~ J. Thomas Johnson ~
Reflecting on John 20:19-31
In the beginning God fashioned humanity out of aphar—out of dust. There was nothing special about the material. Today we might say, protons, electrons, and neutrons. It was common, unsubstantial stuff. But God breathed on it. God shared his life with the dust, and a nephesh—a living being—was born.
And God spoke to Adam. God gave him tasks to accomplish. God had planted a garden, and God instructed him in how to tend it. And then God entrusted him with the authority necessary to carry out His word. This was creation. And, for a while, humanity walked in the direction God had sent us.
But, we know the rest of the story from there. Humanity turned from life and embraced what we were before God had breathed on us. We clung to the flesh—to the aphar—and our spirits became divided, soiled, unclean. And out of that heart came founts of violence, indulgences, envies, and destructiveness. Rather than tending the garden, our ancestors consumed it. Rather than bringing forth life, they brought forth death. And in the days of Noah, God gave them the fullness of the world they had chosen. Only Noah and his family survived the destruction that ensued.
Noah survived because he walked with God, and God protected him. And again, God breathed out a covenant. Again God gave humanity responsibilities. And again humans were set on a path out of darkness and into the light.
But, Noah and his children did not continue in God’s way. By the days of Abraham, none walked with God. So, God called to a man who did not know Him, and God breathed on him a covenant. Several times God breathed on Abraham, and with each new breath God gave him additional responsibilities in the world. Abraham walked with God, and then Isaac, and then Jacob, and then the children of Israel. In each generation God breathed His covenant, and in each generation some walked with God.
Then God breathed on Moses, and God gave him the responsibilities of speaking—breathing—on Pharaoh, and of delivering God’s people from Egypt, of breathing out the Torah that God had breathed into him, and of leading God’s people through the wilderness.
After him, God breathed a covenant on Joshua, and then on the judges of Israel, and then on Samuel, and then on Saul, and then on David, on whom God’s covenant, God’s breath, God’s spirit came to rest. David, too, walked with God, and God breathed on his descendants.
God continued, after David, to breathe on prophets, who breathed out on God’s people what God had breathed into them. And then God rested, and God waited. The breath of God’s mouth drove the people of Israel into exile because, like in the days of Noah, and as in the days of Babel, they had turned against God’s word, God’s breath, and they had fought to return to dust.
In due time, God breathed on their captors and gave them the responsibility of returning the people of Israel to the land of David, but God did not breath again on His people. God sent a few, last prophets before He fell silent, and then, God’s people waited. But, they grew impatient, and in their impatience they poured over what God had breathed on their ancestors. They were greedy for the breathing of God, and they worshipped the breath of their ancestors. Yet, still, God did not speak.
But then, God breathed again. God spoke to John the Baptist, and John breathed out what God breathed in. He called the people of God to turn and walk with God as Adam had, as Eve had, as Enoch had, as Noah had, as Abraham had, as Samuel had, and as David had. Some were deaf to God’s word. Some heard but did not understand. And some heard and breathed in what God had breathed out. They followed John.
But God had given John the responsibility to speak but not to lead or to guide. That responsibility God reserved for Himself. As God Himself had walked with Adam and with Eve, God determined to walk with humanity again. And again God would breathe on the dust, and again God would entrust His people, His children, with responsibilities in His world.
John baptized God as He journeyed among us in the flesh of Jesus. God walked amongst His people, and God breathed on them. God fought their ignorance and violence with the breath of His mouth. God again made a covenant with them and spoke to them of what it means to tend the garden—the kingdom of God. He taught them how to walk with God.
The Father entrusted twelve with His breath, His words, and two failed to receive them. The first embraced the darkness before God would breathe on him again. The second failed to remain with his brothers. But ten had received the word that God had spoken, and they stayed together, despite their fear and doubt.
So, God breathed on them again. God made a covenant with them. They were to remain in Jesus, keep His word, and, on this night, God entrusted His breath to them. And with that breath came reconciliation with God (forgiveness) and condemnation. They were sent into God’s garden to breathe on the dry bones of God’s people what God had breathed into them. And God has entrusted the forgiveness or condemnation of their brothers and sisters to the word God gave them to speak.
They have breathed out, what God has breathed in. At Pentecost God entrusted their breath to the church, but God would make no new covenant with humanity other than that He made with them. Their word is the final breath of God, and the fate of all who have followed after them is to be determined by response to their testimony.
Do not come to God, people of the earth, without them. God’s word is their word, and their word is God’s word. God entrusted Thomas and later Matthias and later Paul with the bearing of this same word, as well, but these ten were given this unique responsibility, and with them it remains.
Each of us has received this breathing through them. God’s testimony comes to us through theirs. These books are written that just as we share our life with our children, the life God breathed on them might be shared with us.
Now God is breathing again. God is bringing judgment on the darkness. The judgment God brings is light. All that has been hidden is being revealed. For those who will receive God’s breath, the light will be a refiner’s fire. For those who cling to the flesh and to the dark, God’s light will prove terrifying and destructive to the fabrication they have built.
God is tearing down the idols—in churches, in culture, and now in homes. Purify your homes, people of God. Remove all leaven. Tear down all idols. Make yourselves no more graven images. Dwell on the light and no longer on the darkness.
For those who hide their idols in their homes as Rachel hid her idols beneath her saddle and as Achan buried his idols beneath his tent, the light will bring only despair. For those who bring their idols outside their homes and cast them to the rubbish heap, the light will be their joy, and they will rejoice at its coming.
But, God’s people have said, “We have no idols. We have only the worship of the Lord our God.” But, we have deceived ourselves. Everywhere God looks He sees His people worshipping the works of their own hands. God sees flags and statues, crucifixes and cathedrals, achievements and children worshipped and praised and celebrated while God’s word goes unheeded and God’s people perish for lack of knowledge of Him.
We must receive what God has breathed into these men, and we must breathe out what we receive upon our children and our neighbors and our nation. Why will we remain in darkness? Will those who have pursued life and salvation in Jesus grab hold only of ash and dust? Will those who God has called and convicted and spoken with listen only to the works of their own hands and the products of their own bodies?
Our God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There is no other. We must open our eyes and see the darkness within us. God is breathing on us now, why will we not receive? We must deny ourselves, despise all but God’s breath and we will live. But, if we cling to the darkness and the lies of the nations of the earth, we will not withstand His coming.
We must purge our houses of leaven by tearing down the idols we have made. Let the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Who became flesh in the Person of Jesus be the Lord of your household and worship no longer the work of your hands or the generation of your bodies. For the Day of the Lord is at hand. And the Morning Star is rising with healing in His wings.
Now is the hour of salvation! To those who cling to the flesh, light is dawning, and who can endure its rising? But, to those who will forsake their idols and worship the Lord our God only, the hour of our healing is drawing near.