“As the Father has Sent Me”

Meditation on John 20:19-31

April 12, 2015

      “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

      But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

      A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

      Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

***

    In a couple of days, I will be on my way to Florida to visit my parents.  We only see each other about once a year, but we talk on the phone about once a week. Still, there’s nothing like being with the people you love-- watching their facial expressions, listening as they talk, sharing meals, taking walks or drives, and giving them a hug.

      Being one of Christ’s disciples, one of those whom the Lord has sent out in His name, means that my home is where God leads me to be, doing the work the Lord has called me to do. Unlike most of my congregation in the Renville area, I don’t live in my “hometown.” But I don’t feel afraid. My faith in Jesus Christ gives me the security of knowing that wherever I am, as long as I am walking with the Lord, relying on the Spirit to guide me, I am always “home!”

***

     On the night after they found an empty tomb where Christ had been laid, the disciples are feeling anything but comfort and security in the home in which they are staying. Terrified of the mob that a few days before had cried out to Pilate to release the bandit Barabbas and crucify Jesus, they hide behind locked doors. They don’t have a plan. They don’t know what to do or what will happen next.  They never expected Jesus to die, though he had warned them. “Where I am going, you cannot come,” he says in John 14. “But I am going to prepare a place for you. And I will come again, and take you to myself so that where I, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” And Thomas answers, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going! How can we know the way?”

    Jesus tries to explain and comfort them. “I will not leave you orphaned,” he says. “In a little while, the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.” He promises that he will send the Holy Spirit to be their teacher and remind them of all that he had said to them. “Peace I leave with you,” he says in John 14:27. “My peace I give to you.”

     The disciples should have been prepared, then, for Jesus’ sudden appearance in their midst on this night of fear, as they tremble behind locked doors. But whether it is their anxiety or Christ’s changed appearance in His resurrected body, the disciples don’t recognize him, at first, not until Jesus shows them “his hands and his side.” And what do they see? The wounds from when they nailed him to the cross--and when the Roman soldier pierced Jesus in the side with his spear to make sure that he was dead before removing him from the cross.

     The disciples rejoice that Jesus has returned to them! The one whom they saw tortured and crucified has now miraculously come back from the dead. He reassures them with his comforting words and presence. Then, he commissions them to continue His reconciling and healing work, forgiving people of their sins and leading lost souls back “home” to God. Breathing His Spirit on them, he says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”   

***

    I came across a song this week that may very well be “new” to you. Canadian schoolteacher Edith “Margaret” Clarkson wrote the song in 1938; it was published in 1954. Margaret, born in 1915, became a teacher in 1935 and because teaching jobs were scarce, she was sent to work for 7 years 1400 miles from her home, first in a gold mining camp in northwestern Ontario and then a lumber camp 450 miles north of Toronto. She had wanted to be a missionary on a foreign mission field, but her health had prevented it. She had suffered from migraine headaches and arthritis since she was a small child. She writes, “In those 7 years, I experienced loneliness of every kind; mental, cultural, but particularly spiritual, for in all those seven years I never found real Christian fellowship.”  She was 23 years old, and studying the Bible one night, meditating on the loneliness of her situation, when she came to John 20:21 and read in her translation, "Peace be unto you; as the Father hath sent me, so send I you.” God seemed to be telling her that where she was was her mission field. “This,” she writes, “was where God had sent me.” [1]

     She wrote 2 versions of this beautiful song. The first one tells of the emotional suffering and rejection we endure to be obedient to Christ’s call on our lives, giving up our own ambitions to serve the Lord--to reach out to the lost and seek to bring Christ’s healing, reconciling love to all the dark places of the world.

     My hope for all of you is that you will come to realize, through this message and this song, that all of us are His disciples, not just ordained ministers or teachers. Jesus is speaking to every Christian, the entire Church, when he says, “As the Father hath sent me, so send I you.” And though we may suffer and make sacrifices as we seek to obey the Lord, God will reward us with joy in our grief and peace in our pain. Here is the first version of Margaret’s song:

So send I you to labor unrewarded,
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing-
So send I you to toil for Me alone.

So send I you to bind the bruised and broken,
O’er wand’ring souls to work, to weep, to wake,
To bear the burdens of a world aweary-
So send I you to suffer for My sake.

So send I you to loneliness and longing,
With heart ahung’ring for the loved and known,
Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one-
So send I you to know My love alone.

So send I you to leave your life’s ambition,
To die to dear desire, self-will resign,
To labor long, and love where men revile you-
So send I you to lose your life in Mine.

So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred,
To eyes made blind because they will not see,
To spend, tho’ it be blood, to spend and spare not-
So send I you to taste of Calvary.

Margaret wrote the second version of the song much later, after she had seen the faithfulness of God and experienced a deepening understanding of God’s grace and power in her weakness. The Lord strengthened her to labor for Him, despite her pain and suffering, on her “mission field,” day by day, year after year.

Here is the second version:

“So send I you-by grace made strong to triumph
O’er hosts of hell, o’er darkness, death, and sin,
My name to bear, and in that name to conquer-
So send I you, my victory to win.
So send I you-to take to souls in bondage
The word of truth that sets the captive free,
To break the bonds of sin, to loose death’s fetters-
So send I you, to bring the lost to me.
So send I you-my strength to know in weakness,
My joy in grief, my perfect peace in pain,
To prove My power, My grace, My promised presence-
So send I you, eternal fruit to gain.
So send I you-to bear My cross with patience,
And then one day with joy to lay it down,
To hear My voice, “well done, My faithful servant-
Come, share My throne, My kingdom, and My crown!”
“As the Father hath sent Me, so send I you.”

Let us pray.

Faithful God, thank you for sending Jesus to show us the way back to you. Thank you for loving and forgiving us, while we were lost in sin and darkness, trembling in fear like the disciples who had discovered Christ’s empty tomb but did not yet understand. Thank you for your willingness to suffer for our sakes and for raising Jesus from the dead to be with you in glory. We praise and thank you for the promise of our resurrected bodies and everlasting life in your name. Forgive us, Lord, for our doubts, for behaving sometimes like Thomas. Strengthen us, Lord, to be courageous and serve you wherever we are, no matter our circumstances, despite any physical or emotional pain. Lead us all to work for you right here, in this place, as if you have sent us to a “foreign mission field.” Help us to bring others to repentance, to bring others nearer to you, and to receive your healing, reconciling love. May your Spirit transform us from doubting, fearful creatures to become your faithful disciples, hungering for your Word, praying without ceasing, and walking in Christ’s loving ways. In His name we pray. Amen.  

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[1] https://godwordistruth.wordpress.com/2008/11/04/so-send-i-you-missionary-hymn-of-the-twentieth-century/