discourse sweet music, or the eye produce a pleasant picture; in each case the organ of sense embraces an already existing reality. The rule holds good in the spiritual creation. That perfect harmony of will and reason and religious emotion which we denominate peace of conscience is not the cause of the sinners reconciliation with an offended God, neither is it identical with it; it is the result.and product of an actual reconciliation. For the condition of our own minds is as it were the shadow and reflection of the relation in which we stand to God. So long as we are at enmity with Him, so long as we feel ourselves to be exposed to His most righteous indignation, there is strife and war and tumult in our hearts. Only out of peace with God, and the conscious realization of that peace, can flow quiet of heart and peace of conscience.3 [Note: W. B. Jones, The Peace of God, 360.]
Perhaps no Christian, since the days of the Apostles, has illustrated the true peace of the soul, which Jesus Christ gives, so fully as the great St. Augustine. Read his Confessions. What a restless life his was before his conversion. His intellect was tossed on the waves of speculation, and he could grasp no reassuring truth. His heart was distracted by the ideals of false philosophy and sensuality in its various Protean forms. His conscience was profoundly stirred by conviction of sin; he was hurried along by a very tempest of passions, and there was no peace.
Then came his conversion. Jesus rose in the soul. There was a change, which brought peace. Tolle, lege, Take it up and read, were the words he heard in his agony; and he took up the scroll and read, The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness; and those words of St. Paul fell on the ear of his soul, and there was peace. His intellect surveys the vast realms of revelation and nature, and sees Christthe Divine Logoseverywhere. His heart turns its undisturbed and enraptured gaze on the Eternal Beautyall ancient and all young. His will is redirected, the problem of duty is simplified, and he does it with all his heart. His conscience is calmed, for there is no longer any sense of feud between himself and holiness of life. All is pardoned through the cleansing Blood. All becomes possible through the grace of the Redeemer, and Augustine became the greatest saint the Catholic Church has produced since the time of the great Apostle himself.1 [Note: M. Fuller, In Terr Pax, 79.]
3. How did the peace of God, passing understanding, come to them that night? By the manifested presence of Him who first said, Peace be unto you, and then showed them His hands and His side. He came as His own supreme Evangelist, in His own utterance of peace. He let them see Him as His own supreme Evangel, in His finished sacrifice and that glorious sequel of it, His living Presence. So it is for ever. There is no substitute, nor ever can be, for personal relations with Christ, crucified and risen. Would we taste a peace which is indeed of God? It must be through our Lord Jesus Christ, as not a principle only but a Person. Faith must see His wounds; faith must hear His benediction, nothing between, resting direct on Him. Only so will our life have banished out of it the bewilderment, the misgiving, which lie at the troubled heart of half-religion.
Wilt Thou not visit me?
The plant beside me feels Thy gentle dew;
And every blade of grass I see,
From Thy deep earth its quickening moisture drew.
Wilt Thou not visit me?
Thy morning calls on me with cheering tone;
And every hill and tree
Lend but one voice, the voice of Thee alone.
Come, for I need Thy love,
More than the flower the dew, or grass the rain
Come, gently as Thy holy Dove;
And let me in Thy sight rejoice to live again.
I will not hide from them
When Thy storms come, though fierce may be their wrath
But bow with leafy stem,
And strengthened follow on Thy chosen path.
Yes, Thou wilt visit me,
Nor plant nor tree Thine eye delights so well,
As when, from sin set free,
My spirit loves with Thine in peace to dwell.1 [Note: Jones Very.]
III
The Confirmation of the Message
He shewed unto them his hands and his side.
Our Lord first convinced them of His identity. The deep shadows of evening were around them; a solitary lamp, perhaps, cast a glimmer of light through the large upper room, and made the darkness visible, while they were standing in a group and eagerly discussing the news of the Eesurrection, which, first Mary Magdalene, then Peter, then the two disciples from Emmaus, had in turn brought in. And casually some one glanced aside into the darkened room, where all was vacancy; and surely the air was not seen to movebut it did moveand he looked again, and it moved again, and now a dim outline was seen. The disciple held his breath, and touched his neighbour and whispered. And they looked again, and the shadow had grown in distinctness, and others saw the shape. At length it was plainly visible to all, and it stood out in the very midst in the full proportions of a man, although a moment before they could neither see, nor feel, nor hear any one besides themselves. Well might they be filled with fear, and think that they had seen a spirit. Great need had they of hearing those soothing words, Peace be unto you!
And now, to show them not only that it was a true material organism, but the very body that had been crucified, He showed the ghastly gashes made in the crucifixion. Luke says, He shewed them his hands and his feet: those hands and feet that had always been about His Fathers business; hands that had waved away the powers of darkness; hands that had been placed on the heads of little children; hands that had broken the bread of miracle; feet that had walked the stormy waters; feet that had carried Him to the weeping sisters, and the tomb of Lazarus; feet that had climbed the mountain stair into the midnight holy of holies, where He prayed; feet that had hastened to the side of the wretched, had stood near the most forlorn; feet that took Him down to Gethsemane, and failed Him there under the load of our sorrow; feet that with weak, fainting, yet resolute steps, came out of Jerusalem, while the hands assayed to hold upon His shoulder the cruel crossthe hands and the feet that were nailed to that cross.
One time when David Livingstone was engaged in his civilizing work in Africa, he was attacked by a huge lion of the jungle. The ferocious beast grasped the hand of the missionary in his powerful jaws, and broke the bone. Livingstone was rescued by two friends who had accompanied him, but for a long time he was obliged to keep his arm in a sling. He carried the scar of the wound all his days, and when the faithful natives brought back his dead body to his native land, this scar on the arm once broken was one of the means by which the remains of the great missionary were identified by his friends.
1. He confirmed His former word of peace.My peace I give unto you. He had said, and the word lived in their ears like deep irony. And now, when they sat in gloomy silence, with their sorrow, and their peril, and thoughts of the empty future making peace impossible, He comes again with His former word. It was a time when the common greeting might well have sounded like a wrong; peacewhen there is no peace and cannot be! But Jesus Christ, whose words are living, calls them back from all such petulance. In its fullest latitude He meant His word, and thus made trial of their faith; for peace was there, indeed, within their reach, if only they had courage to lay hands upon it. And in our disquiet the Lord speaks to us in the same way, and we shall gain or miss the help of His presence according as we deal with the promise of His word.
2. He showed them the proofs of His victory.His appearance was more significant than any word He spoke. He appeared to those men time after time in order that, when He had withdrawn from their sight, they might know the truth, the reality concerning Him, and know it for ever; that all doubt, all hesitation, might be gone from their minds. He showed Himself to them that they might have His image in their hearts, and send on that image into our hearts through all the ages. Just as on earth in the days of His mortality He revealed Himself, so now in the days of His resurrection power He does but reveal Himself. Is there a halo? There is none. Are there the robes of royalty? They are not mentioned. Is His advent into the room heralded by the acclaim of the archangels? No. But we are told in both recordsit is the very central point of the narrativethat He showed them His hands and His feet. We are told that on the next Sabbath He saw Thomas, and He said, See my hands; see my side. The marks of the suffering were upon Him. His body was changed strangely. It was raised to a condition of existence entirely different from the old condition; but there was something that was not changed. When you think how much was changed, that which was not changed is all the more significant. Instead of the halo there were the wound-prints, and it was those wound-prints that won for Him the name My Lord and my God.
Our Lord bought peace with His Passion. It is to the Passion that He ascribes the Peace. He comes back with the signature of that treaty of peace written in His hands and side. There did not seem to be much peace in the Passion, rather it was the breaking of the storm. The old man in the Temple looked across the sky of the Child-life to where the clouds were gathering for Him and His Mother; and on the Cross the storm broke. But the vessel, lost to sight in the storm, again appears, though with rigging torn and battered hull, creeping back to port with the dignity of a struggle that has found the goal.1 [Note: F. E. Ridgeway, Calls to Service, 219.]
The Saviours Easter Greeting
Literature
Buckland (A. R.), Text Studies for a Year, 119.
Davies (J. Ll.), The Work of Christ, 331.
Deshon (G.), Sermons for the Ecclesiastical Year, 182.
Farningham (M.), In Evening Lights, 104.
Fotheringham (D. R.), The Writing on the Sky, 77.
Fuller (M.), The Lords Day, 256.
Fuller (M.), In Terr Pax, 56.
Gutch (C.), Sermons, 184.
Hankey (W. B.), The Church and the Saints, 55.
Holden (J. S.), The Pre-Eminent Lord, 101.
Hutton (W. R.), Low Spirits, 48.
Jones (W. B.), The Peace of God, 355.
Lewis (F. W.), The Work of Christ, 147.
Liddon (H. P.), Easter in St. Pauls, 217.
MacArthur (J.), Sermons for the People, New Ser., iv. 57.
McFadyen (J. E.), The Divine Pursuit, 67.
Macgregor (W. M.), Jesus Christ the Son of God, 165.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions: John xv.xxi., 382.
Macnutt (F. B.), The Inevitable Christ, 3.
Morrison (G. H.), The Footsteps of the Flock, 288.
Morrison (G. H.), The Unlighted Lustre, 112.
Moule (H. C. G.), From Sunday to Sunday, 95.
Reynolds (H. R.), Lamps of the Temple, 184.
Salmon (G.), Cathedral and University Sermons, 213.
Smellie (A.), In the Secret Place, 80, 81.
Smith (D.), Christian Counsel, 54.
Stone (D.), The Discipline of Faith, 107.
Telford (J.), The Story of the Upper Room, 245.
Thomas (J.), The Mysteries of Grace, 89.
Wilkinson (G. H.), Some Laws in Gods Spiritual Kingdom, 281.
Keswick Week, 1900, p. 131 (Meyer); 1905, p. 95 (Pierson).
the same: Mar 16:14, Luk 24:36-49, 1Co 15:5
when: Joh 20:26, Neh 6:10, Neh 6:11
came: Joh 14:19-23, Joh 16:22, Mat 18:20
Peace: Joh 20:21, Joh 14:27, Joh 16:33, Psa 85:8-10, Isa 57:18, Isa 57:19, Mat 10:13, Luk 24:36, Rom 15:33, Eph 2:14, Eph 6:23, Phi 1:2, 2Th 3:16, Heb 7:2, Rev 1:4
Reciprocal: Gen 43:23 – Peace Jdg 6:23 – Peace be Psa 118:24 – the day Pro 16:24 – Pleasant Isa 42:3 – bruised Mat 28:9 – All hail Mar 6:50 – it is I Mar 16:9 – the first Luk 24:33 – and found Joh 7:13 – spake Joh 9:22 – because Joh 16:16 – a little while Joh 20:1 – first Joh 21:1 – these Joh 21:14 – the third time Act 12:10 – which Act 13:31 – he was Act 20:7 – the first 1Co 15:44 – there is a spiritual 1Co 16:2 – the first Heb 10:25 – forsaking 1Pe 5:14 – Peace Rev 1:10 – on the
THE LORDS DAY
The same day at evening, being the first day of the week came Jesus and stood in the midst.
Joh 20:19
Very early in the morning, the first day of the week, the Lord Jesus by His Resurrection proclaimed His victory over sin and death, and in consequence that first day has become the Lords-day, the day in every week on which we commemorate with joy and gladness the triumph of the Lords redeeming work. What wonder, then, is it that from that day forward new and hallowed associations were connected in the minds of the Apostles with the first day of the week.
I. The origin of the Lords-day.Of this I would affirm that it is not Jewish. This, indeed, might sufficiently appear from the fact that in the early days of the Church both the first and seventh day of the week were generally observed by Christians, at any rate by those who had been converted from Judaism. All that is Jewish, all the ceremonies, all the observances, all the restrictions and restraints have been altogether swept away, and of these no single trace remains. So far as Christianity is concerned, no single part of the discarded system of Judaism finds a place.
II. What is the governing principle which underlies the observance alike of the Jewish Sabbath and of the Lords-day? It cannot be forgotten that our Divine Master has maintained that love is the great, the first commandment. On this governing principle of love to God and love to man hang all the law and the prophets. Religion is not a mere restraint; it is an enthusiasm. Love is the power which is to control all our motives and to direct all our conduct. Whatever there may be in the Divine enactments which appears to be in the nature of restriction or of prohibition of mans liberty, is imposed in obedience to the demands of this supreme law of love.
III. Guided, then, in our search by this law of love, and applying to the question before us, what does it reveal?
(a) What does love to God demand from us with reference to the observance of the Lords-day? Does it not at least require thisthat we should remember the day to keep it holy? Love to Him demands our worship. The grateful heart longs to use every opportunity for showing forth His praise, and in His mercy and goodness towards us He has shown us the way, and provided the means by which we may satisfy this needa need which grows up until it becomes a yearning desire and ardent longing to every true child of God.
(b) Nor is it less important to remember that the fundamental principle of love to man is embodied in the observance of the Lords-day. In the old Jewish law this principle was recognised in the commandment which ordained that no work should be performed upon the Sabbath, and on the reason given for the command, That thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. We are not unmindful of the fact that our Blessed Lord swept away all those perversions of this grand principle, by which the Pharisees of His day had distorted the Divine command, so that it had become a mere formal observance of legal and burdensome enactments. But the general rule of abstinence from work, except indeed in the performance of duties of necessity and charity, remained. Is it consistent with Gods supreme law of love, that multitudes of weary toilers should be needlessly condemned to the slavery of continuous labour on the day of rest?
Prebendary Kitto.
Illustration
In these latter days there have been constant controversies, not only between the Church and the world, between the religious and the ungodly, but even amongst religious people themselves, as to the claims of the Lords-day, and as to the extent and manner of its observance. The vast increase within the present generation of every form of Sunday entertainment; the boating and cycling excursions, the lawn-tennis parties, the Sunday visiting and Sunday At Homes and dinner-parties and dances, and dramatic performances and smoking concerts and boxing clubs, all these are now tolerated and allowed, where they would have been repudiated and condemned a very few years ago.
9
Same day . . . being the first day of the week. This statement is another proof that the first day of the week was the one on which Jesus arose from the dead. The persecuting spirit of the Jews still hovered in the community, causing the disciples to meet “behind closed doors.” Luk 24:33-35 tells us the subject they were discussing was the report that Jesus had risen from the dead. Jesus stood in the midst. This is taken by some to mean that Jesus had already undergone a change in his body, since he was able to appear in their midst in spite of the closed doors. However, that act would not require any greater miracle than did his disappearance from them unnoticed before his death (Luk 4:29-30).
The verses we have now read contain things hard to be understood. Like all the events which followed our Lord’s resurrection, there is much in the facts before us which is mysterious, and requires reverent handling. Our Lord’s actions, in suddenly appearing among the disciples when the doors were closed, and in breathing upon them, might soon draw us into unprofitable speculation. It is easy, in such cases, to darken counsel by words without knowledge. We shall find it safer and wiser to confine our attention to points which are plain and instructive.
We should observe, for one thing, the remarkable language with which our Lord greeted the apostles, when He first met them after His resurrection. Twice over he addressed them with the kindly words, “Peace be unto you.” We may dismiss as untenable, in all probability, the cold and cautious suggestion, that this was nothing better than an unmeaning phrase of courtesy. He who “spake as never man spake,” said nothing without meaning. He spoke, we may be sure, with special reference to the state of mind of the eleven apostles, with special reference to the events of the last few days, and with special reference to their future ministry. “Peace” and not blame,-“peace” and not fault-finding,-“peace” and not rebuke,-was the first word which this little company heard from their Master’s lips, after He left the tomb.
It was meet and fitting, that it should be so, and in full harmony with things that had gone before. “Peace on earth” was the song of the heavenly host, when Christ was born. Peace and rest of soul, was the general subject that Christ continually preached for three years. Peace, and not riches, had been the great legacy which He had left with the eleven the night before His crucifixion. Surely it was in full keeping with all the tenor of our Lord’s dealings, that, when He revisited His little company of disciples after His resurrection, His first word should be “Peace.” It was a word that would soothe and calm their minds.
Peace, we may safely conclude, was intended by our Lord to be the key-note to the Christian ministry. That same peace which was so continually on the lips of the Master, was to be the grand subject of the teaching of His disciples. Peace between God and man through the precious blood of atonement,-peace between man and man through the infusion of grace and charity,-to spread such peace as this was to be the work of the Church. Any religion, like that of Mahomet, who made converts with the sword, is not from above, but from beneath. Any form of Christianity which burns men at the stake, in order to promote its own success, carries about with it the stamp of an apostasy. That is the truest and best religion which does most to spread real, true peace.
We should observe, for another thing, in these verses, the remarkable evidence which our Lord supplied of His own resurrection. He graciously appealed to the senses of His trembling disciples. He showed them “His hands and His side.” He bade them see with their own eyes, that He had a real material body, and that He was not a ghost or a spirit. “Handle Me and see,” were His words, according to Luke: “a spirit hath not flesh and bone, as ye see Me have.” Great indeed was the condescension of our blessed Master, in thus coming down to the feeble faith of the eleven Apostles! But great also was the principle which He established for the use of His Church in every age, until He returns. That principle is, that our Master requires us to believe nothing that is contrary to our senses. Things above our reason we must expect to find in a religion that comes from God, but not things contrary to reason.
Let us lay firm hold on this great principle, and never forget to use it. Specially let us take care that we use it, in estimating the effect of the sacraments and the work of the Holy Ghost. To require people to believe that men have the quickening power of the Holy Spirit, when our eyes tell us they are living in habitual carelessness and sin, or that the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper are Christ’s real body and blood, when our senses tell us they are still bread and wine,-this is to require more belief than Christ ever required of His disciples. It is to require that which is flatly contradictory to reason and common sense. Such requisitions Christ never made. Let us not try to be wiser than our Lord.
We should observe, lastly, in these verses, the remarkable commission which our Lord conferred upon His eleven Apostles. We are told that He said, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” It is vain to deny that the true sense of these solemn words has been for centuries a subject of controversy and dispute. It is useless perhaps to expect that the controversy will ever be closed. The utmost that we can hope to do with the passage is to supply a probable exposition.
It seems then highly probable that our Lord in this place solemnly commissioned His Apostles to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel as He had preached it. He also conferred on them the power of declaring with peculiar authority whose sins were forgiven, and whose sins were not forgiven. That this is precisely what the Apostles did is a simple matter of fact, which any one may verify for himself by reading the book of the Acts. When Peter proclaimed to the Jews, “Repent ye, and be converted,”-and when Paul declared at Antioch of Iconium,-“to you is the word of this salvation sent,”-“Through this man is preached the forgiveness of sins, and by Him all that believe are justified,”-they were doing what this passage commissioned the Apostles to do. They were opening with authority the door of salvation, and inviting with authority all sinners to enter in by it and be saved. (Act 3:19; Act 13:26-38.) It seems, on the other hand, most improbable that our Lord intended in this verse to sanction the practice of private absolution, after private confession of sins.
Whatever some may please to say, there is not a single instance to be found in the Acts of any Apostle using such absolution after confession. Above all, there is not a trace in the two pastoral Epistles to Timothy and Titus, of such confession and absolution being recommended, or thought desirable. In short, whatever men may assert about private ministerial absolution, there is not a single precedent for it in God’s Word.
Let us leave the whole passage with a deep sense of the importance of the minister’s office, when that office is duly exercised according to the mind of Christ. No higher honor can be imagined than that of being Christ’s ambassadors, and proclaiming in Christ’s name the forgiveness of sins to a lost world. But let us ever beware of investing the ministerial office with one jot more of power and authority than Christ conferred upon it. To treat ministers as being in any sense mediators between God and man, is to rob Christ of His prerogative, to hide saving truth from sinners, and to exalt ordained men to a position which they are totally unqualified to fill.
==================
Notes-
v19.-[Then the same day at evening, etc.] This verse describes our Lord Jesus Christ’s first appearance to the Apostles, in a body, after He rose from the dead. It took place in the evening of the same Sunday when He had appeared to Mary Magdalene in the morning. Between that morning and that evening He had already appeared three times,-once to the company of women returning from the sepulchre, as described by Matthew,-once to Simon Peter, as we are told by Luke and Paul,-and once to the two disciples walking to Emmaus. (Mat 28:9; Luk 24:34; 1Co 15:5; Luk 24:13, etc.) This, therefore, was the fifth appearance which our Lord graciously vouchsafed. Each of the five appearances, we should observe, was peculiar in its circumstances, and unlike the others. We need not wonder that this Sunday, from the earliest ages, was always marked by the Church as a day which ought to be had in remembrance, and kept with peculiar honour.
The beginning of the verse would be more literally rendered, “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week.” The precise hour is not specified; but, considering all things, it seems probable that it was after sunset, and when it was dark, in order to avoid observation.-The cause of the disciples assembling, we may reasonably suppose, was the tidings received from no less than four distinct sets of witnesses, that Jesus had risen from the dead, and was alive. It would have been strange indeed if they did not assemble on hearing such news.-The place where the disciples assembled is not mentioned. But at a time like the passover feast it would not be difficult to find some “upper room,” where ten men might meet together. I can see no improbability in the supposition that the very room where the Lord’s Supper was instituted on the previous Thursday evening, might be the same room where the disciples gathered together on Sunday night. The words of Mark incline me to think that the person to whom the “upper room” belonged was one of those Jews who were friendly to Christ, though they had not courage to confess Him openly. (Mar 14:13-15.)
That the “doors” should be “shut, where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews,” is a circumstance that need not surprise us. The Apostles might well regard their lives as being in imminent danger, when they remembered how their Master had just been treated. Moreover, the story of the guard placed round the sepulchre, that “the disciples had stolen the body of Jesus,” might reasonably incline them to expect further ill-treatment themselves. They did their best therefore to avoid observation, and closed the doors of the room where they assembled after sunset.
Concerning the precise manner in which our Lord appeared to the disciples, there is no little difference of opinion. (a) Some think, as Calvin, and many of the divines of the seventeenth century, that He suddenly caused the doors to open, passed through them when open, and suddenly stood in the midst of the company assembled. (b) Some think, as Chrysostom, Cyril, Augustine, the Romanists, and nearly all Lutherans, that the doors continued fastened, and that our Lord miraculously appeared standing in the room where the disciples were, instantaneously, in a moment, and without notice. I do not know that it signifies much which view we take. In either case a miracle was wrought. Our Lord’s risen body must evidently have had a power of moving from one place to another, and of being visible or invisible, as He thought fit, according to His good pleasure, after a manner that we cannot understand. In any case, we must carefully remember that it was a real, material body,-a body that could be touched, and felt, and seen, and handled, and yet a supernatural and peculiar body. With such a body it was as easy for our Lord to appear suddenly standing in the middle of the room, while the doors remained fastened, as it was to open the doors (as He did the doors of Peter’s prison), and to walk into the room, like another man. To my own mind there is no proof positive either way, and I must leave it to my readers to choose for themselves. One thing alone we must not forget. Even if our Lord did appear in the room, without unfastening the doors, it is no proof that He can be literally, and locally, and corporally present in the Lord’s Supper, under the forms of bread and wine. Moreover, it does not follow, because He could move from place to place invisibly, that His body could ever be in more than one place at one and the same time. When He rose from the dead, He rose with a body of a far more spiritual kind than He had before, but a body for all that which was a real human body, and not a mere seeming and shadowy body, like that of a ghost or a spirit.
The first words that our Lord spake to the disciples afford a beautiful proof of His loving, merciful, tender, thoughtful, pitiful, and compassionate spirit. He said, “Peace be unto you.” That expression, in my opinion, must on no account be taken as a mere formal salutation, without meaning. It was intended to reassure and cheer the minds of the disciples, by exhibiting at once His mind towards them. Not a word of reproof, or rebuke, or fault-finding, or blame falls from our Lord’s lips, notwithstanding all their sad faint-heartedness and desertion on the preceding Thursday night. All is forgiven and forgotten. The very first word is “Peace.” This was almost the last word that our Lord had spoken on Thursday night before He prayed: “These things I have spoken, that in Me ye might have peace.” (Joh 16:33.) This was the last legacy He had left His disciples: “Peace I leave with you: my peace I give unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled.” (Joh 14:27.) Can we doubt that this comfortable word would cheer and calm the minds of the little company, when our Lord suddenly appeared?-“Once more I stand among you: and once more I proclaim peace;-not excommunication, not rejection from my friendship, not rebuke, but peace.” We cannot realize the fulness of comfort which the word would supply, unless we bear in mind the events of the last few days, and especially the conduct of the Apostles on the night before the crucifixion, when, after loudly professing their faithfulness, they all “forsook Him and fled.”
The parallel account in Luke would lead us to conclude that there were others present on this occasion beside the Apostles. He speaks of “Them that were with them.” (Luk 24:33.)
v20.-[And when He had so said, etc.] After speaking, our Lord proceeded most graciously to supply tangible evidence that He had really risen from the dead, and stood before His disciples with a material living body. When it says He “showed them His hands and side,” we cannot doubt that He bade them touch Him. In fact Luke, when describing this very same interview, expressly records that our Lord said, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have.” (Luk 24:39.)
The mention of the “hands and side” points clearly to the wounds made by the nails on the one, and by the spear in the other. Those wounds appeared visibly and unmistakably in His risen body, and our blessed Master was not ashamed of them. Even in the glory of heaven, according to Revelation, John saw Him appear as a “Lamb that had been slain.” (Rev 5:6.) I think we need not doubt that when He ascended up into heaven, those wounds went with Him, and are a perpetual witness to angels that He has actually suffered for man’s sins. When we see His real presence in the day of His appearing, we shall see “the man Christ Jesus,” and see the marks of His crucifixion. I give this however as my private opinion, and I think it fair to say that many divines think differently. For instance, Calvin strongly holds that our Lord’s “use of the wounds was only temporary, until the Apostles were fully convinced, and that His glorified body is without them.” I cannot, however, agree with him. After a great victory, the scars of a conqueror are marks of honour.
Concerning the actual condition of our Lord’s wounds it becomes us to speak reverently. A very slight acquaintance with surgery will tell us, of course, that a lacerated wound in the hand or foot, or a deep wound in the side inflicted on Friday, would naturally, to say the least, be very painful and inflamed on Sunday night. But we must carefully remember that our Lord’s risen body, though a real and material body, was evidently not subject to all the conditions of an ordinary human body, or of His own body before His death. It was in fact such a body as we may hope to have when we rise again. We may, therefore, conclude that the wounds made by the nails and spear were not wounds that were sore and inflamed, though it is equally certain that they were not closed up, and only scars left behind.
How it was that the two disciples going to Emmaus did not recognize our Lord by the wounds in His hands and feet, is a question that admits of two answers. Either we must suppose that “their eyes were holden,” and that they were miraculously unable to discern who it was that walked with them, and did not even know Him by His voice; or else we must suppose that our Lord’s hands and feet were covered during the walk, and that they only saw the wounds in His hands when He broke the bread. Mark’s account would lead us to believe that our Lord was pleased to assume another body on the way to Emmaus. He says, “He appeared in another form.” (Mar 16:12.)
The expression “were glad when they saw,” would be more literally rendered “rejoiced seeing,” and “having seen.” I cannot myself think that these words fulfilled our Lord’s saying, “I will see you again, and jour heart shall rejoice.” (Joh 16:22.) That joy, I believe, is the joy of the whole Church at the Lord’s second advent, and is yet to come. It is a joy of which our Lord said, “No man taketh it from you.” I believe the phrase before us simply means that the disciples were greatly delighted and rejoiced, when they saw before them their risen Master. It relieved their anxious minds, revived their hopes, and set at rest all their fears. “Our Master is actually alive again and has overcome death. Now all will be right.”
We should not fail to observe how our Lord condescended to satisfy the senses of His disciples,-the sense of sight, and the sense of touch,-when He showed Himself to them after His resurrection. If their senses had contradicted the news that His body had risen again to life, He would not have required them to believe it. Things above reason and sense the Gospel calls on us to believe often, things contrary to reason and sense never. This is precisely what we should remember when a Romanist bids us believe that the consecrated wafer in the Lord’s Supper is the real Body of Christ. Sense, sight, taste, and chemical analysis, combine to tell us that the wafer is still bread. The Romanist, therefore, has no right to demand our belief.
Rollock remarks, “When I mark this place, I see in it what then shall be the estate of the godly, when they shall meet with their Lord. The first sight shall so ravish them, that they shall wonder there ever could be such glory.”
v21.-[Then said Jesus…again…etc.] In this verse our Lord proceeds to tell the disciples the work which He now wished them to do, but in general terms. He meant to send them forth into the world to be His ministers, messengers, and witnesses, even as the Father had sent Him into the world to be His messenger and witness. (Heb 3:1; Joh 18:37.) As He had gone up and down preaching the Gospel, testifying against the evil of the world, and proclaiming rest and peace to the heavy laden, so He intended them to go up and down, as soon as He had ascended up into heaven. In short, He at once prepared their minds for the work which was before them. They were to dismiss from their minds the idea that the day of ease and reward had come, now that their Master had risen and was with them once more. So far from that being the case, their real work was now to begin. He Himself was about to leave the world, and He meant them to take His place. And one purpose for which He appeared among them was to give them their commission.
The repetition of the salutation, “Peace be unto you,” is very noteworthy. I cannot doubt that it was specially intended to cheer, and comfort, and animate the disciples. Glad as they doubtless were to see the Lord, we may easily believe that they were frightened, and overcome by a mixture of feelings; and the more so when they remembered how they had behaved when they had last seen their Lord. Jesus read the condition of their hearts, and mercifully makes assurance doubly sure by repeating the gracious words, “Peace be unto you.” As Joseph said to Pharaoh, “the thing was doubled,” in order to make it sure and prevent the possibility of mistake.
Augustine says, “The iteration is confirmation. It is the ‘peace upon peace’ promised by the prophet.” (Isa 57:19.)
It is curious that two entirely different Greek words are used to express the English “sent” and “send” in this verse. Parkhurst says that the word used where our Lord says “My Father hath sent Me,” is a more solemn word than the one used when our Lord says, “I send you.” Yet I do not think this is proved; and certainly Liddell and Scott flatly contradict the idea. At any rate the second or less solemn word is repeatedly used in Luke in the most solemn sense. (Joh 5:23-24, Joh 5:30.) It is just one of those things which we ought to notice, but cannot explain. There is doubtless some reason why two words are used, but what it is has not yet been discovered.
v22.-[And when He had said….breathed, etc.] In this verse our Lord proceeds to confer a special gift on the disciples, and, as it were, to ordain them for the great work which He intended them to do. And we have in it a remarkable emblematical action, and a no less remarkable saying.
The action of our Lord, “He breathed on them,” is one that stands completely alone in the New Testament, and the Greek word is nowhere else used. On no occasion but this do we find the Lord “breathing” on any one. Of course it was a symbolical action, and the only question is, What did it symbolize? and Why was it used? My own belief is that the true explanation is to be found in the account of man’s creation in Genesis. There we read, “The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” (Gen 2:7.) Just as there was no life in man until God breathed into him the breath of life, so I believe our Lord taught the disciples, by this action of breathing on them, that the beginning of all ministerial qualification is to have the Holy Spirit breathed into us; and that, until the Holy Ghost is planted in our hearts, we are not rightly commissioned for the work of the ministry.
I do not however feel sure that this view completely exhausts the meaning of our Lord when He breathed on the disciples. I cannot forget that they had all forsaken their Master the night that He was taken prisoner, fallen away from their profession, and forfeited their title to confidence as Apostles. May we not therefore reasonably believe that this breathing pointed to a revival of life in the hearts of the Apostles, and to a restoration of their privileges as trusted and commissioned messengers, notwithstanding their grievous fall?-I cannot help suspecting that this lesson was contained in the action of breathing. It not only symbolized the infusion for the first time of special ministerial gifts and graces. It also symbolized the restoration to complete power and confidence in their Master’s eyes, even after their faith had so nearly breathed its last, and given up the ghost. The first symptom of returning life, when a man is recovered from drowning, is his beginning to breathe again. To set the lungs breathing, in such cases, is the first aim of a skilful doctor.
When we remember that the wind is pre-eminently an emblem of the Holy Ghost (Joh 3:8; Eze 37:9; Act 2:2), we cannot fail to see that there is a beautiful fitness in the symbolical action which our Lord has employed.
Lampe thinks that our Lord breathed on all the disciples at once, and not on each separately. It is probable that it was so, in my judgment.
Hooker remarks (Eccles. Pol. 6, v. c. 77), “The cause why we breathe not, as Christ did on the disciples unto whom He imparted power, is that neither Spirit nor spiritual authority may be thought to proceed from us, who are but delegates and assigns to give men possession of His grace.”
The words, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” are almost as deep and mysterious as the action of breathing. They can only signify, “I bestow on you the Holy Ghost.” But in what sense the Holy Ghost was bestowed, is a point that demands attention, and we must beware that we do not run into error.
(a) Our Lord cannot have meant that the disciples were now to “receive the Holy Ghost” for the first time. They had doubtless received Him in the day when they were first converted and believed. Whether they realized it or not, the Holy Ghost was in their hearts already. “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” (1Co 12:3.)
(b) Our Lord cannot have meant that the disciples were now to “receive the Holy Ghost,” for the purpose of working miracles and speaking with tongues. They had worked many miracles already, and the gift of speaking with tongues was specially conferred afterwards, on the day of Pentecost, when they were endued with power from on high.
(c) Our Lord, in my opinion, must have meant, “Receive the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of knowledge and understanding.” He must have meant that He now conferred on them a degree of light and knowledge of divine truth, which hitherto they had not possessed. They had been greatly deficient in light and knowledge up to this time. With all their faith and love towards our Lord’s Person, they had been sadly ignorant of many things, and particularly of the true purpose of His coming, and the necessity of His death and resurrection.-“Now,” says our Lord, “I bestow on you the Spirit of knowledge. Let the time past suffice to have seen through a glass darkly. Receive the Holy Ghost, open your eyes, and see all things clearly.”-In fact I believe the words point to the very thing which Luke says our Lord did on this occasion: “then opened He their understanding that they might under stand the Scriptures.” (Luk 24:45.) Light was the first thing made in the day of creation. Light in the heart is the first beginning of true conversion. And light in the understanding is the first thing required in order to make a man an able minister of the New Testament. Our Lord was commissioning His first ministers, and sending them out to carry on His work. He begins by giving them light and knowledge:-“Receive ye the Holy Ghost. I commission you this day, and confer on you the office of ministers. And the first gift I confer on you is spiritual knowledge.” That this is the true view of the words, is proved to my own mind by the extraordinary difference in doctrinal knowledge which from this day the Apostles exhibited.
Theophylact thinks that our Lord only meant, “Become fit for receiving the Holy Ghost.” This seems weak and poor.
The expression before us is one of those which seem to me to supply strong indirect proof of the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son, as well as from the Father. It seems to me that when the Lord Jesus Christ could say with authority, “Receive the Holy Ghost,” it is very strange to say that the Holy Ghost does not proceed from Him! Yet the Greek Church does not admit this.
The expression before us is one, which, strictly speaking, no one but our Lord Jesus Christ could use. It is evident that no mortal man has the power of conferring the Holy Ghost upon another. This is a prerogative of God alone and of His Christ. When, therefore, the ordination service for Presbyters, in the Church of England Prayer-book, puts into the Bishop’s mouth these solemn words, “Receive the Holy Ghost,” I have never felt a doubt that the compilers of our Liturgy only meant the words to be used as in an optative, and not a positive sense, as a prayer: “I pray that thou mayest receive the Holy Ghost.”-Archbishop Whitgift, in his Reply to the objections of the famous Cartwright, says, “To use these words in ordaining of ministers, which Christ Himself used in appointing His Apostles, is no more ridiculous and blasphemous than it is to use the words that He used in the Lord’s Supper.”-“The Bishop, by speaking these words, doth not take upon him to give the Holy Ghost, no more than he doth to remit sins, when he pronounceth the remission of sins; but by speaking these words of Christ, he doth show the principal duty of a minister, and assureth him of the assistance of God’s Holy Spirit, if he labour in the same accordingly.” (See Blakeney on the Common-Prayer, p. 513.) While, however, I say this, I shall never shrink from expressing my regret that the words, “Receive the Holy Ghost,” were adopted by the compilers of our Prayer-book. They do not trouble my conscience, but I consider them likely to offend the consciences of many, and I think it would have been wiser to throw them distinctly and unmistakably into the form of a prayer. It is a simple historical fact which ought not to be forgotten, that these words were never used, in the ordination of ministers, for more than a thousand years after Christ! (See Nicholls and Blakeney on the Common-Prayer.)
One practical lesson, at any rate, is very plain in this expression. The first thing that is necessary, in order to make a man a true minister of the Gospel, is the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Bishops and presbyters can lay hands on men, and make them clergymen. The Holy Ghost alone can make a “man of God,” and a minister of God’s Word.
v23.-[Whose soever sins ye remit, etc.] In this verse our Lord continues and concludes the commission for the office of ministers, which He now gives to His Apostles after rising from the dead. His work as a public Teacher was now finished. The Apostles henceforth were to carry it on.-The words which form this commission are very peculiar, and demand close attention. The meaning of the words, I believe, may be paraphrased thus: “I confer on you the power of declaring and pronouncing authoritatively whose sins are forgiven, and whose sins are not forgiven. I bestow on you the office of pronouncing who are pardoned, and who are not, just as the Jewish high priest pronounced who were clean, and who were unclean, in cases of leprosy.”-I believe that nothing more than this authority to declare can be got out of the words, and I entirely repudiate and reject the strange notion maintained by some, that our Lord meant to depute to the Apostles, or any others, the power of absolutely pardoning or not pardoning, absolving or not absolving, any one’s soul. My reasons for maintaining this view of the text are as follows.
(a) The power of forgiving sins, in Scripture, is always spoken of as the special prerogative of God. The Jews themselves admitted this, when they said, “Who can forgive sins but God only?” (Mar 2:7, Luk 5:21.) It is monstrous to suppose that our Lord meant to overthrow and alter this great principle when He commissioned His disciples.
(b) The language of the Old Testament Scripture shows conclusively, that the Prophets were said to “DO” things, when they “DECLARED them about to be done.” Thus Jeremiah’s commission runs in these words, “I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.” (Jer 1:10.) This can only mean to declare the rooting out and pulling down, etc.-So also Ezekiel says, “I came to destroy the city” (Eze 43:3); where the marginal reading is, “I came to prophesy the city should be destroyed.” The Apostles were doubtless well acquainted with prophetical language, and I believe they interpreted our Lord’s words in this place accordingly.
(c) There is not a single instance in the Acts or Epistles, of an Apostle taking on himself to absolve, pardon, or forgive any one. The Apostles and preachers of the New Testament declare in the plainest language whose sin is pardoned and absolved, but they never take on themselves to pardon and absolve. When Peter said to Cornelius and his friends, “Whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins” (Act 10:43); when Paul said at Antioch, in Pisidia, “We declare unto you glad tidings;” “Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins” (Act 13:32, Act 13:38); and when Paul said to the Philippian jailor, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Act 16:31),-in each case they fulfilled the commission of the text before us. They “declared whose sins were remitted, and whose were retained.”
(d) There is not a single word in the three pastoral Epistles, written by Paul to Timothy and Titus, to show that the Apostle regarded absolution as part of the ministerial office. If it was he would surely have mentioned it, and urged the practice of it on young ministers, for the relief of burdened souls.
(e) The weakness of human nature is so great, that it is grossly improbable that such a tremendous power as that of absolutely pardoning and absolving souls, would ever be committed to any mortal man. It would be highly injurious to any man to trust him with such a power, and would be a continued temptation to him to usurp the office of a Mediator between God and man.
(f) The experience of the Romish Church, in which the priests are practically regarded as having the power to absolve sinners, and shut heaven against persons not absolved, affords the strongest indirect evidence that our Lord’s words can only have been meant to bear a “declarative” sense. Anything worse or more mischievous, both to minister and people, than the results of the Romish system of penance and absolution, it is impossible to conceive. It is a system which has practically degraded the laity, puffed up and damaged the clergy, turned people away from Christ, and kept them in spiritual darkness and bondage.
A question of no small interest arises out of the text before us, which it may be well to consider. Was the ministerial office and commission conferred on the Apostles by our Lord in this place an office which they transmitted to others, with all its privileges and powers?
I answer, without hesitation, that in the strictest sense the commission of the Apostles was not transmitted, but was confined to them and Paul. I challenge any one to deny that the Apostles possessed certain ministerial qualifications which were quite peculiar to them, and which they could not transmit, and did not transmit to others. (1) They had the gift of declaring the Gospel without error, and with infallible accuracy, to an extent that no one after them did. (2) They confirmed their teaching by miracles. (3) They were, some of them, plenarily inspired by the Holy Ghost to write portions of the New Testament. (4) They had the power of discerning spirits, and knowing the hearts of others to an extent that no one after them possessed, as we see in the case of Peter’s dealing with Ananias, Sapphira, and Simon Magus. In all these respects they stood alone, and had no successors. In the strictest sense there is no such thing as Apostolical succession. Modern ministers are not successors of the Apostles, but of Timothy and Titus. The Apostles were peculiarly qualified, and gifted, and furnished for the very peculiar work they had to do, as the first founders of Churches. But, in the strictest and most accurate sense, their office was one which was not transmitted. With them it began, and with them it ended.
But while I say all this, I maintain as strongly as any one, that there is a sense in which the verse now before us applies to all Christian ministers, and in this sense their commission resembles that of the Apostles. It is the office of every minister of Christ to declare boldly, authoritatively, and with decision, out of God’s Word, who they are whose sins are forgiven, and who they are whose sins are retained. This is his commission, and this the work for which he is set apart and ordained. Whenever a minister in his pulpit proclaims the full Gospel of Christ faithfully, he does the work which our Lord in this verse commissioned the Apostles to do, and may take comfort in the thought that he may expect our Lord’s blessing. He cannot do it with such infallible power as the Apostles, but in a sense he is really their follower and successor.
The whole subject opened up in this verse is so important in modern days, that I make no apology for quoting the following passage from Bishop Jewell’s Apology, which throws light on it.-
Jewell says, “We say, that Christ has given to His ministers the power of binding and loosing, of opening and shutting. And we say, that the power of loosing consists in this, that the minister, by the preaching of the Gospel, offers to dejected minds and true penitents, through the merits of Christ, absolution, and doth assure them a certain remission of their sins, and the hopes of eternal salvation; or, secondly, reconciles, restores, and receives into the congregation and unity of the faithful, those penitents, who by any grievous scandal or known and public offence have offended the minds of their brethren, and, in a sort alienated and separated themselves from the common society of the Church and the body of Christ. And we say the minister doth exercise the power of binding or shutting, when he shutteth the gate of the kingdom of heaven against unbelievers and obstinate persons, and denounceth to them the vengeance of God and eternal punishment; or excludeth out of the bosom of the Church, those that are publicly excommunicated; and that God Himself doth so far approve whatever sentence His ministers shall so give, that whatsoever is either loosed or bound by their ministry here on earth, He will in like manner bind or loose and confirm in heaven. The key with which these ministers do shut or open the kingdom of heaven, we say, with Chrysostom, is the knowledge of the Scripture; with Tertullian, is the interpretation of the law; and with Eusebius, is the Word of God. We say the disciples of Christ received this power (from Him) not that they might hear the private confessions of the people, and catch their whispering murmurs, as the Popish priests everywhere now do, and that in such a manner as if all the force and use of the keys consisted only in this; but that they might go and preach and publish the Gospel, that so they might be a savour of life unto life, to them that did believe; and that they might be also a savour of death unto death, to those that did not believe; that the minds of those who were affrighted with the sense of their former ill lives and errors, after they beheld the light of the Gospel, and believed in Christ, might be opened by the Word of God, as doors are with a key: and that the wicked and stubborn, who would not believe and return into the way, might be left, shut up, and locked, and, as Paul expresseth it (2Ti 3:13), might “wax worse and worse.” This we take to be the meaning of the keys, and that in this manner the consciences of men are either bound or loosed.”
Calvin observes, “When Christ enjoins the Apostles to forgive sins, He does not convey to them what is peculiar to Himself. It belongs to Him to forgive sins. This honour, so far as it belongs peculiarly to Himself, He does not surrender to the Apostles. He only enjoins them, in His name, to proclaim the forgiveness of sins, that through their agency He may reconcile men to God.”
Brentius says, “This is the true and heavenly mode of remitting sins: to wit, the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Those who do not preach the Gospel of Christ have no power of either remitting or retaining sins.”
Bullinger says, “The Apostles remitted men’s sins, when by the preaching of the Gospel they taught that the sins of believers were remitted, and eternal life granted through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They retained men’s sins when they announced that the wrath of God remained on those who believed not.”
Gualter says, “At this day ministers are said to remit sins when they promise remission of them in Christ to those who believe, and to retain sins when they denounce damnation on the unbelieving and obstinately impenitent.”
Musculus says that this promise does not belong “to every and any minister, but to the real minister of the Gospel, who teaches nothing, promises nothing else but this,-that those who repent and believe on Christ have remission of sin and eternal life, and that those who are impenitent and unbelieving remain in their sins and death. Doctrine like this is ratified and confirmed before God, because it is agreeable to the Gospel of the Son of God.”
Lightfoot thinks that, in interpreting these words, we must carefully remember that they were probably spoken in close connection with our Lord’s words in Luke, when He says that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Luk 24:47.) He thinks that on hearing these words, scruples might arise in the Apostles’ minds: “Is this so indeed? Must remission of sin be really preached in Jerusalem to men stained with Messiah’s blood?” And then he thinks these words are spoken to encourage them. “Yes: you are to begin at Jerusalem. For whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them.” Finally, Lightfoot asks, with much sense, “On what foundation and with what confidence could the Apostles have preached remission of sins to such wretched men as the murderers of their Lord, unless authorized by a peculiar commission granted by the Lord Himself?”
Poole says, “The question among divines is whether Christ in this text has given authority to His ministers actually to discharge men of the guilt of their sins; or only to declare to them that if their repentance and faith be true, their sins are really forgiven. The former view is contended for by many. But it does not seem reasonable (1) that God should betrust man with such a piece of His prerogative; and (2) that God who knoweth the falsehood of men’s hearts, and the inability of the best minister to judge of the truth of any man’s repentance and faith, as also the passions to which they are subject, should give to any of the sons of men an absolute power under Him to discharge any from the guilt of sin. Certain it is that without true repentance and faith in Christ no man hath his sins forgiven; so that no minister, who knoweth not the hearts of men, can possibly say to any man with certainty, Thy sins are forgiven. What certainty the Apostles might have had by the Spirit of discernment, we cannot say. But certain it is, that none hath now such certainty of any man’s faith and repentance. Hence it is to me apparent, that no man hath any further power from Christ than to declare to men, that if they truly repent and believe, their sins are really forgiven. Only the minister, being Christ’s interpreter and ambassador, and better able to judge of true faith and repentance than others (though not certainly and infallibly), such declarations from a faithful, able minister are of more weight and authority than from others. This is the most, I conceive, should be in this matter.”
I leave the whole passage with one general word of caution. Whatever sense we place on the words, let us beware that we do not give to ministers, of any name or denomination, a place, power, authority, position, or privilege, which Christ never gave them. Putting ministers out of their proper place has been the root of endless superstition and corruption in Christ’s Church. To regard ministers as mediators between Christ and the soul, to confess to them privately and receive private absolution from them, is a system for which there is no authority in the New Testament, and the high road to every kind of evil. It is a system equally mischievous to ministers and to people, utterly subversive of the Gospel, and thoroughly dishonouring to the priestly office of Christ.
The three absolutions found in the Liturgy of the Church of England, (1) that in the Morning and Evening Prayer, (2) that in the Communion Service, and (3) that in the Visitation for the Sick, were all, in my judgment, intended to bear only a declarative sense. But I can never refrain from saying that the absolution in the Visitation Service is liable to be misunderstood, and its wording is to be regretted.
Shepherd, on the Common Prayer, remarks, “The Church of England neither maintains nor countenances the opinion, that a priest, by virtue of his ordination, has an absolute, unconditional power to forgive sin. The power that the clergy have received and exercised, is purely ministerial, being defined and limited by the “Word of God, which expressly declares upon what condition sin shall be remitted, and upon what retained. To suppose that any minister of Christ, since the Apostles, possesses the power of remitting or retaining sin at his discretion, is repugnant to the whole tenor of Scripture, as well as to every dictate of reason and common sense.”
Joh 20:19. When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors had been shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst; and he saith unto them, Peace be unto you. The message sent by the Lord to His disciples through Mary Magdalene was, I ascend unto the Father. In other words, it was an intimation to them that that glorification had begun whose distinguishing feature would be the bestowal of the Spirit upon the members of Christs body. In this thought lies the connection between the last narrative and that now before us, as well as the special point of view from which the Evangelist desires us to look at the manifestation of the Risen One which he is about to relate. In this also we see the difference of aim between John and Luke, in what is universally allowed to be the record of the same scene (Luk 24:36-43). Luke would prove to us the reality of the Resurrection body, and would show that Jesus is substantially the same as He had been: John would show us that, while He is substantially the same, yet it is Jesus filled with the Spirit whom we behold. Hence the structure of Johns narrative, in which it will be observed that the second Peace be unto you (Joh 20:21) takes up again the same expression in Joh 20:19 (comp. on chap. Joh 13:3), and that Joh 20:20 is in a certain sense parenthetical. This aim of our Evangelist also explains the stress which is laid upon the fact that this manifestation of Jesus took place when the doors had been shut. That we are to see something miraculous in this is clear, alike from the repetition of the statement below (Joh 20:26), and from the whole tone and bearing of the narrative. Any idea, therefore, of the withdrawal of the bolts of the doors must be at once dismissed. It is impossible to do justice to the passage unless we admit that, at a moment when the doors were shut, and when no one could enter through them in the ordinary way, Jesus suddenly stood in the midst of the disciples. But this is all that we have any right to say. The travesty of the whole scene presented by those who have ridiculed the idea that a body with flesh and bones (Luk 24:39) should penetrate through the substance of the wood, finds no countenance in the words with which we have to deal. Such a thought is not present to the mind of John. He dwells himself, and he would have us dwell, upon the simple circumstance that, at an instant when an ordinary human body could not have entered the apartment because the doors were shut, the glorified Jesus came and stood in the midst. Thus looked at, the passage sets before us what is no doubt miraculous, what is at variance with our present knowledge of the properties of a material frame, but at the same time nothing unworthy of the solemnity of the hour. As at Emmaus Jesus suddenly disappeared from those whose eyes were opened and who knew Him, so here He appears with equal suddenness to those who are ready to recognise Him. How He thus appeared through the physical obstacles presented by a room closed on every side it is not possible for us to say. The properties of matter spiritualised and glorified are entirely unknown to us from any experience of our own, nor is light thrown upon them here further than this,that Jesus, in His glorified humanity, had the power of being present when He pleased, without reference to the ordinary laws which control the movements of men. In this absolute subjection of the body to the spirit, John sees proof and illustration of the fact that in the person of Jesus dualism has disappeared, and that the perfect unity of body and spirit has been reached. The old struggle between the material and the spiritual, between the limited and the unlimited, has been brought to an end: the spiritual and the unlimited have absolute control. As the first Adam became a living soul, so the second Adam became a life-giving Spirit (1Co 15:45), and such life of the Spirit the disciples shall immediately receive.The salutation of the Saviour when He manifested Himself was Peace be unto you; and the meaning and force of the salutation are deepened by the contrast with the fear of the Jews spoken of immediately before. As in chap. Joh 14:27 (see commentary), this is the salutation of a departing Master, not of a dying Father. Amidst the troubles of the world upon which the disciples are about to enter, and when there is no help from man, Jesus is at hand to speak peace: In the world they have tribulation, but in Him peace (chap. Joh 16:33).It will be observed that the Evangelist seems carefully to distinguish between the disciples (Joh 20:18-19) and the Twelve (Joh 20:24). Hence we should naturally conclude that this manifestation of the Risen Lord was not limited to the apostles; and Luk 24:33 shows that this conclusion is correct.
Section 3. (Joh 20:19-23.)
The heavenly company, and their spiritual endowment.
It is practically, therefore, as the First-born among many brethren that Mary’s message announces Him. And now we find Him in the midst of the assembly, the blessing still enlarging as He declares it to them. There is nothing indeed about the Church in this Gospel, whether as the House of God or the Body of Christ. In John we have only the Family of God, as far as doctrine goes, the line of truth which is plainly in natural connection with that of eternal life so characteristic of the Gospel. With this is found that of the indwelling Spirit, which gives to the life itself, always belonging to the children of God, its “abundant” blessedness. These are the connected truths all through, which connect with every other. We shall find them in this closing portion as elsewhere.
The evening of the first day of the week is come, and the disciples are gathered together. Let us note that this is either not reckoned in the Jewish manner, or else it is the closing evening of the Jewish day, which was from the decline of the day to sunset. Sunset was thus “between the evenings,” which was the time when the passover lamb was offered, as well as the daily evening sacrifice (Exo 12:6; Exo 30:8). At this time, then, were the disciples gathered; the doors being shut for fear of the Jews; the world being armed against the Prince of peace. But no shut doors can keep Him from His own; and presently He is among them: “Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” More than words, even of the Son of God, were needed to convey this. His word had created the worlds: but for redemption, He had said Himself, “the Son of man must be lifted up.” That divinest work of all had been accomplished, and He can show them still the proofs of it in His hands and side. John says nothing of their unseemly fear, but of the joy into which it passed: “then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.”
And again He says, “Peace be to you,” and sends them out into the world, to represent Him in it, as He had been sent into it to represent the Father. They belonged no more to it, as He had said to them before: -no more than He did. The world could not be at peace, nor those whose hearts were in it. They had been delivered from the corruption that was in it through lust, by the knowledge of Himself whom the world had rejected. Their portion was outside of it with Him: and thus they would be competent witnesses of that better part, and for Him who had enriched them with it from His voluntary poverty.
He follows these words with a significant action, breathing into them, and saying, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit;” with regard to which both the words and action have received various interpretation. We must, therefore, examine them with some care, the more because the symbolic action seems undoubtedly to point to something beyond the present capacity of the disciples to understand, -something, therefore, left to come to light afterwards. He does not Himself interpret His action, except the words accompanying are that interpretation. And this they can hardly be, much as they throw light upon it. We are left, therefore, to the natural significance of what is given us, seen in the light of truth revealed elsewhere, remembering that no parable can be authority for doctrine.
After all, the Lord’s breathing into them carries us necessarily back to the in-breathing of God into the first man. The very word used here, and which occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, is that used in the Septuagint for this primal act, by virtue of which Adam became a living soul. Here then should be a new beginning of life, which, as such, must be from God, but from God incarnate; and with this we are already familiar, as truth that He Himself has taught us, that “as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself;” so that, “as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, so the Son quickeneth whom He will” (Joh 5:21; Joh 5:26). The Son is thus a true fountain of life for men, and, as the words declare, a divine life.
We cannot but connect this with a title given to the Lord, though not in John, of “Last Adam” (1Co 15:45): “The Last Adam is made a quickening Spirit.” The contrast between the first and the Last, which we realize in His present action, is recognized and emphasized here. He is not Himself breathed into, as was the first man, but breathes into others. As the quickening Spirit, He communicates spiritual, divine life, such as we have seen to be the essential element in new birth. He is thus the Author of what is a new creation, higher in character than the old; and this is clearly what is symbolized in His present action.
Its place with reference to His work now finished is just as evident. He has told us already that, “except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” Here, then, is this now from the other side declared. It is not, as sometimes put, a question of union, but of what is more fundamental than this. The fruit of the corn of wheat is that of life communicated, but which passes through what both the Lord and His apostle afterwards call “death” to produce it (Joh 12:24; 1Co 15:36). It is now, therefore, that He takes openly the place of the Last Adam. Life must come to man out of death, and in no other way; for death is the penalty of sin, and he is a sinner. But thus also, as springing out of this, vicariously endured, it comes accompanied with the efficacy of atonement made: he who receives it “hath eternal life, and doth not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life” (Joh 5:24). The fundamental truths of the Gospel of John are thus embodied in this inbreathing by the risen Saviour.
But then it is, necessarily, of something that His disciples have before received that He is speaking to them in it. The giving of life could not actually wait for His resurrection. The Cross, standing amid the ages, looks backward as well as forward. And the Lord, in speaking of His communication of the life in Him, takes care to assure us of this. “The hour is coming,” He says, “and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live” (Joh 5:25). And when afterwards He speaks of what is (now) characteristic of eternal life, -that they “know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent,” He declares at the same time that this knowledge they already had (Joh 17:6-8). There can be nothing plainer then, than that the Lord is not here communicating to His disciples what they had not received before, but that He is simply putting together in this symbolic manner things that were, in fact, already theirs. Every thing is emerging now from the obscurity of Moses’ veil (2Co 3:13) into the open glory of Christ’s face unveiled.
Now when the Lord goes on to say in plain speech, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit,” it should be as plain that He is not interpreting the past, but speaking of something they had not yet received. The evangelist, when reporting to us His words at the feast of tabernacles as to the “living water,” remarks that “this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him should receive;” and then he adds, “for the Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Here, as far as words can show it, the same reception of the Spirit is spoken of. But here also a time is given before which the Spirit could not be received. Jesus must be first glorified, says the apostle. If, then, the Lord was not yet glorified at the time in which He uttered the words we are considering, these must still have had a reference to the future: that is, to that Pentecostal gift of the Spirit, to which, perhaps, we should be naturally inclined to refer them.
Now, when we remember the Lord’s previous declaration that He must go away to the Father, or else the Advocate would not come to them (Joh 16:7), there can be no right question that this glorifying of Jesus was His being glorified with the glory which He had with the Father before the world was (Joh 17:5). The fact, then, that He was upon earth when now speaking to them would be sufficient proof that the reception of the Spirit, of which He was speaking was, in fact, Pentecostal. Yet it has been imagined even that the Lord had already ascended to the Father between the time when He had said to Mary that He had not yet done so and His being here in the midst! For, they say, He forbade Mary to touch Him, because not ascended, while here and elsewhere He freely permits it. But this is simply a misinterpretation of His words to Mary, and His going to the Father is always spoken of as implying His absence from His people during the present time. Such an imaginary ascension, for which not a single direct scripture can be quoted, and which would displace that which is always spoken of as such, cannot possibly, therefore, be maintained.
But, we are told by others, the article should be omitted in the Lord’s words here, and therefore they intimate, not the Spirit as personally coming at Pentecost, but a bestowment of spiritual energy simply, which raises the life communicated to its proper resurrection power. We are not yet arrived where this question can be fully discussed, which can only be in Romans, but the lack of scripture for it is the most fatal objection. As to the absence of the article, it is absent also in that which was just now quoted from the seventh chapter, where we must read, according to this, “for Holy Spirit,” or, as many read, simply “Spirit was not yet.” But this would then deny the possibility of any such bestowment before the Lord’s ascension. This would be altogether fatal to any such interpretation. Besides which, the Holy Spirit, (or, if it be preferred, simply Holy Spirit) cannot be shown to be anywhere identified with life, or any degree of it. I am aware that “the Spirit is life” (Rom 8:10) may be cited against me; but that is plainly the personal Spirit. The only proper force of the words, therefore, is that the Spirit is life potentially, -is the Source of it, -to the children of God. The Spirit does not stand there for the life: nor for any grade or character of life; all the more surely, that it gives it character.
“Receive ye the Holy Spirit,” means, then, simply what it says, and cannot be the interpretation of the inbreathing which precedes the words, and which do evidently speak of the giving of life; not, however, of a communication of it there and then, but of one they had already received, and by which they had become a new creation. Creation is not an increase of life, but a beginning of it, as is plain. They had received life, as we have seen, and eternal life. It is now seen as bringing them into new creation, delivering them therefore from the old; and so from sin and judgment, as connected with it. Now they are qualified to receive the Spirit, to be the power indeed of the new life as resurrection life, with the value of Christ’s blessed work for God attaching to it.
Sin is thus for them put away: they belong to a Kingdom of life and not of death, and of righteousness as inseparably connected with this. They are to be representatives of this now upon earth, remitting or retaining sins in His Name, and by His authority; not, surely, in relation to heaven and its blessedness, as has been monstrously claimed by the false church; but in relation to the sphere of His earthly interests. This is a seal upon the higher blessing into which He has introduced them; the reception of the Spirit being their qualification for it, and the condition therefore implied that they act in the power of that endowment.
Joh 20:19-20. Then the same day at evening The day on which he arose from the dead; being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut And fastened on the inside; where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews In this translation the arrangement of the sentence, as Dr. Campbell observes, is not proper, as it either suggests a false meaning, or at least renders the true meaning obscure. The disciples assembled, but surely not for fear of the Jews; for, as they did not intend by violence to oppose violence, if any should be offered them, they could not but know that to assemble themselves would more expose them to danger than any other measure they could take. The plain matter is, they assembled for mutual advice and comfort, and being assembled, the doors were shut for fear of the Jews; as they were well aware of the consequence of being discovered at such a time in consultation together. Further, the words do not necessarily imply, that while the doors continued shut our Lord entered miraculously. The word is even more literally rendered, having been shut, than, being shut, or, when they were shut: as it is the preterperfect, not the present, or imperfect participle. They may, therefore, for aught related by the evangelists, have been made by a miracle to open and give him access. The reading of the sentence, therefore, ought to be, Jesus came where the disciples were assembled, the doors having been shut for fear of the Jews. This circumstance of the doors being shut is very happily mentioned by John, because it suggests the reason why the disciples took Jesus for a spirit, as Luke tells us they did, Luk 24:37, notwithstanding that the greatest part of them believed he was risen. Jesus stood in the midst, and saith, Peace be unto you See the note on Luk 24:36-43. When he had so said, he showed them his hands And his feet, (Luk 24:39,) with the prints of the nails in them; and his side Containing the mark which the spear had left in it. Thus giving them infallible proofs, that he had the very identical body which had been nailed to the cross and pierced. Then were the disciples glad As it might reasonably be expected they should be, when they thus saw the Lord, and were assured by such infallible tokens that he was really alive.
Vv. 19-29.
1. The appearance of Jesus when the doors were shut (Joh 20:19; Joh 20:26) is a point which we are unable to explain. The evangelist has not stated the facts of the case with sufficient definiteness to make any conclusion absolutely certain. That Jesus had a body after His resurrection, which could be touched, and which bore the marks of the nails; that He could eat and walk, and could speak with the same voice as before His death; that He was seen and known to be the same person whom the disciples had been familiar with in their past association with Him, is evident from all the Gospel narratives. That, on the other hand, He appeared and disappeared at will, as He had not done before His death; that He was not recognized with the same immediateness, apparently, as He had been; that He even passed some hours with the disciples who were going to Emmaus, without any recognition on their part, seems equally clear. The mystery of His ascension may also be borne in mind in its relation to this question.
In the consideration of the particular words found in these verses (Joh 20:19; Joh 20:26), two points are worthy of notice:first, that we have no indication in other passages of any such thing as passing through the wood of closed doorsa thing which, in itself, would seem to be in the highest degree improbable; and, secondly, that we find the fact somewhat prominently suggested that, during the forty days, Jesus made Himself visible or invisible at will. May not these points, when taken together, indicate that Jesus here did not enter, at the time mentioned, into the room where the disciples were, but simply appeared to their view within it; that He appeared now as He disappeared at the close of His meeting with the disciples from Emmaus?
2. In Joh 20:21-23 Jesus renews to the disciples their commission, or assures them again that they have it, and then bestows upon them the gift of the Holy Spirit. With respect to this gift it may be observed: (a) that it is, according to the natural interpretation of the words, an actual gift; (b) that the distinction made by some writers between and can hardly be sustained, and the words must here designate the Holy Spirit in the same sense in which the latter phrase is used (comp. Joh 7:39, Joh 16:13); (c) that the full gift of the Spirit seems to be placed in this Gospel, as in the Acts, after the glorification of Jesus. From these three considerations it follows that the gift here referred to was of the same nature, but not of the same measure, with that of the Day of Pentecost. It was, as Meyer remarks, an actual of the Holy Spirit.
3. The power of remitting and retaining sins which is spoken of in Joh 20:23 is not something bestowed as a mere official prerogative on the disciples, so that their mere word and will accomplish the end. Jesus Himself exercised forgiveness only on the conditions of faith and repentance, and in accordance with the will of the Father. The whole teaching of the New Testament shows that the apostles could, at the most, only pronounce the man who believed forgiven, and, as they did not possess omniscience, this pronouncing could not go beyond the point of declaring that the man was forgiven, provided he had the faith required. It was under the guidance and in accordance with the mind of the Spirit that they were to exercise this power, but not in any such sense that forgiveness depended on them or was to be determined by them alone.
4. The exclamation of Thomas, in Joh 20:28, is the final declaration of the faith of the apostles as given in this Gospel. Immediately after the record of it the writer closes his book. That this is a declaration of belief in the Divinity of Christ is proved by the words , by which it is introducedthese words show that it is not a mere exclamation of surprise or astonishment; by the fact that is most naturally used as referring to Jesus (see Joh 13:13, Joh 20:13); by the connection of these words with Joh 20:30-31; by the whole progress of faith and testimony in this Gospel, as leading up to the end. If it is such a declaration, the 29th verse shows that it was accepted by Jesus. At such a momentindeed, at any moment, but especially at such a moment, when He was soon to send forth the apostles on their great mission in the world, in which they were to proclaim His message and even to expose themselves to the danger of death in His cause
He could not have allowed them to remain under a delusion and to believe Him to be Divine when He was not. He could not have pronounced a solemn benediction on all who believed what He knew to be untrue. These words of Thomas, therefore, together with those of Jesus which follow, become a fitting climax of the whole book, both with respect to the testimony of Jesus to Himself and the answering faith of His immediate disciples.
CXXXVIII.
FIFTH APPEARANCE OF JESUS.
(Jerusalem. Sunday evening)
bMARK XVI. 14; cLUKE XXIV. 36-43; dJOHN XX. 19-25.
b14 And afterward cas they spake these things [while the two from Emmaus were telling their story], bhe was manifested unto the eleven themselves as they sat at [751] meat; d19 When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus chimself dcame and stood in the midst, cof them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they beheld a spirit. [His entrance through a bolted door lent weight to their idea that he had no corporeal body. They knew nothing of the possibilities of a resurrected body.] band he upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart [here, as in the previous section, Jesus shows that the heart has much to do with the belief], because they believed not them that had seen him after he was risen. [They had had the testimony of three men and perhaps a half dozen women; they had not lacked evidence.] c38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and wherefore do questionings arise in your heart? 39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold me having. 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. dand his side. [These members not only showed that he was not a disembodied spirit, but they served to identify his body with that which they had seen crucified, and hence the person who now spoke was the Jesus whom they had known and lost.] c41 And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here anything to eat? 42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish. 43 And he took it, and ate before them. [Thus at last satisfying them that he was not a ghost.] dThe disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace be unto you: as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit: 23 whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. [Now that the apostles [752] knew their Master, he repeats his blessing, and as the New Testament is now sealed in his blood according to the commission under which he came, he, in turn, commissions the twelve to go forth and proclaim its provisions. Symbolic of the baptism which they were to receive at Pentecost, he breathes upon them, and, having thus symbolically qualified them, he commissions them to forgive or retain sin, for this was the subject-matter of the New Testament.] 24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus [see p. 244], was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. [The apostles had undoubtedly seen and talked with someone, but the question was, Who? They said that it was Jesus, and Thomas, holding this to be impossible, thought that it must have been someone else whom they mistook for Jesus. But he would not be deceived; he would thoroughly examine the wounds, for these would identify Jesus beyond all doubt–if it were Jesus.]
[FFG 751-753]
JESUS APPEARS TO THE APOSTLES SUNDAY NIGHT
Luk 24:36-49; Joh 20:19-23. Then, it being evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors being shut where the disciples were assembled on account of the fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and says to them, Peace be unto you! Soon after the arrival of the two disciples from Emmaus, who at once joined Peter and the sisters in their testimony to the resurrection, Jesus climaxes all and puts every doubt to flight by standing in their midst, ringing out His familiar salutation, Peace be unto you.
Luke: And being affrighted and terrified, they were thinking that they see a spirit. Such is the heterogeneity between mortality and immortality that the sight of an angel or a disembodied spirit always fills mortals with trepidation. And He said to them, Why are you disturbed? and why do reasonings arise in your heart? Behold My hands and My feet, that I am He; handle Me, and see; because a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see Me having. When Omnipotence comes to the solution of all difficulties, faith should have complete swing. Christ appeared to Nebuchadnezzar in the fiery furnace with the Hebrew children nearly six hundred years before His incarnation, and actually visited Abraham at Mamre and ate with him, 1900 B. C., in both cases exhibiting a physical body so far as human senses could apprehend. Hence e need not conclude from this Scripture that His glorification was postponed till His ascension, as the facts are rather preponderant in favor of the conclusion that He was glorified when He arose from the dead. During the forty days, we read of His appearing to them but eleven times:
1. To the women.
2. To Mary Magdalene, and doubtless other women.
3. To Peter.
4. To Cleopas and his comrade at Emmaus.
5. To the twelve apostles.
6. On Sunday night, to the apostles and saints in their meeting.
7. On the Monday night a week following.
8. At the Sea of Galilee.
9. To the apostles and five hundred brethren in a Galilean mountain.
10. To James.
11. To all the apostles.
We are assured that He never lodged with them, and did not habitually eat with them after the resurrection; doubtless spending the nights and, so far as the record extends, at least nine-tenths of the day-time, in heaven.
Doubtless we have in the life of our Lord during these forty days a beautiful photograph of His millennial reign, when He will doubtless appear and disappear, ever and anon, in different parts of the world, and, I trow, much of the time will be absent in heaven. In a similar manner, the transfigured saints, who shall rule the world as the subordinates of Christ, since they will no longer need mortal food nor sleep, will ever and anon appear at their posts of duty during the day, disappearing ad libitum, and spending the night in heaven.
And they, still disbelieving and wondering from joy, He said to them, Have you here any food? And they gave Him a piece of baked fish; and taking it, He ate in their presence. You see here the terrible struggle of their faith to apprehend and appropriate clearly and unequivocally the grand and paradoxical fact of His resurrection from the dead, and at the same time the conflict of overwhelming joy, inundating them with transporting rapture, thus the excitement antagonizing the necessary deliberation for faith to appropriate the glorious reality. This appeal to their senses by eating in their presence, we are to regard as a miracle for their conviction and the establishment of their faith, as we have no account of His eating except in this instance.
Joh 20:20. Saying this, He showed them His hands and His side, and His disciples rejoiced, seeing the Lord. These appeals to their physical senses do not prove anything physical on His part, as you see He did the same to Abraham and Nebuchadnezzar, and even on a grander scale, long before His incarnation. We must not get so critical as to lay embargoes on Omnipotence.
Luk 24:44-45 : And He said to them, These are My words which I spoke to you, being yet with you, That it behooveth all things which have been written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms, concerning Me, to be fulfilled. Then He opened their mind, that they might understand the Scriptures. Lord, help us to learn the indisputable fact that if Thou dost not open our minds, we will never understand the Scriptures. Preachers study till their heads are gray, and know so little about the Scriptures that an illiterate, sanctified Ethiopian would be an exceedingly profitable teacher. We must learn how to sit meek and lowly, like little children, at the feet of Jesus, trusting Him to open our minds, so we can understand His precious Word. The carnal wisdom of colleges will never reach the emergency.
And He said to them, that it has been thus written that Christ is to suffer, and rise from the dead on the third day; and that repentance unto the remission of sins is to be preached among all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. We here have the commission of our Lord, as given by Luke, in which repentance is the salient grace conducive to the remission of sins. The E. V. here omits eis, unto, much to the weakening of this wonderful passage, which Luke, in his Acts of the Apostles 2:38, parallels, Repent, and be baptized unto the remission of your sins; the baptism being ceremonial and symbolic of the spiritual realities revealed in these two passages, in both of which Luke formulates repentance the condition and antecedent of remission, in the one, Peter, on the day of Pentecost, using the verb; while here, in the commission, our Lord uses the noun, and commands His apostles and their successors to preach it to all nations; i. e., repentance unto remission of sins. This is in perfect harmony with Pauls commission (Act 18:26), in which he offers remission of sins and sanctification through faith alone. These two commissions are in perfect harmony, as repentance breaks off the yoke of Satan, and faith receives that of Christ, these two fundamental graces constituting the positive and negative poles of the salvation battery, the one always including the other.
You are witnesses of these things. And I send upon you the promise of the Father; and you abide in the city until you may be endued with dynamite from on high. There are two Greek words prominently used and translated power. Here rite word is dunamis, Anglicized dynamite. This is certainly very significant of the wonderful blessing they received at Pentecost; i. e., the dynamite of heaven, which blows all inbred sin out of us. How dares any Church to send out a preacher before he has complied with this great commandment of the Infallible! You see plainly that our Lord provides for the sanctification of all his preachers before they go out to battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil. The only reason why we have not conquered the world long ago, and brought back the Lord in his millennial victory and glory to transform the world into a paradise, is because of the departure from the Divine order, preachers and elders having the audacity to take the management of the Church into their own hands and run it to suit themselves, actually treating with contempt the positive and unequivocal commandment of our Savior requiring every preacher, in prayer and humiliation, to await the heavenly enduement of Pentecostal dynamite; i. e., the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire.
Joh 20:21-22. Then Jesus said to them again, Peace be unto you; as the Father hath sent Me, I also send you. O the transcendent honor and the momentous responsibility of going in the room of Jesus, by Him invested and endued, as He was by His Father when He came on the earth, preaching the everlasting gospel! Saying this, He breathed on them, and says to them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. We must not conclude that people do not receive the Holy Ghost in the regenerated experience. They do receive Him in a measure; while in sanctification He comes in His fullness to abide in the heart. You must remember that these apostles had all stumbled during that dark period from the Gethsemane midnight till the resurrection morn. He said to them, You will all be offended in Me this night. They were offended i. e., stumbled actually giving up their faith in His Christhood, and simply believed on Him as the greatest prophet the world had seen. Hence they needed the enduement of the Holy Ghost to restore and reestablish them in the faith of His Christhood.
Whosesoever sins you may remit, are remitted unto them; whosesoever sins you may retain, have been retained. This passage has, by the Romanists, been pressed far into ritualism and priestcraft. The apostles and their successors, as He here says, were invested with the gospel commission to preach and work for Jesus till He returns in His glory. The Word is our authority. Hence, in the application of Gods revealed truth, there is a sense in which the called and sent minister, as the substitute and subordinate of Christ, does remit or retain sins. It is the key-power (Matthew 16) which Jesus committed to Peter and all the apostles, and to their successors to the end of time.
Joh 20:19-29. The Coming to the Disciples.The first Christian Sunday is spent in Jerusalem, where the disciples are in hiding. The interpretation of Mar 14:50 as implying an immediate flight of the apostles to Galilee is purely conjectural. The account of the first appearance to the disciples is told so as to emphasize the fulfilment of the promises, and the teaching, of chs. 1417. Jesus comes (cf. Joh 14:18), He gives them His peace (Joh 14:27), they were glad () when they saw (Joh 16:22), He sends them, as He was sent (Joh 17:18), He gives them the Spirit, and power to deal with sin (Joh 16:7 ff.). The showing of the hands and side has its parallel in Luk 24:39, which is original, though Luk 24:40 is probably a later addition to the Lucan text. The word used for forgive is the normal LXX translation of the Heb. nasa and salah. The corresponding noun is used for the Jubilee, or remission. There is no exact parallel for retain in the sense it has here. It is the natural opposite (grasp, hold fast, cf. Luk 24:16) of sending away, letting go.
Joh 20:24-29. Doubt and Faith.All the accounts of Resurrection appearances record the fact of doubt (Mat 28:17, Mar 16:11; Mar 16:13 f., Luk 24:11; Luk 24:25; Luk 24:38; Luk 24:49). John follows his usual custom of giving one typical and named instance. The bearing of this fact on the historical value of the incidents concerned must be determined by the consideration of the whole series, and their intrinsic probability. The attitude of Thomas is true to his character as depicted elsewhere in the gospel (Joh 11:16, Joh 14:5). The incident is recorded to teach the superiority of faith which interprets evidence by spiritual intuition rather than by the senses. A parallel to Joh 20:27 is found by some in the story of Apollonius of Tyana (cf. Philost. Joh 7:41, Joh 8:12). Jewish thought offers a more interesting parallel; Tanchuma Joh 20:8 a, The Israelites without the great sights on Sinai would not have believed, the Proselyte who has not seen all is therefore more loved by God (quoted by Bauer, HNT, p. 184). The words of the confession are significant in the light of the claim, first put forward by Domitian, to be addressed as Dominus et Deus noster (Suetonius, Domit. 13).
Verse 19
Came Jesus. Just before he appeared, however, the disciples from Emmaus came into the assembly, giving an account of what they had seen. (Luke 24:33.)
20:19 {5} Then the same day at evening, being the first [day] of the week, when the {f} doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace [be] unto you.
(5) Christ, in that he presents himself before his disciples suddenly through his divine power, when the gates were shut, fully assures them both of his resurrection, and also of their apostleship, inspiring them with the Holy Spirit who is the director of the ministry of the Gospel.
(f) Either the doors opened to him of their own accord, or the very walls themselves were a passage to him.
3. The appearance to the Eleven minus Thomas on Easter evening 20:19-23 (cf. Mark 16:14-18; Luke 24:36-43)
This pericope contains another post-resurrection appearance of Jesus that bolstered the disciples’ faith. It also contains John’s account of the Great Commission.
John moved his readers directly from the events of Easter morning to those that happened that evening.
"The seventh day of the week, the Sabbath, commemorates God’s finished work of Creation (Gen 2:1-3). The Lord’s Day commemorates Christ’s finished work of redemption, the ’new creation.’ . . .
"For centuries, the Jewish Sabbath had been associated with Law: six days of work, and then you rest. But the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week, is associated with grace: first there is faith in the living Christ, then there will be works." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:391, 392.]
Apparently the Eleven except Thomas were present (cf. Mar 16:14; Joh 20:24). How much Thomas missed because he did not meet with the other disciples on the Lord’s Day (cf. Heb 10:22-25)! He had to endure a whole week of fear and unbelief unnecessarily. The disciples had gathered in a secure room because they feared the Jewish authorities. The Jewish authorities had crucified their rabbi, so it was reasonable to think that they might come after them as well. Contrast their boldness following Jesus’ ascension just a few weeks later.
John implied that Jesus appeared miraculously even though the disciples had shut up (Gr. kekleismenon, i.e., "locked" NIV) the doors (cf. Joh 20:26). Jesus’ resurrection body had passed through grave clothes and a rocky tomb. Now it passed through the walls of this structure.
Jesus’ greeting was common enough (i.e., Heb. shalom ’alekem). However, He had formerly promised His disciples His peace (Joh 14:27; Joh 16:33). Consequently He was imparting rather than just wishing peace on them. This seems clear because Jesus repeated the benediction two more times (Joh 20:21; Joh 20:26). "Shalom" summarized the fullness of God’s blessing, not just the cessation of hostility (cf. Rom 5:1; Php 4:7).
"Never had that ’common word’ [Shalom] been so filled with meaning as when Jesus uttered it on Easter evening. . . . His ’Shalom!’ on Easter evening is the complement of ’it is finished’ on the cross, for the peace of reconciliation and life from God is now imparted. ’Shalom!’ accordingly is supremely the Easter greeting. Not surprisingly it is included, along with ’grace,’ in the greeting of every epistle of Paul in the NT." [Note: Beasley-Murray, pp. 378-79.]
XXIII. THOMAS’ TEST.
“When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when He had said this, He showed unto them His hands and His side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord. Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace be unto you: as the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe. And after eight days again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and see My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”– Joh 20:19-29.
On the evening of the day whose dawning had been signalised by the Resurrection, the disciples, and, according to Luke, some others, were together. They expected that the event which had restored hope in their own hearts would certainly excite the authorities and probably lead to the arrest of some of their number. They had therefore carefully closed the doors, that some time for parley and possibly for escape might be interposed. But to their astonishment and delight, while they were sitting thus with closed doors, the well-known figure of their Lord appeared in their midst, and His familiar greeting, “Peace be with you,” sounded in their ears. Further to identify Himself and remove all doubt or dread He showed them His hands and His side; and, as St. Luke tells us, even ate before them. There is here a strange mingling of identity and difference between the body He now wears and that which had been crucified. Its appearance is the same in some respects, but its properties are different. Immediate recognition did not always follow His manifestation. There was something baffling in His appearance, suggesting a well-known face, and yet not quite the same. The marks on the body, or some characteristic action or movement or utterance, were needed to complete the identification. The properties of the body also were not reducible to any known type. He could eat, speak, walk, yet He could dispense with eating and could apparently pass through physical obstacles. His body was a glorified, spiritual body, not subject to the laws which govern the physical part of man in this life. These characteristics are worth noticing, not only as giving us some inkling of the type of body which awaits ourselves, but in connection with the identification of the risen Lord. Had the appearance been the mere fancy of the disciples, how should they have required any identification?
Having saluted them and removed their consternation, He fulfils the object of His appearance by giving them their commission, their equipment, and their authority as His Apostles: “As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you”–to fulfil still the same purpose, to complete the work begun, to stand to Him in the same intimate relation as He had occupied to the Father. To impart to them at once all that they required for the fulfilment of this commission He bestows upon them the Holy Spirit, breathing on them, to convey to them the impression that He was actually there and then communicating to them that which constituted the very breath of His own life. This is His first act as Lord of all power in heaven and on earth, and it is an act which inevitably conveys to them the assurance that His life and theirs is one life. Impulse and power to proclaim Him as risen they did not yet experience. They must be allowed time to settle to some composure of mind and to some clear thoughts after all the disturbing events of these last days. They must also have the confirmatory testimony to the Resurrection, which could only be furnished after repeated appearances of the Lord to themselves and to others. The gift of the Spirit, therefore, as a spirit of powerful witness-bearing, was reserved for six weeks.
With this perfect equipment our Lord added the words: “Whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.” These words have been the occasion of endless controversy.[31] They certainly convey the ideas that the Apostles were appointed to mediate between Christ and their fellow-men, that the chief function they should be required to discharge in this mediation was the forgiving and retention of sins, and that they were furnished with the Holy Spirit to guide them in this mediation. Apparently this must mean that the Apostles were to be the agents through whom Christ was to proclaim the terms of admission to His kingdom. They received authority to say in what cases sins were to be forgiven and in what to be retained. To infer from this that the Apostles have successors, that these successors are constituted by an external ordinance or nomination, that they have power to exclude or admit individuals seeking entrance into the kingdom of God, is to leave logic and reason a long way behind, and to erect a kind of government in the Church of Christ which will never be submitted to by those who live in the liberty wherewith His truth has made them free. The presence of the Holy Spirit, and no bare external appointment, is that which gives authority to those who guide the Church of Christ. It is because they are inwardly one with Christ, not because they happen to be able to claim a doubtful outward connection with Him, that they have that authority which Christ’s people own.
But when our Lord thus appeared on the day of His resurrection to His disciples one of their number was absent. This might not have been noticed had not the absentee been of a peculiar temper, and had not this peculiarity given rise to another visit of the Lord and to a very significant restoration of belief in the mind of a sceptical disciple. The absent disciple was commonly known as Thomas or Didymus, the Twin. On various occasions he appears somewhat prominently in the gospel-story, and his conduct and conversation on those occasions show him to have been a man very liable to take a desponding view of the future, apt to see the darker side of everything, but at the same time not wanting in courage, and of a strong and affectionate loyalty to Jesus. On one occasion, when our Lord intimated to the disciples His intention of returning within the dangerous frontier of Judaea, the others expostulated, but Thomas said, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him”–an utterance in which his devoted loyalty to his Master, his dogged courage, and his despondent temperament are all apparent. And when, some time afterwards, Jesus was warning His disciples that He must shortly leave them and go to the Father, Thomas sees in the departure of his Master the extinction of all hope; life and the way to life seem to him treacherous phrases, he has eyes only for the gloom of death: “Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way?”
The absence of such a man from the first meeting of the disciples was to be expected.[32] If the bare possibility of his Lord’s death had plunged this loving and gloomy heart in despondency, what dark despair must have preyed upon it when that death was actually accomplished! How the figure of his dead Master had burnt itself into his soul is seen from the manner in which his mind dwells on the print of the nails, the wound in the side. It is by these only, and not by well-known features of face or peculiarities of form, he will recognise and identify his Lord. His heart was with the lifeless body on the cross, and he could not bear to see the friends of Jesus or speak with those who had shared his hopes, but buried his disappointment and desolation in solitude and silence. His absence can scarcely be branded as culpable. None of the others expected resurrection any more than himself, but his hopelessness acted on a specially sensitive and despondent nature. Thus it was that, like many melancholy persons, he missed the opportunity of seeing what would effectually have scattered his darkness.
But though he might not be to blame for absenting himself, he was to blame for refusing to accept the testimony of his friends when they assured him they had seen Jesus risen. There is a tone of doggedness that grates upon us in the words, “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.” Some deference was due to the testimony of men whom he knew to be truthful and as little liable to delusion as himself. We cannot blame him for not being convinced on the spot; a man cannot compel himself to believe anything which does not itself compel belief. But the obstinate tone sounds as if he was beginning to nurse his unbelief, than which there is no more pernicious exercise of the human spirit. He demands, too, what may never be possible–the evidence of his own senses. He claims that he shall be on the same footing as the rest. Why is he to believe on less evidence than they? It has cost him pain enough to give up his hope: is he then to give up his hopelessness as cheaply as all this? He is supremely miserable; his Lord dead and life left to him–a life which already during these few days had grown far too long, a weary, intolerable burden. Is he in a moment and on their mere word to rise from his misery? A man of Thomas’ temperament hugs his wretchedness. You seem to do him an injury if you open the shutters of his heart and let in the sunshine.
Obviously, therefore, the first inference we naturally draw from this state of mind is that it is weak and wrong to lay hold of one difficulty and insist that except this be removed we will not believe. Let this difficulty about the constitution of Christ’s person, or this about the impossibility of proving a miracle, or this about the inspiration of Scripture be removed, and I will accept Christianity; let God grant me this petition, and I will believe that He is the hearer of prayer; let me see this inconsistency or that explained, and I will believe He governs the course of things in this world. The understanding begins to take a pride in demanding evidence more absolute and strict than has satisfied others, and seems to display acuteness and fairness in holding to one difficulty. The test which Thomas proposed to himself seemed an accurate and legitimate one; but that he should have proposed it shows that he was neglecting the evidence already afforded him, the testimony of a number of men whose truthfulness he had for years made proof of. True, it was a miracle they required him to believe; but would his own senses be better authentication of a miracle than the unanimous and explicit declaration of a company of veracious men? He could have no doubt that they believed they had seen the Lord. If they could be deceived, ten of them, or many more, why should his senses prove more infallible? Was he to reject their testimony on the ground that their senses had deceived them, and accept the testimony of his own senses? Was the ultimate test in his own case to be that very evidence which in the case of others he maintained was insufficient?
But if this tells seriously against Thomas, we must not leave out of account what tells in his favour. It is true he was obstinate and unreasonable and a shade vain in his refusal to accept the testimony of the disciples, but it is also true that he was with the little Christian community on the second Lord’s Day. This puts it beyond a doubt that he was not so unbelieving as he seemed. That he did not now avoid the society of those happy, hopeful men shows that he was far from unwilling to become, if possible, a sharer in their hope and joy. Perhaps already he was repenting having pledged himself to unbelief, as many another has repented. Certainly he was not afraid of being convinced that his Lord had arisen; on the contrary, he sought to be convinced of this and put himself in the way of conviction. He had doubted because he wished to believe, doubted because it was the full, entire, eternal confidence of his soul that he was seeking a resting-place for. He knew the tremendous importance to him of this question–knew that it was literally everything to him if Christ was risen and was now alive and to be found by His people, and therefore he was slow to believe. Therefore also he kept in the company of believers; it was on their side he wished to get out of the terrible mire and darkness in which he was involved.
It is this which distinguishes Thomas and all right-minded doubters from thorough-going and depraved unbelievers. The one wishes to believe, would give the world to be free from doubt, will go mourning all his days, will pine in body and sicken of life because he cannot believe: “he waits for light, but behold obscurity, for brightness, but he walks in darkness.” The other, the culpable unbeliever, thrives on doubt; he likes it, enjoys it, sports it, lives by it; goes about telling people his difficulties, as some morbid people have a fancy for showing you their sores or detailing their symptoms, as if everything which makes them different from other men, even though it be disease, were a thing to be proud of. Convince such a man of the truth and he is angry with you; you seem to have done him a wrong, as the mendicant impostor who has been gaining his livelihood by a bad leg or a useless eye is enraged when a skilled person restores to him the use of his limb or shows him that he can use it if he will. You may know a dishonest doubter by the fluency with which he states his difficulties or by the affectation of melancholy which is sometimes assumed. You may always know him by his reluctance to be convinced, by his irritation when he is forced to surrender some pet bulwark of unbelief. When you find a man reading one side of the question, courting difficulties, eagerly seizing on new objections, and provoked instead of thankful when any doubt is removed, you may be sure that this is not a scepticism of the understanding so much as an evil heart of unbelief.
The hesitancy and backwardness, the incredulity and niggardliness of faith, of Thomas have done as much to confirm the minds of succeeding believers as the forward and impulsive confidence of Peter. Then, as now, this critical intellect, when combined with a sound heart, wrought two great boons for the Church. The doubts which such men entertain continually provoke fresh evidence, as here this second appearance of Christ to the Eleven seems due to the doubt of Thomas. So far as one can gather it was solely to remove this doubt our Lord appeared. And, besides, a second boon which attends honest and godly doubt is the attachment to the Church of men who have passed through severe mental conflict, and therefore hold the faith they have reached with an intelligence and a tenacity unknown to other men.
These two things were simply brought about in Thomas’ instance. The disciples were again assembled on the following Sunday, probably in the same place, consecrated for ever in their memories as the place where their risen Lord had appeared. It is doubtful whether they were more expectant of a fresh appearance of their Lord this day than they had been any day throughout the week, but certainly every reader feels that it is not without significance that after a blank and uneventful week the first day should again be singled out to have this honour put upon it. Some sanction is felt to be given to those meetings of His followers which ever since have been assembled on the first day of the week; and the experience of thousands can testify that this day seems still the favourite with our Lord for manifesting Himself to His people, and for renewing the joy which a week’s work has somewhat dimmed. Silently and suddenly as before, without warning, without opening of doors, Jesus stood in their midst. But there was no terror now–exclamations only of delight and adoration. And perhaps it was not in human nature to resist casting a look of triumphant interrogation at Thomas, a look of inquiry to see what he would make of this. Surprise, unutterable surprise, undiminished by all he had been led to expect, must have been written on Thomas’ wide-gazing eyes and riveted look. But this surprise was displaced by shame, this eager gaze cast down, when he found that his Lord had heard his obstinate ultimatum and had been witness of his sullen unbelief. As Jesus repeats almost in the same words the hard, rude, bare, material test which he had proposed, and as He holds forth His hands for his inspection, shame and joy struggle for the mastery in his spirit, and give utterance to the humble but glowing confession, “My Lord and my God.” His own test is superseded; he makes no movement to put it in force; he is satisfied of the identity of his Lord. It is the same penetrating knowledge of man’s inmost thoughts, the same loving treatment of the erring, the same subduing presence.
And thus it frequently happens that a man who has vowed that he will not believe except this or that be made plain finds, when he does believe, that something short of his own requirements has convinced him. He finds that though he was once so express in his demands for proof, and so clear and accurate in his declarations of the precise amount of evidence required, at the last he believes and could scarcely tell you why, could not at least show his belief as the fine and clean result of a logical process. Thomas had maintained that the rest were too easily satisfied, but at the last he is himself satisfied with precisely the same proof as they. And it is somewhat striking that in so many cases unbelief gives way to belief, not by the removal of intellectual difficulties, not by such demonstration as was granted to Thomas, but by an undefinable conquest of the soul by Christ. The glory, holiness, love of His person, subdue the soul to Him.
The faith of Thomas is full of significance. First, it is helpful to our own faith to hear so decisive and so full a confession coming from the lips of such a man. John himself felt it to be so decisive that after recording it he virtually closes the Gospel which he had undertaken to write in order to persuade men that Jesus is the Son of God. After this confession of Thomas he feels that no more can be said. He stops not for want of matter; “many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples” which are not written in this Gospel. These seemed sufficient. The man who is not moved by this will not be moved by any further proof. Proof is not what such a doubter needs. Whatever we think of the other Apostles, it is plain that Thomas at least was not credulous. If Peter’s generous ardour carried him to a confession unwarranted by the facts, if John saw in Jesus the reflection of his own contemplative and loving nature, what are we to say of the faith of Thomas? He had no determination to see only what he desired, no readiness to accept baseless evidence and irresponsible testimony. He knew the critical nature of the situation, the unique importance of the matter presented to his faith. With him there was no frivolous or thoughtless underrating of difficulties. He did not absolutely deny the possibility of Christ’s resurrection, but he went very near doing so, and showed that practically he considered it either impossible or unlikely in the extreme. But in the end he believes. And the ease with which he passes from doubt to faith proves his honesty and sound-heartedness. As soon as evidence which to him is convincing is produced, he proclaims his faith.
His confession, too, is fuller than that of the other disciples. The week of painful questioning had brought clearly before his mind the whole significance of the Resurrection, so that he does not hesitate to own Jesus as his God. When a man of profound spiritual feeling and of good understanding has doubts and hesitations from the very intensity and subtlety of his scrutiny of what appears to him of transcendent importance; when he sees difficulties unseen by men who are too little interested in the matter to recognise them even though they stare them in the face,–when such a man, with the care and anxiety that befit the subject, considers for himself the claims of Christ, and as the result yields himself to the Lord, he sees more in Christ than other men do, and is likely to be steadier in his allegiance than if he had slurred over apparent obstacles instead of removing them, and stifled objections in place of answering them. It was not the mere seeing of Christ risen which prompted the full confession of Thomas. But slowly during that week of suspense he had been taking in the full significance of the Resurrection, coming at the close of such a life as he knew the Lord had lived. The very idea that such a thing was believed by the rest forced his mind back upon the exceptional character of Jesus, His wonderful works, the intimations He had given of His connection with God. The sight of Him risen came as the keystone of the arch, which being wanting all had fallen to the ground, but being inserted clenched the whole, and could now bear any weight. The truths about His person which Thomas had begun to explain away return upon his mind with resistless force, and each in clear, certain verity. He saw now that his Lord had performed all His word, had proved Himself supreme over all that affected men. He saw Him after passing through unknown conflict with principalities and powers come to resume fellowship with sinful men, standing with all things under His feet, yet giving His hand to the weak disciple to make him partake in His triumph.
This was a rare and memorable hour for Thomas, one of those moments that mark a man’s spirit permanently. He is carried entirely out of himself, and sees nothing but his Lord. The whole energy of his spirit goes out to Him undoubtingly, unhesitatingly, unrestrained. Everything is before him in the person of Christ; nothing causes the least diversion or distraction. For once his spirit has found perfect peace. There is nothing in the unseen world that can dismay him, nothing in the future on which he can spend a thought; his soul rests in the Person before him. He does not draw back, questioning whether the Lord will now receive him; he fears no rebuke; he does not scrutinise his spiritual condition, nor ask whether his faith is sufficiently spiritual. He cannot either go back upon his past conduct, or analyse his present feelings, or spend one thought of any kind upon himself. The scrupulous, sceptical man is all devoutness and worship; the thousand objections are swept from his mind; and all by the mere presence of Christ He is rapt in this one object; mind and soul are filled with the regained Lord; he forgets himself; the passion of joy with which he regains in a transfigured form his lost Leader absorbs him quite: “he had lost a possible king of the Jews; he finds his Lord and his God.” There can be no question here about himself, his prospects, his interests. He can but utter his surprise, his joy, and his worship in the cry, “My Lord and my God.”
On such a man even the Lord’s benediction were useless. This is the highest, happiest, rarest state of the human soul. When a man has been carried out of himself by the clear vision of Christ’s worth; when his mind and heart are filled with the supreme excellence of Christ; when in His presence he feels he can but worship, bowing in his soul before actually achieved human perfection rooted in and expressing the true Divine glory of love ineffable; when face to face, soul to soul, with the highest and most affecting known goodness, conscious that he now in this very moment stands within touch of the Supreme, that he has found and need never more lose perfect love, perfect goodness, perfect power,–when a man is transported by such a recognition of Christ, this is the true ecstasy, this is man’s ultimate blessedness.
And this blessedness is competent not only to those who saw with the bodily eye, but much more to those who have not seen and yet have believed. Why do we rob ourselves of it, and live as if it were not so–as if such certitude and the joy that accompanies it had passed from earth and were no more possible? We cannot apply Thomas’ test, but we can test his test; or, like him, we can forego it, and rest on wider, deeper evidence. Was he right in so eagerly confessing his belief? And are we right to hesitate, to doubt, to despond? Should we have counted it strange if, when the Lord addressed Thomas, he had sullenly shrunk back among the rest, or merely given a verbal assent to Christ’s identity, showing no sign of joy? And are we to accept the signs He gives us of His presence as if it made little difference to us and did not lift us into heaven? Have we so little sense of spiritual things that we cannot believe in the life of Him round whom the whole fortunes of our race revolve? Do we not know the power of Christ’s resurrection as Thomas could not possibly know it? Do we not see as he could not see the boundless spiritual efficacy and results of that risen life? Do we not see the full bearing of that great manifestation of God’s nearness more clearly? Do we not feel how impossible it was that such an one as Christ should be holden of death, that the supremacy in human affairs which He achieved by absolute love and absolute holiness should be proved inferior to a physical law, and should be interrupted in its efficacious exercise by a physical fact? If Thomas was constrained to acknowledge Christ as his Lord and his God, much more may we do so. By the nature of the case our conviction, implying as it does some apprehension of spiritual things, must be more slowly wrought. Even if at last the full conviction that human life is a joy because Christ is with us in it, leading us to eternal partnership with Himself,–even if this conviction flash suddenly through the spirit, the material for it must have been long accumulating. Even if at last we awake to a sense of the present glory of Christ with the suddenness of Thomas, yet in any case this must be the result of purified spiritual affinities and leanings. But on this very account is the conviction more indissolubly intertwined with all that we truly are, forming an essential and necessary part of our inward growth, and leading each of us to respond with a cordial amen to the benediction of our Lord, “Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.”
FOOTNOTES:
[31] See Steitz’ article Schlsselgewalt in Herzog.
[32] In this chapter there are reminiscences of Trench.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
How Christ Frees The Circle Of Disciples From The Old Fear, And, By The Breathing Of His Spirit, Raises Them To A Presentiment Of Their Apostolic Calling
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary