“So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. Just as the Father has sent me, I also send you.’ And after he said this, he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained.’” —John 20:21–23
Again, the Lord Jesus speaks peace to the trembling disciples—peace, not blame; peace, not faultfinding; peace, not rebuke. His words of calm must have been as music to their ears, soothing their anxious thoughts and trembling hearts.
The very next words out of Jesus’ mouth are those commissioning the disciples as His ambassadors to go forth! Their real work is about to begin. He wants to dismiss the delusion that ease and reward have now arrived—that will come later. Their work of going forth to witness Jesus’ saving work will not be accomplished on an easy path. They are to be on a mission to preach His truth, in His name, equipped with His all-achieving power—it is the ultimate and highest calling. They are to proclaim in Jesus’ name the forgiveness of sins to a lost world.
This was the Apostle Paul’s passion! We find in 2 Corinthians:
“For the love of Christ controls us, since we have concluded this, that Christ died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised. So then from now on we acknowledge no one from an outward human point of view. Even though we have known Christ from such a human point of view, now we do not know him in that way any longer. So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come! And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making his plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, ‘Be reconciled to God!’ God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.” —2 Corinthians 5:14–21
Finally, Jesus breathes on the disciples the power of the Holy Spirit to ordain the great work in which He intends them to do. This action was remarkably and symbolically emblematic. In Genesis we discover God breathing the breath of life into man formed from the dust of the ground:
“The LORD God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” —Genesis 2:7
Just as there was no life in man until God breathed it into him, it would appear that Jesus is teaching the disciples that spiritual life comes to the believer through the Holy Spirit being breathed into their hearts. The breath of the Savior gives life to His ministers to begin a new work. The Spirit is the gift of Christ! Those Christ sends forth, He clothes with His Spirit who provides power.
Wind is also pre-eminently the emblem used of the Spirit in Scripture. Paul tells us:
“You, however, are not in the flesh of the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if indeed anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness. Moreover if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies life alive through his Spirit, who lives in you. —Romans 8:9–11
Become More
Each one of us is a vessel God chooses to use. The disciples were to go on where Jesus left off. Every subsequent generation of believers is to do likewise. Will those who come behind us find us faithful?
Further Reflection
“And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation) —when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.” —Ephesians 1:13–14