Fear can make you do some strange things.
You don’t have to go back too many years to see how fear inspires us to react and not think.
Remember when we were told that we could get sick if we didn’t wear a mask while walking into a restaurant, but by sitting down, we could safely take our masks off and be okay? Reading that sentence today is humorous (and a bit frustrating), but a lot of people did it.
Fear can make you do some strange things. Fear can paralyze us. It will cause you to be afraid of even deciding!
Of course, fear has been with us for a long, long time. The early disciples of Jesus had fears too. And it made them do some strange things too.
Jesus had risen from the dead, and the word was starting to spread. We pick up at the spread of the best news in John 20:19-23:
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
John 20:19-23
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
New International Version
Jesus had risen that morning, and now it was Sunday night. The disciples were together, and the doors were locked. They were afraid.
Why were they afraid? The text states they were afraid because of the Jewish leaders, but why were they afraid of them now?
They feared the Jewish leaders would come knocking on their door with the Roman guards. They were fearful the Jewish leaders would “clean up any loose ends” after killing Jesus. They were terrified that the Jewish leaders would blame them for the disappearance of Jesus’ body and would come after them.
As the eyes of these men met each other, they must have returned to that night around the triclinium—the Last Supper. Just a few days back, they sat with Jesus in a borrowed upper room, and He taught them for the last time. All that He said…now He was dead. It was over. And on top of all that, the report came through Mary Magdalene: His body was gone—stolen?
They didn’t know for sure.
Except for John and Peter. But even if Jesus was alive, what comfort was that now? He wasn’t there. He wasn’t guiding them. Were they to wait for their deaths?
Then the disciples were found, but it was not by their enemies. It was Jesus.
Just like when He passed through the strips of linen wrapping His body and the shroud over His head in His tomb, the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ passed through the door! Our scientifically trained minds have a hard time wrapping our heads around this. Not only was He back from the dead (hard to wrap our minds around in the first place), but He could also do things a physical body normally could not.
Jesus isn’t just showcasing the type of body we will enjoy at the resurrection; He is validating the resurrection and commissioning them for the task before them. He is sending them into the world to tell what they have witnessed. But He is not sending them alone.
When Jesus breathed on them in verse 22, He gave them another object lesson in the form of a prophecy. Soon, they would receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and they would do everything Jesus told them they would.
Until then, fear caused them to cower behind locked doors. Faith in Jesus would call them out into the streets.
Life Meets Theology 