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I Am Sending You

by Tom Hawkes

“Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’ And 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 withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld’” (John 20:21-23).

Jesus, on his first visit with the apostles on the day of his resurrection, gives them their marching orders and empowers them to fulfill his commission. 

He sends them, just as the Father had sent him. Matthew records this Great Commission in more detail, but we have the heart of it here. They are sent to proclaim Christ, to proclaim forgiveness of sin in the name of Christ. 

The proclamation of the Gospel, the good news, of Jesus Christ is their mission and it is also their method. Jesus describes their mission as forgiving or withholding forgiveness for sin. Not that a mere man could forgive sins, it is God who ultimately must forgive. But they were to announce the forgiveness of sins only though faith in Christ. Then, those who accept Christ are truly forgiven. Then, those who reject Christ, are truly unforgiven. 

John Calvin explains. “While Christ enjoins the Apostles to forgive sins, he does not convey to them what is peculiar to himself. It belongs to him to forgive sins. This honor, so far as it belongs peculiarly to himself, he does not surrender to the Apostles, but enjoins them, in his name, to proclaim the forgiveness of sins, that through their agency he may reconcile men to God.”

The Apostles, and we today, are given this authority: to proclaim in Christ the forgiveness of sin.

This is truly a great commission that we receive! Every believer, in general, and the ordained officers of the church in particular, carry the good news of Christ in their hearts and on their lips. With this single word of Christ anyone may receive from us--poor vessels of clay that we may be--the news of the forgiveness of their sins. 

To fulfill the mission, Christ also empowered them and us with the Holy Spirit. He, the Spirit, enlivens our communication of Christ, opens the ears of the hearer, and converts their hearts, so that they will believe. 

As we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, let us hear again the message of Christ to us on Easter, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” Sent by Jesus himself, let us go! And let us tell the good news of Easter: Christ is risen, he is risen indeed!