19 “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’
20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.’” (John 20:19-23)
The early church had a singular message to the world. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Everything hinged on this one message. Everything hinged on this one message because the resurrection changed everything.
On the first day of the week, the disciples were together, hiding behind locked doors out of fear. Imagine the mood in the upper room as they huddled together – sad because Jesus was crucified, ashamed because they had lacked the courage to try and stop it, afraid that the Roman soldiers would soon come for them and confused as to what to do next. For the past three years, their whole lives had been wrapped around the calling of following Jesus, only to end in this room of loneliness and despair. Then, amidst the cloud of sadness, shame, fear, and confusion, Jesus comes and fills the room with his holy light. The Peace of Jesus consoled the grief of their loss, washed away their shame, conquered their fears, and offered clarity and hope to their misguided hearts. Indeed, the resurrection changed everything.
In offering this peace to them, Jesus is fulfilling a promise he made just a few chapters earlier as He tried to prepare his disciples for what was to come. In John 14:26-27 Jesus said to his disciples, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
After encountering the resurrected Jesus, the disciples’ fear is transformed to joy because of the peace of Jesus offered to them. But this was not all Jesus did. After giving them peace, Jesus declared that he was sending them in the same way his Father had sent him and then He breathed on them. Jesus gave the disciples the power to go out and spread the Good News. Meeting the resurrected Jesus changed everything.
As I thought about what connection of the human respiratory system I would use in this devotional, I decided to focus on the disciples’ dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Without the risen Christ and His gift of the Holy Spirit, the disciples would have remained trapped, disappointed, and disillusioned – led astray and abandoned by someone living in a falsified version of reality. Just as their future existence and mission depended upon the breath of the Spirit, our future bodies also depend on the breath of another as we await our own birth.
As you know, human babies form inside their mother’s womb for about 280 days. During that time, the baby does not breathe air; consequently, the lungs are one of the last organs to develop. The baby’s blood bypasses the collapsed, fluid-filled lungs through a flap-like opening between the upper chambers of the heart. So how does the baby receive oxygen and dispose carbon dioxide? The mother’s blood flows through the placenta and to the baby through the umbilical cord, delivering oxygen. And carbon dioxide and wastes from the baby are returned to the mother for disposal through the same pathway in reverse. The baby is totally dependent upon the mother for this critical gas exchange.
When the baby is born and the umbilical cord is clamped, amazing changes occur. The baby takes its first breath, and the baby’s lungs expand with air. The opening through which blood flowed to bypass the lungs during pregnancy is shut. The baby’s circulation and blood flow through the heart now functioning like an adult’s. Oxygen is delivered to the baby’s blood through the air sacs of the lungs. Perhaps the most amazing part? All of this happens in a matter of minutes! When the doctor pats a baby’s back after birth, that first cry signals that each of these vital processes have occurred (no wonder the baby feels like crying after all that work!).
The disciples needed a good pat on the back in that lonely upper room, and Jesus delivered a powerful punch of grace. He gifted them with peace, then breathed upon them the life-giving Spirit needed to transform them into individuals who could survive outside of the “womb” of His physical presence. We humans receive this miraculous breath of oxygen inside and then outside of our mother’s wombs, where we, too, are called to live and grow and become all God created us to be. Unlike our lungs, however, that will one day breathe their last, God’s Spirit breathed into us never diminishes or falters. Death no longer has any power because – you guessed it – the resurrection changed everything.
As the beloved hymn proclaims:
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
fill me with life anew,
that I may love the way you love,
and do what you would do.
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made 