Bible reading: John 20:19-23.

It was late that Sunday evening, and the disciples were gathered together behind locked doors, because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities. Then Jesus came and stood among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. After saying this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Message.

On February 9^th 1941, in the depths of World War Two, Winston Churchill made one of his celebrated radio broadcasts to the British people. It was a time of both despondency and promise: two months earlier Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor and dragged the United States into the conflict, making it truly global, while in North Africa and Greece the British Army seemed to be making significant advances against the Germans and Italians. Although Churchill tried to paint a reassuring picture, he knew that ultimate victory hung in the balance and that Britain needed help if it was to achieve it. In a thinly-veiled appeal for American help, he ended his speech with these words: “We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools, and we will finish the job”.

Ever since Jesus’ resurrection, Christians have been engaged in an enormous task. We might shrink back from calling it a battle against ignorance, evil and darkness (although our Victorian forbears had no such qualms); however we know all too well that the work of making disciples and drawing them into the Church, of bringing God’s healing and harmony to the world, and of building his kingdom, is daunting. Yet this is the challenge which Jesus gave to his disciples and, by implication, to all who follow in their footsteps. For not only do we have the specifically evangelistic “Great Commission” about taking the message of Jesus to every nation but, as we heard last week, we also read of him sending his disciples into the world in the same way as he had been sent by his Father – a far more comprehensive and holistic mission which, as Jesus said at the outset of his own ministry, included (literally or metaphorically) giving good news to the poor, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind and releasing prisoners from captivity.

I’m sure you’ll agree that the scope of those commissions is totally overwhelming – although, of course, they were given to the Church as a whole; although we all have our part to play, Jesus doesn’t expect each one of us to do everything! Fortunately, what we have here isn’t simply an order to be obeyed; it’s accompanied by a promise: “Receive the Holy Spirit” – the Spirit who will empower and accompany us as we seek to serve Jesus. Now there is a bit of controversy surrounding the meaning of this verse. It has been read as “insufflation”, a rather wonderful word which implies the “blowing of the Spirit into us” in much the same way as one pumps air into a Li-lo or a rubber dinghy. However that is a mistranslation of what Jesus was saying: a better way of putting it is, “Jesus exhaled [possibly “towards the disciples”] and then said, ‘Receive the Spirit’”.

Jesus’ words remind me of two other Bible passages. One comes in the creation story at the beginning of Genesis: “The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils”. Before God breathed (so the story says), the man was basically a corpse; after God breathed, he was alive. The other passage (which we read) is Ezekiel’s striking vision of dry human bones. The prophet speaks to the bones, who come together and are formed into complete but as yet lifeless bodies. God then tells him to say, “Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live”. He does as he is told; the bodies come to life and stand up on their feet as a vast army. It’s only a vision – but how remarkable.

I’ve must tell you that I’ve been a little bit naughty! For I’ve described the ministry which Jesus declared his Father had sent him to carry out; you’ll know he did this by reading a passage from Isaiah in his home-town synagogue. That’s fine; but I’ve not said that Jesus began his quotation with the words, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”, applying them to himself. That event took place shortly after Jesus’ baptism, when onlookers saw the Holy Spirit coming down on him in the form of a dove and heard a heavenly voice saying, “This is my Son, with who I am well pleased”. So, while I want to absolutely affirm that Jesus was 100% divine, there does seem to be some mysterious way in which even he needed the blessing or filling of God’s Spirit before he could commence his ministry. His disciples need that too.

Of course the gathering of the disciples we’re thinking about takes place on Easter night: the Day of Pentecost, when God’s Spirit came down in a dramatic way, is over a month in the future. And, although Jesus has “breathed” on those disciples, they don’t seem to be much changed: they are still timid and doubtful, definitely not the bold evangelists we read about in Acts! We are clearly dealing at this point with a promise or a symbol which would only be fulfilled six weeks later. It’s also clear that John regards the resurrection, ascension and Pentecost story as a single event; he doesn’t split them into separate episodes but squashes them together, in his mind they are inextricably fused together. We have to say that, in any case, at our distance of 2000 years, or even John’s few decades, those six weeks don’t seem worth bothering about! What’s important is that the Spirit came, and soon.

A question we need to ask is, “How do we know we possess the Holy Spirit?” The disciples certainly had no doubt when Pentecost came; we all know the story of the sound like a strong wind, the flames which seemed to hover over their heads, the foreign languages or dialects they suddenly seemed able to speak. It was a life-changing moment for those men and women and their lives certainly were changed; the book of Acts testifies to the way in which diffident and nervous believers turned into bold and confident evangelists. And, as we read on through the book, we encounter the Spirit coming upon other groups of people; in similarly dramatic ways; in fact we’ll be thinking about one of those occasions next Sunday.

Does this then mean that believers have to experience these mighty signs of God’s presence before they can usefully work for him? Some Christians, those in the so-called Holiness and Pentecostal traditions, certainly think so; they talk about ‘tarrying’ in prayer for ‘the Baptism of the Holy Spirit’ or ‘God’s Second Blessing’, and often expect God to give them the spiritual gift of tongues-speaking as proof of his blessing. But, while it’s true that these Christians are often the most zealous and enthusiastic about serving God and spreading the faith, I’m not convinced that the Holy Spirit necessarily comes upon every Christian in this way – which isn’t to say, of course, that he cannot or does not.

There are Christians who have had vivid experiences of God which I’m sure are 100% genuine; but I’m not convinced that God works like that for everyone. After all, Paul told the Ephesians, “When you believed in Christ, God put his stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit he had promised”; he told the Corinthians that they had all “been baptized … by the same Spirit, and … given the one Spirit to drink”. Those words strongly suggest that every Christians have been given the Holy Spirit – although they may have not discovered his vigour and power. God made us, with our temperaments and personalities; he will meet each of us in the ways which are most appropriate. What’s important is for us to pray, “Lord, I can’t serve you by myself; please send your Spirit to help me”. We have to trust that he has answered us. (I’ll be saying a bit more next week about why I think Pentecost was basically repeated several times in the early Church).

We’ve strayed a bit from that room where Jesus revealed himself and spoke. What happened that night is clear and simple: he pronounces God’s shalom blessing of peace upon the disciples and takes away their fear. Jesus, once he had been blessed by God, went about doing good; in the same way his followers are sent to live and minister in the world, aided by the Holy Spirit. Will they receive Jesus’ peace? Will they heed his commission? Will they accept the Holy Spirit that he is offering? Will they manage to break out of their locked room of uncertainty and fear? Those were crucial questions for the disciples to think through, just a few nervous hours after Jesus’ resurrection. They have been crucial questions for every Christian since.