To Protect and Serve
As the Father sent Jesus, Jesus sends his followers, and he sends you too, to protect the weak and to serve God.
To Protect and Serve
(John 20: 19-31)
When I graduated from the Houston Police Academy on January 7, 1977, the department didn’t have an official post-academy training program. What they had was a three-phase training period where they would pair you up with a different senior officer every month for three months. The problem was that none of these senior officers received any formalized training on how to prepare rookie officers for actual police work. It was, for us rookies, the luck of the draw. I was fortunate because I drew some very good and experienced officers who trained me up in the gentle art of policing the populace. Some of my classmates weren’t as lucky as their training officers weren’t as professional in preparing their rookie to go out into the dark world on their own. After I had been on the streets for a while the department instituted a Field Training Officer program designed to teach training officers in the department approved way of preparing new officers for policing. I didn’t have that much time on the streets, but I talked my way into the first class and became an official Field Training Officer ready to teach newly graduated officers up in the proper methods of protecting and serving the people. The first month we would show them how to do it. The second month we would let them take the lead giving instruction and guidance where needed, and the third month we’d shadow them letting them do all the driving, respond to the calls, write the reports, and make arrests, and then critiquing them at the end of the shift and empowering them to go out and handle the basics of policing on their own with the understanding that we were always available to assist them if they encountered something that challenged them, if they had doubts about what to do or had questions they couldn’t answer.
And essentially that’s exactly what Jesus is doing when he appears to the disciples after his crucifixion. We pick up where we left off last week when Mary Magdalene had run back from the empty tomb to give the disciples the good news that she had seen the Lord and to deliver his message that he is going up to his Father and their Father, to his God and their God. The Apostle John tells us that it was the evening of the first day of the week while the disciples were behind closed doors fearful that the Jewish authorities might be out there looking for them when Jesus suddenly appeared to them. Jesus stood among them and said, Peace be with you. After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Jesus’ opening line of “peace be with you” is no simple greeting. He has promised the disciples peace and is himself at peace and is peace. He did what he needed to do to get them to this point and it was now time to commission them. During his three-year ministry he had shown them what to do and, when they were ready, he had sent them out in pairs to try out what they had learned with varying degrees of success and failures. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy and Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you. Then he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they aren’t forgiven. Jesus, the “sent one” now becomes the sender empowering the disciples for their mission by giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had previously promised the coming of anther companion, and this is where he makes good on his promise. The imagery of breathing into them the Spirit recalls the imagery of God breathing life into humans in Genesis which, I am sure, was not lost on the disciples. As the Father once brought humanity to life, now Christ has brought his church to life, by giving the disciples their Spirit-powered and Spirit-guided mission: to preach the Good News about Jesus Christ so that peoples’ sins might be forgiven.
John tells us that when this happened Thomas was not present and that when he returned, they told him about seeing the Lord and what Jesus had said. Thomas replied, Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds left by the nails, and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe. We don’t know if Thomas was just aggravated at missing Jesus or if he thought the others were playing a joke on him, but his response does seem to indicate a level of frustration as to why the Savior came when he wasn’t there. So, he stews on this for a week and John tells us that eight days later Jesus reappears when Thomas was now present. Jesus again greets them saying: Peace be with you, and then turns to Thomas and says: Put your finger here. Look at my hands. Put your hand into my side. No more disbelief. Believe! Astonished, Thomas exclaimed: My Lord and my God! Jesus replied, Do you believe because you see me? Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe. Ouch! Jesus is not berating Thomas for doubting. Thomas has been a faithful disciple and Jesus knows it. Thomas represents those believers who sometimes need a little more proof. They have questions which are okay. Questions lead to answers, and if the answers are accepted, then the doubt has done good work. If my rookies didn’t ask me questions, they wouldn’t learn or, worse yet, they’d continue making mistakes compounding the problem and hurting the innocent, those who depended upon us to protect and serve.
Like Thomas, some people think they would believe in Jesus if they could see a definite sign or miracle. But Jesus says we are blessed if we can believe without seeing. The apostles’ witness to the resurrected Christ is the ground for the faith of all subsequent believers. Jesus looks to future disciples, people like you and me, to confer a blessing upon those who believe without the benefit of seeing. We have all the proof we need in the words of the Bible, the testimony of other believers, and the miraculous acts we’ve witnessed that only God could do through the faithful service of committed followers of Jesus Christ. A physical appearance, although it would be nice, won’t make Jesus any more real to us than he is now.
Fundamentally, Jesus was speaking of the responsibility of the church to declare the gospel to all the world, so that those who believe in Jesus can find the precious gift of forgiveness as we have found. And, to do God’s work, we need the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit and must avoid trying to do his work in our own strength. So, whatever God has asked you to do, remember, that your authority comes from God, and Jesus has demonstrated by words and actions how to accomplish the job he has given you. And should you find yourself at an impasse and have doubts, remember you have the Holy Spirit to ask questions of and seek answers so that you may move forward. As the Father sent Jesus, Jesus sends his followers, and he sends you too, to protect the weak and to serve God.
Let us pray.
God sent his Son, they called him Jesus; he came to love, heal, and forgive. He lived and died to buy my pardon; an empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives. Yes, how grateful we are as a people that God thought so much of us that he sent his Son to live among us, take our sins upon himself, and show us how to live in peace with all people. And how blessed we are to have received the gift of the Holy Spirit to counsel and guide us as we work every day to do the work and the will of God the Father. It’s because he lives that we can face tomorrow, and it’s because he lives that all fear is gone. And it’s because we know he holds the future that our life is worth the living just because he lives. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
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