Wild Jesus, Unlimited!
Ruth Kennedy 
April 01, 2024
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John 20: 18-22 (NRSVA)
18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
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.’ 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.
From an unlocked tomb to a locked room. The disciples were limiting the number of people who knew where they were and reducing the likelihood of not just mockery but persecution, perhaps even death. Their fear filled the room. It was only a short time earlier a whole house had been filled with the aroma of nard being extravagantly poured on the feet of their Lord Jesus by Mary. Now it was fear which was causing them to withdraw and hide.
Just a few days earlier they surrounded their Lord Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem with the crowds shouting blessings and limitless praise. However, on this evening they were scared that anyone might hear them, causing them to bolt and lock the doors onto those streets. They shrank their world to be within the walls they thought they could control.
As if Jesus is limited by walls and locked doors! The heavy tombstone didn’t constrain Him, nor did the spiritual tombstone of death – no power of hell, no scheme of man was taming Him! And the first words Jesus brought his disciples was a greeting of peace. He didn’t mock them for their ridiculousness, thinking they could hide away from everyone. Our risen Lord shared words of peace and love, encouragement and purpose ‘Just as the Father has sent Me forth, so I am sending you.’
And then he breathed on them for them to receive the Holy Spirit. He was close enough for them to feel Jesus exhale his warm breath and for them to inhale the holy breath restoring joy, courage and power to them. Death to life again.
Are there places where fear has us hiding away? Do we limit our faith in what Jesus might do to a realm of thinking that we are comfortable with and can control?
Peace. Jesus is wild and unconventional, unlimited and unnerving and yet He still brings peace to our troubled homes and hearts, gently and powerfully unlocking our faith, unbolting our expectations of Him because He is peace. Wild peace. Resurrection peace. Unlimited peace!
Prayer:
Lord Jesus,
You have broken every chain of fear and death, sow these seeds of faith in me. Let a garden of faith grow in what used to be a locked room of fear. Let there be fields of blossoming flowers of peace and joy instead of prisons of ill health; physical and mental.
Breath on me, I receive your Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit,
You are alive and at work in me with the resurrection power to bring the peace of Jesus to others. Resurrect courage and power in me to share the unlimited love of the Father with those we meet. We pray for your breath to weave its way into those who are imprisoned for their faith, strengthen the persecuted Church with unusual faith and protect them.
Father, I receive your peace for them, for those I know and for myself. Thank you that your peace sets us free.
Rewild us with peace in you.
Amen.
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