Peace be with you

John 20:19

When It was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

This is how Jesus greets his disciples after he has been raised from the dead.  It is the evening of that first Easter day.  The disciples are in the house with the doors closed and locked.  Previous verses indicate it is because they are afraid of the Jews.  With fear and trembling they are hiding, perhaps hoping and praying that the authorities are not looking for them because of their association with Jesus. 

One might also wonder if they were afraid of Jesus.  After all, earlier in the day, Mary Magdalene had reported that the tomb was empty; Peter and another disciple had run to the tomb and saw for themselves that it was empty and perhaps believed that indeed, Jesus had been raised from the tomb.  Mary had lingered at the tomb, and actually encountered the risen Christ after first mistaking him for the gardener.  She ran back to the house where the disciples were and announced that she had seen the Lord.

It’s interesting, isn’t it, that the disciples didn’t rush out to look for Jesus.  They remained in a room with the doors closed and locked.  Maybe they were afraid of Jesus, after all, they had failed miserably.  They had denied knowing Jesus and abandoned him.  Maybe they were afraid that if Jesus had indeed risen from the dead, he was not going to be pleased with their actions or lack thereof.  This verse, however, tells of Jesus greeting the disciples with peace:  Peace be with you.  Peace be with you.  Rather than going out to find new disciples, Jesus goes to them, forgives them and restores them into a relationship of wholeness and new life.  

Several years ago, I was preparing my umteenth sermon on this text, and on a Tuesday afternoon after a pastors’ Bible Study, I was sitting in my living room wondering what in the world I would preach that was new and I hadn’t already said.  I was reading a commentary and as if for the first time, heard Jesus say those words, “Peace be with you.”  Jesus greeted those disciples who had failed him miserably with peace.  In the next moment, I was completely overcome with emotion as tears flowed down my cheeks.  Jesus greets us in our weaknesses, in our failings, in our feeble attempts, in our messes - with a word of peace.  Peace be with you.

It is no small thing what Jesus has done; he restores the disciples and us into relationships of wholeness and new life and possibility.  There’s so much more to this story in John 20, but for this moment, bask in the peace with which Jesus greets us.  No matter what has happened in the past, no matter what’s going on right now - Jesus’ first words of resurrection when he finds us - is peace.  Peace be with you.  Amen.