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In Hope

Anger And Confusion Or New Life

Tuesday April 2, 2013

Audio for ANGER AND CONFUSION OR NEW LIFE

Do we believe that Jesus can take our most broken and disappointing moments and transform them into great possibilities? 

Jesus’ friends had all abandoned him just before He died.  After his death they huddled together in a locked room wondering what to do next.  They were sure that troubles more than they could handle were what awaited them outside that room.  They didn’t know how to go forward because the one who had previously given their lives meaning was dead – or so they thought.  They didn’t know if the authorities were going to come after them as well and kill them as they had killed Jesus.  They didn’t know how to think or react to the shocking events of these days.  Their hope, the one in whom they had dreamed a new dream, was dead.  Grief, loss, pain, shock, fear, worry, disorientation, maybe even despair.  Who knows what all was going on in their minds?  However it was labeled, it was all too much.

While they sat in that room, surprisingly, Jesus appeared to them.  19 That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (John 20:19-23 NLT)


No matter how fearful and troubled we are, when Jesus comes, To our confusion and fear He brings peace and joy.  To confront our doubts and worries He brings solutions and hope and power and a new way of living.  Jesus fills us with His Holy Spirit who guides us in our everyday life.  He gives us a new life of relationship with God and with each other with power to forgive and receive forgiveness.

Why peace and forgiveness on this first visit after his resurrection?  Peace, because these days had been so confusing and traumatizing.  Forgiveness, because when shock wears off and we look around, our first response to injustice so often is anger and resentment.  Jesus was unjustly crucified.  The lives of the disciples had been unfairly impacted because of the awful choices of others around them.  If they were going to go forward and carry the good news of Jesus, then forgiveness had to be the first layer upon which everything else was built.  After all, that’s what brought Jesus to earth to die.  That’s the message we too need to proclaim with our choices as well as our words.  The resurrected Jesus gives us peace and forgiveness to share with others.  
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