Forgiveness
John Chapters 20 – 21
Three times in today’s reading Jesus speaks the phrase, “Peace be with you!” Each time it is when he is appearing to his disciples after his resurrection.
Much of today’s reading is familiar to us from Easters past: the discovery of the empty tomb, Jesus reassuring Thomas in the face of his doubts, and Jesus reassuring Peter in the face of his betrayal—even Jesus welcoming the disciples ashore in a strikingly intimate campfire breakfast.
Each of these in its own way brings peace—not the passive peace of absence of conflict, but the active peace of conflict resolved.
The other theme that flows through today’s reading is forgiveness.
In 20:23, right after Jesus has given his disciples the Holy Spirit, we read, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Over the centuries we have made that simple teaching unnecessarily complicated. Both on the surface and at its heart it simply instructs us to forgive. Period.
It gives us the opportunity to bring the peace to others that God has brought to us…and why would a son or daughter of God ever want to do anything else?