When
therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the middle, and said to them, “Peace be to you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit!”
John 20:19-22
John 20 [17.] Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold me, for I haven’t yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers, and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
John 20 [18.] Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her. When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the middle, and said to them, “Peace be to you.”
John 20 [20.] When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive anyone’s sins, they have been forgiven them. If you retain anyone’s sins, they have been retained.”
John 20 [24.] But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, wasn’t with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Meaning:
On the evening of the resurrection day the disciples were still behind locked doors. Mary Magdalene had told them “that she had seen the Lord” (John 20:18), but fear still ruled the room. Then Jesus himself came and stood among them. In a few words he gave them peace, showed them his wounds, sent them on his mission and breathed on them the Holy Spirit. Luke describes the same evening, when “Jesus himself stood among them” (Luke 24:36).
- “The doors were locked … for fear of the Jews”
In John’s Gospel “the Jews” often refers to the religious authorities in Jerusalem who opposed Jesus, not to the Jewish people as a whole; the disciples themselves were Jews. Earlier, people had been afraid to speak openly about Jesus “for fear of the Jews” (John 7:13), and Joseph of Arimathaea had been a disciple “secretly for fear of the Jews” (John 19:38). Having seen their master crucified, the disciples feared they might be next. Locked doors could not keep out the risen Lord.
- “Peace be to you”
This was the ordinary Jewish greeting, “Shalom”, but on Jesus’ lips that evening it was far more. Before his death he had promised, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you” (John 14:27), and, “I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace” (John 16:33). Now that he had made peace through his death, he gives it. These were the men who had deserted him, yet his first word to them was not a rebuke but peace. Paul writes, “Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
- “He showed them his hands and his side”
The wounds proved that the risen Lord was the same Jesus who had been crucified. His side had been pierced by a soldier’s spear (John 19:34). Luke records that he said, “See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me” (Luke 24:39). The disciples’ fear turned to gladness, just as Jesus had promised: “I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you” (John 16:22).
- “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you”
Throughout John’s Gospel Jesus speaks of himself as the one sent by the Father. Now he passes on that mission. In his prayer the night before he died he said, “As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). Matthew records the same commission in different words: “Go, and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). They are to carry on his work in the same dependence on the Father.
- “He breathed on them”
The word for “breathed” recalls the creation of man, when “Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). Just as God gave life to the first Adam, Jesus gives new life to his people. Paul calls him “the last Adam” who “became a life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45). Earlier John had explained that “the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus wasn’t yet glorified” (John 7:39). Now that Jesus has been glorified through the cross and resurrection, he gives the Spirit. Christians understand this act in relation to Pentecost in different ways: some see here a first gift that prepared the disciples, with the full outpouring when “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4); others see John describing in his own way the same gift of the Spirit. Either way, the mission cannot be carried out without the Spirit.
The Significance of John 20:19-22
- Peace in the middle of fear
Jesus comes to fearful people behind locked doors and speaks peace. Believers today may also hide behind doors of fear, failure or grief. The risen Lord still comes and says, “Peace be to you.”
- Every believer is sent
The commission was not only for apostles. Every follower of Jesus is sent into the world to make him known, as “ambassadors on behalf of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
- Power for the mission
Jesus never sends without equipping. The same Spirit who gave life at creation gives power to witness. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8).
Cross-References:
Luke 24:36: "Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be to you.”" Luke’s account of the same evening.
John 14:27: "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you;" The promised peace now given.
Genesis 2:7: "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;" God’s breath at creation.
Acts 1:8: "You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth." The mission continued by the Spirit.
Conclusion: On the evening of the first Easter, Jesus came through locked doors to his frightened disciples, gave them his peace and showed them his wounds. He then sent them as the Father had sent him and breathed on them the Holy Spirit. The risen Lord still brings peace to the fearful and sends his people into the world in the power of his Spirit.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible