Receive the Spirit—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost Sunday, Year A (John 20)

 

John 20:19-23 New Revised Standard Version UpdatedEdition

¹⁹ When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹ Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²² 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, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

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                Pentecost Sunday has arrived. It is time for the Spirit to fall upon the church, empowering it for ministry (Acts 2:1-21). The Gospel reading for Pentecost Sunday in Year A comes from the Gospel of John. The Revised Common Lectionary takes us back to Easter Sunday. It’s now evening, and the followers of Jesus have gathered in the Upper Room where they are contemplating the events of the day. While they are reflecting on the reports that Jesus had risen from the dead, Jesus appears in their midst. He greets them with familiar words: “Peace (shalom) be with you.” After he shows them the wounds on his hands and side, the disciples rejoice at seeing him. It is a joyful moment for the disciples. The one who had been crucified is once again alive.  

                What comes next, in verses 21-22 of John 20, is often called the Johannine Pentecost. It’s quite different from the story told in Acts 2. In that account of the coming of the Holy Spirit, before his ascension Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit so that they might be empowered to carry the good news of Jesus from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. However, Jesus also tells them to wait until the Holy Spirit comes to empower their witness (Acts 1:6-10). The story of the Holy Spirit’s work of spreading the good news to the ends of the earth is told in the chapters in the Book of Acts that follow the event of Pentecost. We, the current followers, are essentially engaged in extending that work by bearing witness to Jesus in word and deed.

                Now, John, as is often true, tells a somewhat different story. While there are chronological and logistical differences, there are significant overlaps.  Even though the stories might seem incompatible, that is true only if we take the two stories completely literally and demand consistency in the Gospel record. Earlier, when fully engaged with Pentecostalism, I was taught that John’s gift of the Spirit came before the one in Acts, setting up a two-stage experience of the Spirit. That is problematic since Acts is a continuation of Luke’s Gospel and not John’s. Ultimately, attempts to fully reconcile or conflate the two require significant mental gymnastics, which for some ends up with the rejection of the whole thing. So, I prefer taking a middle road, one that listens for nuances that can help us better understand what it means to be a Spirit-empowered Christian (for a fuller discussion of what that means, I suggest reading my book Unfettered Spirit: Spiritual Gifts for the New Great Awakening). If we do this then we can hear the foundational message that while Jesus is absent in body, he remains present with us through the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit.

            According to John’s story, after Jesus suddenly appears in the Upper Room (walls and doors can’t keep him out) on the first day of the week; that is the day of resurrection. According to John, Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene earlier in the day and now makes his first appearance to the Apostles (minus Thomas and of course Judas) (John 20:17-18). Now the resurrected Jesus, who appears to have  ascended to the Father (earlier in the day, Jesus told Mary not to touch him because he hadn’t yet ascended). In this appearance, Jesus demonstrates his ability, as the resurrected one, to come and go as he pleases. Now, as Jesus had reminded the disciples on the night before his death, in his Farewell Discourse, Jesus told the disciples that he would not leave them orphaned and alone. Rather, the Father will send the Advocate (Paraclete), that is, the Holy Spirit, to them. It is the Spirit who will “teach you everything, and remind you of all I have said to you” (Jn. 14:18, 26). When we read about the Holy Spirit in John, we need to think back to what Jesus says about the Paraclete in John 14-16.

                As it is now time for Jesus’ departure, he wants to send the Holy Spirit to dwell with and in them. The imparting of the Spirit is linked with his commissioning of his followers. Here in John 20, the commission is more implicit than explicit. However, it fits John’s theology. So in John 20, Jesus tells his followers that even “as the Father has sent me, so I send you.” For John, God is a sending God. Thus, even as the Father sends Jesus, Jesus will now send his followers so they might continue Jesus’ ministry. Raymond Brown writes: “Their mission is to continue the Son’s mission; and this requires that the Son must be present to them during this mission, just as the Father had to be present to the Son during his mission” [The Gospel According to  JohnXIII-XXI, Anchor Bible, (Doubleday, 1970), p. 1036]. That is, the disciples demonstrate to the world the presence of Jesus, even as Jesus in life demonstrated the presence of the Father.  There is, of course, in this conversation a high Christology. There is a unity between Father, Son, and Spirit that seems to be best represented in Trinitarian fashion. 

                With the commission/sending given, Jesus provides the empowerment for this continuing ministry. He does this by breathing on the disciples while saying to them “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The reference to breath is important as it reflects God’s actions in the second creation account, where after fashioning the first human, God breathes into this newly created being, created from the dust of the earth, the breath of life (Gen. 2:7). We see something of a parallel in Ezekiel 37, where God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the dry bones, at which point God caused breath to enter the dry bones, giving them new life. While in Genesis and Ezekiel, the breath of God gives life to the human or dry bones, here the breath of Jesus empowers his disciples for the work ahead. The words translated as Spirit in both Testaments can also be translated as breath (Hebrew—ruach—and Greek—pneuma). Thus, we have here something of a symbolic representation of the life breath that God provided the first creation and the recreation of the people of God that now serves to enliven (give life to) a new community.  The result of this breath of life is eternal life.  After all, this is the gift that Jesus had provided those who believe (John 17:1-3).

            Breath—life—power. That is the gift that Jesus gives the disciples as he prepares to leave them. But as he departs, they are being sent into the world. As they go, they don’t go alone. The Holy Spirit is with them serving as Advocate/Helper/Counselor.

                As for their mission in the world, Jesus commissions them to forgive and retain sins. If they offer forgiveness, then forgiveness is given. If they choose to retain sins (withhold forgiveness) then sins will remain unforgiven. We see something similar in Matthew 16:16-19 where Peter makes the Good Confession and Jesus responds by telling Peter that whatever he binds on earth is bound in heaven.   This is made more explicit in Matthew 18:18, where Jesus gives Peter this commission in the context of church discipline. 

            When Jesus speaks of the power to retain sins here might we think in terms of discernment. Passing out forgiveness as if it were candy would be an expression of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls cheap grace. There may be good reasons to refrain from offering forgiveness if such forgiveness did not further Jesus’ work of reconciliation. Whatever Jesus means here, this ministry is rooted in Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus breathes out on the disciples. As with the Acts 2 story of Pentecost, we would assume that this gift of the Spirit is given to us as well so that we might continue the ministry of Jesus in the world, a ministry of reconciliation. That calling is affirmed by Paul as well, who declares that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Godself, and having done so, commissions us to take up the ministry of reconciliation. Thus, “we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:18-21).

                John and Paul, each in their own way, speak to this ministry entrusted to each of us, for as the Father sends the Son, the Son has sent us into the World, filled with the Spirit so we can be ministers of reconciliation. As Martha Highsmith puts it: “The Spirit breaks through barriers: locked doors; language; individualism; fear; racial, ethnic, and social divisions. The Spirit transforms, renews, unites, and sends us into the world to carry on the work both begun and fulfilled in the life of Jesus.” [Connections: A LectionaryCommentary for Preaching and Worship (Kindle Locations 10660-10662)]. All I can say to this is, Amen (So be it). So, having received the Spirit from Jesus, might we go forth into the world and be a blessing to that world that God loves (Jn. 3:16).