Posts Tagged: peace missions

“Of Locked Doors and Peace Missions”

On February 18, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

DTEB, “Of Locked Doors and Peace Missions”

“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20:21)

My “3-Minute Retreat” from Loyola Press today was a meditation on John 20:21.  This verse is embedded in an incident recorded in John’s Gospel.  Just after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples were still terrified.  They were huddled together in an upper room of a house, with the door locked because of fear.

I can identify with that.  You see, I have lots of locked doors behind which I hide.  Some are locked from the outside—or, at least, that is what I tell myself.  Other doors, I myself have locked.  Sometimes, I pretend that I can even lock God out of my life.  However, “pretend” is the operative word in the preceding sentence.

Or is “pretend” the operative word?  Maybe “God” is the operative word.

Yes, I think that’s it!

As the retreat master pointed out, in the verses just before John 20:21, we are told that the disciples were in the upper room with the door locked (vs. 19).  However, it would seem that the risen Jesus is not terribly impressed with locked doors.  He simply dematerialized on one side of the door, and rematerialized on the other.  Apparently, if this is the least desire for faith, Jesus will enter.  The desire, and the love and desperation that provoke that desire, are the only key that Jesus needs to enter our lives.

Vs. 20 tells of the joy of the disciples when Jesus showed them his hands and side.  I can hear them saying to themselves and to one another, “Yep!  That’s Jesus alright!”

What I need is a John 20:20 vision of a LORD who suffered for my sins and for the sins of the whole world, but who is not intimidated by my locked doors, or by anyone’s locked doors.

But this story from John is not simply about Jesus overcoming my fear and locked doors.  It is about sending me out to the world on a peace mission.  I am called to proclaim peace to everyone else.  In this same story, we are told that peace is a matter of knowing that our sins are forgiven.  And we are given the Holy Spirit to make our calling effective.

Make no mistake about it.  Jesus has not sent his disciples to a serene mountain retreat.  No.  Jesus sends us into a battle.  The world is a war zone.  Our wars, both individual and collective ones, are the bitter fruit of our fears.

I suspect that we would all go back to hiding behind locked doors, if it were not for two things.

First, Jesus comes to us through our locked doors.  After a while, perhaps we begin to say to ourselves, “Oh, what’s the use?  He is going to show up anyway.  Why not just throw the doors wide open?”

Second, we eventually realize that being locked in a room, even if it is locked from the inside, isn’t all that much of an adventure.  And Christ’s peace mission is nothing, if not an adventure.

Are you up for an adventure?

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