....But from the contemplation of ourselves we are called upon at this
season to look on Him Who is our life and peace. And from these statements
of doctrine by St. John in the Epistle, we turn, in the Gospel, to his own
account of first beholding his risen Lord after he had witnessed His
sufferings and death.
It was now late in the evening of
Easter Day; our Lord had early on that morning appeared to Mary Magdalene by
the grave; later in the day He had shown Himself to St. Peter; and when this
great and glorious day of days was now verging towards evening, He walked
with two disciples going to Emmaus, and there in the house made Himself
known to them in breaking of bread. These two immediately returned to
Jerusalem, which was about seven or eight miles from where they had seen
Him, and had just now entered the room where the other disciples had
assembled; they immediately heard from them of His having appeared to St.
Peter, after which, no sooner had they themselves mentioned at length all
His conversation with them by the way, and His making Himself known to them
in the house, than while they were yet speaking, He Himself again appears,
as St. John here describes.
The same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors
were shut, where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, came
Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. On His taking leave of them, He had
said, “Peace I leave
with
you; My peace I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let
it be afraid. I go away and come again.” [St. John xiv. 27] And now He
returns and finds them again in the evening, for the first time, together;
and pronounces and bestows His great blessing of peace—peace beyond all
understanding, the gift from above.
And when He had so said, He shewed unto them His hands and His side. O the gracious, the
heart-moving sight! as if to say, “You saw it all three days since, you saw
it all—the agony, the mockery, the wounds, and now you see it was for your
sakes. He that could overcome death could easily have refused such pains;
but I, Who bore it, suffered it all for your sakes. Here are the signs;
here passed the nails, as you saw; and here the spear.” Many, my
brethren, are the wonders of Christ’s Resurrection; mighty indeed the gifts
He then dispensed, the promises He made, the powers He declared, the
manifestations of His Risen Body for a period of forty days; but, after all,
nothing was so affecting as this—His bearing and showing His wounds! Other
things showed greatness, and power, and victory, but these love; love
unspeakable! the door of that heart open for us, and open to us; here,
by all that I have suffered, by that dreadful night, by that more terrible
day, by the remembrances of all, here in My wounded side you may find refuge
and shelter for evermore; a refuge from evil spirits; a refuge from the
world and all its cares, its allurements, and its enmities; a refuge from
your sin-laden, sorrowing, fearful selves.
And
already did this sight of redeeming love, and His gift of peace operate in
them, for St. Luke mentions that they were, at first beholding Him, greatly
terrified. Jewish enemies without, and, for a moment, alarm within. But
all troubles and fears, as St. John intimates, were at once dispelled.
Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Already were His
words fulfilled, “I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and
your joy no man taketh from you.”
But
as we have observed that the Epistle for to-day is full of high and heavenly
doctrine, so in like manner is the Gospel. It contains the account of those
mysterious gifts whereby Christ is to dwell in His Church unto the end. For
the appearance of our Lord on this occasion is not to mere witnesses of His
Resurrection, but, like the Last Supper, to Apostles, and the imparting of a
gift. It is by the power of His Resurrection, and as the first fruits of
it, in the presence of other disciples, to convey, as it were, and transfer
to them His own mission from the Father, of which He had so often spoken.
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you.
This iteration of the gift was the fulness and
confirmation of His own peace; that very form of benediction by which they
hereafter were in His Name to confer His peace, even in like manner as Aaron
and the priests of old were commissioned to bestow the blessing and peace of
God. “Peace be unto you,” as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I
you. Of which an ancient bishop beautifully says, “As my Father Who is
God sent Me Who am God, so I as Man send you who are men. As the Father
loved the Son, yet sent Him into the world to suffer, so have I loved you by
the same love, though I send you My disciples into the world to suffer.”
[St. Greg. Hom. in Evang. 26] And oh! the blessed
words
of this Divine appointment, whereby His own gracious mission of health and
peace is still continued in His ministers unto the end of the world; and our
merciful Saviour is still present in them, imparting His own mysterious
gifts!
And when, He had said this, He breathed on them. As He had of old breathed into Adam the breath of
life, so now, by the same creative breath, He breathes the new gift of life
into His Church. “When His breath goeth forth,” says the Psalmist, “He
shall renew the face of the earth.” [Ps. civ. 30] And how else can it
be renewed but by removing sin, that covering which is over all nations?
“He breathed on them,” and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins
ye retain, they are retained.
This
great gift of the forgiveness of sins, which He had purchased for us by His
death, and which was from henceforth to reside for ever in His Church, seems
connected throughout with the lesson from the altar on this day. Such is
that expression of St. John, “This is He that came by water and blood, and
the Spirit beareth witness.” And again, such is our Lord’s showing
them His side, from which that water and blood had flowed, and twice
bestowing on them His gift of peace. And then, thus having given them His
peace, He bequeaths to His Church this ministry of reconciliation; this
power of the Holy Ghost for rejecting and absolving sinners, which the
Church at her Ordination Service commits in the same solemn words to
everyone admitted by her into the order of the priesthood. These are the
gifts of which the Prophets speak so much; these are the living waters that
were to go forth from beneath the temple of Jerusalem to the four quarters
of the world. [Ezek. xlvii. 1-12] “On that day there shall be a fountain
opened to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” [Zech.
xiii. 1] These are the keys of hell and of death, [Rev. i. 13, 18]
committed to Him who appears in the dress of the High Priest on the great
Day of Atonement.
St.
John ever delights to speak at the same time of his Crucified and Risen
Lord. Thus in the Revelation he begins, “Peace from Him Who is the
first-begotten from the dead.” … “Unto Him be glory, Who hath loved us and
washed us from our sins in His own blood.” [Rev. i. 4, 5]
To
conclude, the Epistle and Gospel for this day are so full of Heaven, of high
truth, of deep mystery, that it would take long to unfold, a whole life to
contemplate. But what is of more importance than barren speculation or
study, let us ask in what is it all most realized to us in the present day
and unto the end of the world; surely it is at the Holy Eucharist. There do
the words of absolution fall like drops of dew on the dry heart of the
penitent; there is our faith nourished in the Son of God, so that we may
overcome the world; there is He that came by water and blood, inviting us by
that water and blood to be made in very deed one with Himself. There is the
Spirit of Truth, without which the flesh profiteth nothing. There are
the Three that bear witness on earth, by which we are raised into
unspeakable communion with the Three that bear record in heaven. There by
faith the penitent refreshed hath the witness in himself. There he hath the
Son, and he that hath the Son hath life. The sixth chapter of St. John’s
Gospel abundantly testifies to all this.
And
again, take the Gospel likewise as fulfilled to us in this feast of love; it
is here that the disciples are assembled on the first day of the week, and
have shut the doors of their heart against the world; here Jesus stands in
the midst of them gathered together in His Name. It is here by His
Ministers He proclaims peace and forgiveness of sins; it is here that He
shows unto them His hands and His side.
These
are not, my brethren, mere figures of speech, they are not images and
representations from what once took place on Easter Day, but they are all
solemn truths contained in the words of Christ; and we know that Heaven and
earth shall pass away, like shadows of a cloud over a summer field, but His
words shall not pass away.
