The Breath of Life

John 20:19-23

I remember it like it almost five minutes ago.
But it was really 44 years ago.
I was five years old.
My father, who was a policeman, had just died of cancer.
It was time to go to the funeral home and have the visitation as we like to call it.
Time to view the body.
What I remember clearly as a 5 year-old was walking up to the casket and looking in and not recognizing my father.
Perhaps it was a classic case of denial.
But clearly I remember running from that casket toward the back of the room because what I saw there I did not recognize as my father.
What I expected to see I did not see.
Something was missing.
It was the Breath of Life that was missing.
And as a 5 year old, looking at that bag of bones and flesh in that casket, I did not see my father.

One of my favorite Old Testament passages is chapter 37 of the prophet Ezekiel.
The people have been carried off to exile in Babylon.
Jerusalem and the temple have been destroyed and demolished.
The spirit of the exiles has been crushed.
And Ezekiel has a vision.
God’s Spirit sets Ezekiel down in a big, open field where there are dried up bones all over.
There are dry bones everywhere, bleached white by the sun’s relentless rays.
God’s Spirit takes Ezekiel for a walk through the bones.
The Spirit asks Ezekiel, “So, what do you think? Can these bones live?”
Ezekiel gives the non-committal but theologically correct answer, “Master God, only you know that.”
And God’s Spirit says to Ezekiel, “Speak the Word of God to these dried up, bleached out, picked-over bones.”
God’s Spirit spoke to the bones, “Watch me work. I’m bringing the breath of life to you old bones and you’ll live again. I’m gonna put meat on your bones and breathe life into you. You’ll wake up and know that I am God.”
So Ezekiel repeated the Word of God, the words of the Spirit.
And as Ezekiel spoke the Word the wind began to kick up and the tumbleweeds started blow away.
The old, dead bones started to come together.
The bones came together and even flesh came onto the bones.
But there was no breath in the bodies.
They still weren’t recognizable as humans.
Then the Spirit of God said to Ezekiel, “Speak to the breath, now. Tell the breath to come from the four winds. Come breath. Breathe on these slain bodies. Breathe life!”
And Ezekiel did what he was told.
And as he spoke to the breath it entered the bags of bones and flesh and they came alive and stood up, a huge army.
And God said, “Look, Ezekiel. These bones are my people. They are dried up. Their hope is gone. They’re barely recognizable as human beings anymore, much less my people.”
God said, “Tell my people. I’ll dig up your graves and bring you out alive and bring you home. You’ll know that I am God and I’ll put the very Breath of Life in you. Believe it. It’s happening.”

It’s an incredible vision. I think movies makers and fiction writers have liberally stolen from Ezekiel’s incredible vision over the years.
But the story today from John’s gospel reminded me of Ezekiel’s vision.
In John’s story it’s Easter Sunday, resurrection day.
The rumor about Jesus is spreading.
Mary Magdalene has seen the empty tomb.
She has reported it to Peter and John who ran and found the empty tomb.
Mary then talked with the Gardener who turned out to be Jesus.
She went and told the disciples and what do they do?
They lock themselves up in a house in fear.
What are they afraid of?
The scripture says the Jews.
But I can’t help believe that they were afraid that it might actually be true.
What if Jesus really was alive again?
What would that mean?
Peter had denied him.
One had betrayed him and all of them had abandoned him.
If the rumors were true, what would Jesus think of them and what would it mean for their lives?

The disciples locked up in that house are like Ezekiel’s field of dried up old bones.
They are a house full of fearful, cowering, lifeless men.
When we see people like this we don’t recognize them as God’s people, they hardly seem human.
When we are like this we fail to recognize ourselves as God’s children.
Guilty, afraid, they’ve locked themselves away from the world.
But what happens?
Jesus will have none of it.
He enters the room.
We don’t know how. Through the wall, through the door, maybe he still had the key. We don’t know.
But we know that a locked door won’t keep him away from his people.
We know that fear and guilt won’t keep him away from his people.
We know that the worst enemy of all, death, won’t keep Jesus from us.

The disciples were excited to see Jesus. My suspicion is that it was a nervous excitement.
“Wow, Jesus. This is fantastic. Great to see you. Sorry about that denying you thing and that abandonment thing . . . “
And Jesus’ first word is what?
“Peace”
Peace to you.
His first word to this motley crew of guilty, fearful cowering men is . . . “Peace.”
“As the Father sent me so I send you.”
He grants them peace and immediately gives them marching orders.
God sent me here, so I’m sending you. Unlock the door because you need to get out there.
At this point I think the dry bones have come together and are starting to resemble humans again, but “unlock the door and go out”? I don’t think so.

And Jesus does what?
He takes a deep breath and breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit, my Spirit.”
Become human again. Become my children again. Cast off the fear. Forget about the guilt. Breathe!
And then he links this gift of the Spirit, this new life, to forgiveness.
He says, “If you forgive someone’s sins they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”

There are times when we don’t look human, much less like God’s children.
There are times when God’s children are no better than a bunch of lifeless, dry, bleached out bones.
There are times when we seem to have lost the gift of the Spirit and we don’t recognize each other or ourselves as God’s children.

It’s interesting that this first giving of the Spirit in the gospels is connected not with some dramatic manifestations, speaking in tongues or wild spontenaity, but instead connected with the quiet, difficult task of forgiveness.
People who refuse to forgive, people who hold onto their resentments, eventually become unrecognizable as human beings and especially as children of God.
Our inability to forgive leads to death --- death of relationships, death of community and ultimately the death of our very own spirits.
The very first thing that Jesus asks us to do is use the Spirit’s power to forgive one another.

Forgiveness is a supernatural act.
It doesn’t come naturally or easily.
But, according to this passage, forgiveness is the first command of the Risen Jesus and the first fruit of the Spirit.
Forget about energetic, lively worship or speaking in tongues or long spiritual prayers.
If you don’t exercise the power to forgive, then you’re still just a Spiritless, unrecognizable bag of bones and the Breath of Life is not in you.

Is it easy to forgive? Absolutely not. But Jesus has given us the power.
So what are we going to do with this power?
Hold onto the sins we believe others have committed?
Or are we going to receive the Breath of Life and become the army of God’s forgiven children we are meant to be?

There have been some times lately when I have had some trouble recognizing us.
I keep creeping up to the casket and looking over the edge only to be shocked at what I see.
Hoping to see the resurrection, hoping to see forgiven and forgiving people, instead I am seeing something else, something resembling death, and I want to run away sobbing.
A body without the Breath of Life is unrecognizable.
Christians without the ability to forgive are unrecognizable as Christians.

We have been given Peace by Jesus.
Jesus has breathed the Breath of Life into us.
By this gift of the Spirit we have power to forgive.
Let’s receive the Gift and the call and live.
Let’s make the vision of Psalm 133 real and alive among us.
“How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along! That’s where God commands the blessing, that’s where God ordains eternal life.”

I remember clearly the unrecognizable, lifeless body of my father from 44 years ago.
May I never see such lifelessness here among God’s children.
May the Spirit of God breathe life and forgiveness into our very marrow so that we have eternal life now, tomorrow, next week and everyday forever.

Say it with me . . .“Peace to you.”
“As the Father sent me, so I send you.”
(Breathe)
“Receive the Holy Spirit”
“Receive the power of forgiveness.”
Amen.