Receiving Peace
Christopher B. Harbin
John 20:19-31
We live in a world of tumult and conflict. Our media will not air a story that does not contain some sort of conflict. We don't know how to tell stories that don't depict some form of conflict. While studying literature in high school, we talked about man against man, man against nature, and man against self as the three essential categories of literature. Our stories depend on conflict of some kind or another. Without conflict, there is nothing to tell. When conflict is essential even to telling stories, it bears an important role in our lives. If conflict is that central, we might ask what good is peace, anyway?
In today's passage, Jesus positions peace as the counterpoint of fear. We might say peace grants assurance in the presence of fear, doubt, and uncertainty. There definitely was conflict raging around these disciples gathered behind closed doors out of fear. It was not the conflict around them, however, that Jesus addressed. He called no attention to what was going on outside that room in Jerusalem and beyond. Jesus simply directed their attention forward to the mission before them. Jesus may not have mentioned their fear, but the gospel writer gives us evidence of it, repeating the same circumstances on the following week.
They were closed in to shut out the world around them. They closed themselves off from the conflict they perceived on every side. Their fear kept them hidden away, rather than openly walking the public venues they had traveled beside Jesus. Peace is what they needed to overcome their fear. They needed peace to build the necessary confidence to simply trust God to lead them outside the closed doors of the houses where they hid away from the public eye.
I can't really blame them. They had just experienced what was the largest trauma of their lives as witnesses to Jesus' arrest, questioning, trial, brutalization, and de ...
Christopher B. Harbin
John 20:19-31
We live in a world of tumult and conflict. Our media will not air a story that does not contain some sort of conflict. We don't know how to tell stories that don't depict some form of conflict. While studying literature in high school, we talked about man against man, man against nature, and man against self as the three essential categories of literature. Our stories depend on conflict of some kind or another. Without conflict, there is nothing to tell. When conflict is essential even to telling stories, it bears an important role in our lives. If conflict is that central, we might ask what good is peace, anyway?
In today's passage, Jesus positions peace as the counterpoint of fear. We might say peace grants assurance in the presence of fear, doubt, and uncertainty. There definitely was conflict raging around these disciples gathered behind closed doors out of fear. It was not the conflict around them, however, that Jesus addressed. He called no attention to what was going on outside that room in Jerusalem and beyond. Jesus simply directed their attention forward to the mission before them. Jesus may not have mentioned their fear, but the gospel writer gives us evidence of it, repeating the same circumstances on the following week.
They were closed in to shut out the world around them. They closed themselves off from the conflict they perceived on every side. Their fear kept them hidden away, rather than openly walking the public venues they had traveled beside Jesus. Peace is what they needed to overcome their fear. They needed peace to build the necessary confidence to simply trust God to lead them outside the closed doors of the houses where they hid away from the public eye.
I can't really blame them. They had just experienced what was the largest trauma of their lives as witnesses to Jesus' arrest, questioning, trial, brutalization, and de ...
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