Easter II John 20:19-31. “Peace Be With You”

“When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’”

Rational Thinking does not know the difference between being in our out of the Presence.

Spiritual Understanding knows the difference.

As we read this scripture with rational thinking (in our head), we look for the evidence of the resurrection. We go right on to the following words, “after he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.” This is the physical evidence we are looking for.

With Spiritual understanding, you have to be quick for this one or it will go right past your heart and up and over to your head. 

This is the Jesus way.  If it is not immediately spiritually understood, it may continue to be misunderstood. You have to stop for a moment to catch it. You cannot understand it rationally. You must catch it consciously. Grace is like quicksilver. You cannot rationally grab and hold it. It will fly out. You cannot treat it too cavalierly. It will spill out. Go back and reread what was passed over.

Jesus came and said, "Peace be with you." Now, use your spiritual understanding. What happens to you when Jesus gives you His, “Peace”? You sense His Presence and feel the Peace of God. He told them “in me you will find Peace. In the World you will have tribulation.” John 16:33 “In the World” means when we are out of the Presence and in Rational Thinking. The World does not know Jesus. John 1:10 The Apostles were in the World and were locked up tight in fear of the Jews. When Jesus came in, they experienced His Presence and the Peace of God. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. It was not the event of His physical presence that brought the Joy, it was the spiritual Peace of His Presence.

This can only make sense if we can experience the Presence of His inner Peace. In rational thinking, we depend on the event itself for our joy. When the event does not work out or last every long, we will have tribulation. This means we will feel peace when we think about things that go well and anxiety when they do not.

Spiritual Understanding does not depend on the event for our life. We depend consciously on the inner Peace, no matter what the event is. The Apostles found Peace and Joy in the Presence. However, outside, their enemies were still looking for them. When the Holy Spirit fell on them, they no longer had that fear. Nothing externally had changed. It was an internal Peace. At Pentecost, Peter and the rest of the Apostles went outside to preach the Gospel. The Jews were still there, looking to destroy them. In that same day over 3,000 responded.

Rational Thinking depends on the physical evidence for the resurrection two thousand years later.

Spiritual Understanding depends of the spiritual Presence of the resurrection right now.

The Way of Jesus is not to try to change the event, or the thinking. Jesus changes the internal atmosphere from fear into Peace. This is what the Resurrection is all about. There is the Physical resurrection of Easter. There is also the Spiritual Resurrection. It happens within us. We move from the worldly experience of depending on the event, to the Godly experience for our inner Peace. Every time we do this to experience this Presence is an Easter moment for us.