What’s on your breath?
by Pastor Reid Matthias
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Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you’. After saying this, he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ (John 20:21,22).
You can tell a lot about a person by how their breath smells, can’t you? What they’ve eaten, whether they’ve cleaned their teeth. Are they coffee drinkers, or have they recently consumed Doritos? To get a sense of what’s on their breath, you have to get close. Really, uncomfortably close.
After Jesus rose from the dead, the disciples huddled in a room wondering about the resurrection sighting of their Lord. They were afraid of the Jews, and perhaps even afraid that Jesus would return only as a ghost. The disciples felt surprised when Jesus made an appearance in their midst.
First, Jesus calmed them down – ‘Peace be with you’. Then he proved his resurrected reality: the physical, holes in his hands and feet, and the reality of being alive, breath. Only living things breathe.
But what does his ‘breath’ smell like? What is the aroma of his words?
Peace.
Sending.
Forgiveness.
The first words of the risen Saviour are of freedom from fear. Go on your way, faithful ones. Share the good news that no-one has to be afraid ever again. Death no longer has the final say. I’m sending you into a world gripped by the virus of fear, which replicates so easily in the cultured medium of a death-denying society. I’m sending you into this infected society to vaccinate it through forgiveness. Eradicating this fear will be a long, drawn-out process, and some will resist it, but true life comes from it.
Just as Jesus gave the disciples peace and purpose through his words, so he gives you peace and purpose.
What does your breath smell like?
Holy Spirit, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be a reflection of your peace and forgiveness in my life. Amen.
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