The Unexpected
19 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." 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." (John 20:19-23)
He wasn't supposed to be born to an unmarried girl. He wasn't supposed to hold court with the synagogue leaders as a youth. He wasn't supposed to eat with sinners or touch and heal leapers. He wasn't supposed to actually die, and he definitely wasn't supposed to be resurrected. During Jesus' life he was continually defying expectations by doing what no one had done before, and Jesus continued to defy expectations after his resurrection.
Afraid to even go home, the anxious disciples were hiding together behind locked doors when Jesus suddenly showed up in the room with them. Even if they had believed the testimony of the women, whom Jesus told that he would meet them all in Galilee, they wouldn't have expected Jesus to break laws of nature to enter a locked room. But there he was - proving his identity by showing his wounds. To compound their surprise, Jesus was not angry - with them, nor with the Roman and Jewish leaders. Jesus came speaking peace and forgiveness in the
midst of their brokenness.
The purpose of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was to free us from the bonds of sin, forgiving us for breaking the Law which, on our own, we could never keep, and to give us peace through a right relationship with God. Jesus still enters our locked hearts speaking peace and forgiveness to broken people with broken faith in this broken world - and he calls us to do the same. To the glory of God!
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, 7 so that the genuineness of your faith--being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:3-9)
