John 20:19-20, Jesus Appears to the Disciples

19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

If there is one word that cannot be taken out of Easter, it is “joy”. To say “the disciples were glad when they saw” Jesus is clear understatement! They were overjoyed. Somehow Jesus has just miraculously passed through the walls or the locked door of the room they hid in for fear their lives would be taken as Jesus’ was. He arrives in the most dramatic fashion and declares in Hebrew, “Shalom.”  Shalom cannot simply be translated into English as “peace be with you” but has a much deeper and profound meaning. Shalom is the full blessing of being in the kingdom of God. Shalom is life at its best, and now that Jesus is alive and has returned to this band of brothers, life is at its best. Jesus has just confirmed that God’s kingdom is ruling the world in which they live.

To reassure further his disciples, he shows them his hands and his side, the very marks of his crucifixion lest they think they are seeing some kind of ghost. It is remarkable that these marks will always be with Jesus, identifying him as the Lamb who was slain in Revelation 5:6. How appropriate in the violent generation in which we live, where innocents are viciously slain, that Jesus identifies with them through the marks of his violent death. You too will one day see those very marks and know the price God paid.

May the shalom of Jesus, which passes all human understanding, guard your hearts and your minds. Amen.