Sent: The Gift and The Mission

In the apostle John’s telling, after Jesus’s resurrection, he appears to his disciples and says, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” He then tells them that they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, as well as the ability to forgive sins. (John 20:19-23)

Of all these remarkable statements, consider the implications of the one in italics: Jesus is sending his disciples — and by extension, us — to be his agents, to do in the world what God sent him to do in the world.

That’s breathtaking! Think of all that Jesus did: he proclaimed good news, especially to the poor. He freed captives, he gave sight to the blind, he declared and demonstrated that the Kingdom of God had broken into the kingdom of this world. He spoke and acted against oppressive political and economic power structures. He taught. He fed. He invited children into his presence. He healed diseases. He showed regard for an adulteress, a Pharisee, a Roman centurion, a Samaritan woman. He prayed. He brought peace to the storm-chaos in Creation. He forgave sins. He gave of himself, served, suffered, took up his cross, and died for the forgiveness of sins. He rose from the dead. And many, many other things besides.

In his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus was on a rescue mission to the world that he loved and that had been created through him. He was the culmination of the great rescue plan that God had initiated after the wreckage of Genesis chapters 3 through 11, when in chapter 12 he chose a man named Abram and told him that through him the world would be blessed. Jesus was the culmination of that plan, but not its end, because he invites us to follow him, and sends us into the world to continue his rescue mission after he ascends to the Father.

With Jesus gone, it seems like an impossibly herculean task, futile even. Except that, in the same passage above where he sends the disciples, he promises them the Holy Spirit. 

So now, as the Father sent him, Jesus sends us, in the power of the Holy Spirit . . . to proclaim and live good news of justice for and solidarity with the poor. To do works of physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. To do works of caring for Creation. To love all people, whether or not they look like us or are of our tribe or share our political convictions. To encourage others. To share and live the good news of the Kingdom. To care for children and prepare food. To stand against the powers that oppress others or enslave them economically. To teach. To make music. To paint walls and canvases. To clean floors and make beds. To give ourselves in service, suffering, and sacrifice. And yes, even to carry out that ministry of forgiving sins. And many, many other things besides.

In his Resurrection, Jesus brought the life of the new creation, where death has been defeated, directly into the midst of the old. He commissions us and sends us to continue to live that new-creation, Kingdom life in the midst of the old; and at Pentecost, he equips us for that mission.

But Jesus doesn’t send us out to be Lone Rangers, just me and the Holy Spirit doing our thing. He calls and sends us in community; and that will need another post to consider more fully.