Resurrection Breath (John 20:19-31)

We all know the importance of good dental hygiene. We need to regularly brush our teeth and floss for a few reasons. We want to look after our teeth so we don’t get tooth decay and require fillings or other dental work. However, regularly brushing our teeth also has a more immediate benefit, not just for ourselves but for others: it helps our breath to smell fresh. Can you imagine what your breath would smell like if you didn’t brush your teeth in the morning? What might it smell like if we failed to brush the previous night as well? Can you imagine what our breath might smell like if we didn’t brush our teeth for three days?

There is a lot going on in the gospel reading from John 20:19-31. For example, Jesus appears to his disciples behind locked doors, so we can wonder how he did that and why that was significant. Thomas’s struggle to believe what the other disciples told him about Jesus appearing to them raises questions about the relationship between faith and doubt. John gives the reason he wrote his gospel, saying that he has recorded these stories so that the readers of his gospel might believe in Jesus and find life in his name (v31). There is enough material in this reading for at least four or five different sermons!

One detail in the story I find fascinating every time I read it is the way John reports that Jesus breathed on his disciples when he had appeared to them (v22).

Why would Jesus do that? How would you react if someone came up to you and breathed on you? Jesus breathing on his disciples after being raised from the dead might seem to be an odd detail to include. It can also make us wonder, what did Jesus’ breath smell like? We have thought about what our breath can smell like after missing one or two brushings, but this story occurs on the third day after Jesus’ crucifixion and death. Did his breath smell bad after three days in the tomb? Or does resurrection breath smell good, maybe even sweeter or more minty than our breath just after we have brushed them thoroughly?

A few weeks ago we reflected on the story of the Valley of Dry Bones from Ezekiel 37:1-14. We looked at the words used by the writers of the Old and New Testaments which mean breath, wind and spirit. From a biblical perspective, there is a close relationship between people’s breath and their spirit. As we read the Bible, from the start of Creation to Pentecost and throughout the New Testament, the words for ‘breath’ and ‘spirit’ are used interchangeably.

When Jesus said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ as he breathed on them, that’s exactly what he was doing. The breath of the risen Christ is his gift of the Holy Spirit to his followers. What is significant with this part of the story is the close connection John makes between Jesus’ gifts of the Holy Spirit, forgiveness, and resurrection life to his disciples.

In this reading, the Apostle John points us to a gift of the Spirit that can sometimes be overlooked: the giving and receiving of forgiveness. Sometimes we can struggle to trust that the forgiveness Jesus won on the cross is actually for us. We can wrestle with our sense of guilt, possibly feeling unworthy of any forgiveness that is offered to us. In the same way, we can find forgiving others difficult, especially when they have hurt us, wronged us or someone we care about, or damaged our relationships. A lack of forgiveness can sometimes leave a bad smell in our lives as we struggle with guilt, shame or regrets in ourselves, or we find it hard to let go of resentment, anger or bitterness in our relationships with others. In both the receiving and giving of forgiveness, we need divine help. That is when this story from John 20:19-23 can be such good news for us as it assures us that Jesus comes to us to breathe his forgiveness into us through the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit working through the living word of God. When we received Jesus’ Spirit-breathed words of forgiveness, it cleans us of our sin and makes our lives smell fresher than any toothpaste or mouthwash!

When Jesus breathes his forgiveness into us, he also fills us with his resurrected life. Forgiveness doesn’t just remove the bad smell of the past. It makes us clean and fill us with new life in the risen Christ by the power of his Holy Spirit. One way we can think of it is that Jesus is performing divine resuscitation on our lives as he breathes his Spirit into us through the gospel, filling us with his life which begins here and now and continues for eternity. Forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus are inseparable because they are both essential elements of Christ’s saving work. When Martin Luther wrote his Small Catechism, he stated that ‘where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation’ (Explanation to the Sacrament of the Altar). In this simple act of breathing on his disciples and in giving them his Holy Spirit, Jesus passes on his victory over death to them as he makes them clean from the bad smell of sin, gives them a fresh new life to live as his disciples, and authorizes them to forgive others and pass his eternal life on to everyone who needs it.

We can wonder what Jesus’ breath smelt like to his disciples as he exhaled over them. To these people who had abandoned him, denied him, betrayed him and then hidden in fear, maybe this breath of forgiveness and life was the sweetest fragrance they had ever smelled. As we hear this story of Jesus breathing on his disciples today, Jesus also gives the gifts of forgiveness and eternal life to us by the power of his Spirit-filled breath. Whatever we might have done in the past, no matter what regrets or guilt we might be carrying, Jesus breathes his Holy Spirit into us to forgive us and to fill us with his resurrection life. He then authorizes each of us to share this gift with others as we breath the Spirit-filled good news of forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus into the lives of others.

More to think about or discuss:

• How important is it to you that your breath smells good each day? What difference does it make to your day? To the day of other people that you talk with?
• How do you think you might have reacted if you were one of the disciples Jesus breathed on that day? What would you have thought when Jesus authorized you to forgive others by breathing his Holy Spirit into you?
• Our words can either breath life into people or suck life from them. How might you be able to breath Spirit-inspired words of forgiveness and life into others this week?