The Breath of the Holy Spirit
.
John 20:19-22, 30-31
19. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." 20. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." 22. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. . .” 30. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31. but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
For some reason, I have not read John’s telling of this appearance of Christ to his disciples after his resurrection. I especially don’t remember ever reading “he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” As I read those words, I instantly thought of God creating the earth. What power there must have been in that exhaling of Jesus! I wouldn’t be surprised if a shiver ran up the spine of each recipient. In fact I’m getting goose bumps just writing about it and thinking about it! “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Wow!
These men and women had the honor and privilege of walking with The Christ. And then they literally received the Holy Spirit from Him. Not in His presence – from Him. Of course, by the time Christ appeared to them, they were certainly at the depths of despair. The devastating events of the previous days were surely more than they could comprehend. They needed the Holy Spirit. They needed a new start. They needed to inhale the sweetness of God’s love in order to come out from behind those locked doors and go out into the world.
In Luke 22:43-44 we read about Jesus at the Mount of Olives (some gospels say Gethsemane) awaiting his arrest, “An angel from heaven appeared to him [Christ] and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” This is the kind of encouragement and strengthening the disciples needed! And Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into their midst. And we have that kind of encouragement as well. Not only do we have the incredible gift of God’s mercy and love, and the unspeakable prize of grace, we also have a helper, encourager, comforter, sustainer to help us on our walk.
Still . . . to have inhaled the breath of Christ . . . The closest we are able to come to that experience now is to experience the smell of freshly mowed grass, and catch a scent of honeysuckle, to see a sunrise and to sit ocean side and taste the saltiness of the air. And to touch the cheek of a newborn baby, to look into the eyes of a loved one and see your perfect self reflected back. The Holy Spirit is alive and well and living within each of us! We only need to remind ourselves of that truth. That’s how we make it through the struggles and challenges in our lives. We reach deep down and pull up that part of us that is from God – our soul, some would say.
God breathed the world into existence. Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into existence. The Holy Spirit sustains us when we are at our weakest, at our darkest, at our most discouraged and breathes into us the breath of God. We are each God’s creations and He cares enough about us to send us The Spirit to intercede for us when we cannot even tell God what our need is.
My prayer today is that you breathe in the wonders of the world God imagined and created just for you. And that you breathe out for others the breath of the Holy Spirit.
Mary
