“Peace Be With You: Touched by Jesus”
By John DeBevoise (as delivered by Kathy Conner)
At Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church
On April 7, 2002
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.” After he said this he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
John 20: 19-31
Amongst the gospel witnesses to the resurrection, which is a way of reminding you that the Gospels don’t contain just one witness to the resurrection but a number of different appearances of the resurrected Jesus in different times and in different places, so amongst the gospel witnesses to the resurrection is this story, from the gospel of John. It is a story of the appearance of the resurrected Jesus to his disciples on an evening in a room with locked doors.
The disciples were hiding there because they were afraid that the same people who had crucified Jesus might decide to come and crucify his disciples as well. It was a real and horrifying fear. And suddenly, the resurrected Jesus came and stood amongst them.
Now many of us are used to thinking of this story as the account of Doubting Thomas. But this morning I want us to focus our attention on the first part of the story: The greeting of the resurrected Jesus to his disciples. Listen to the text:
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.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord Jesus and said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
When the resurrected Jesus greets the disciples, he greets them in a specific way. “Peace be with you,” he says to them. Not once, but twice here in John’s gospel. And then he shows them the signs of the holes in his hands and the spear hole in his side. This, as a sort of proof, or witness, that it is the resurrected Jesus they are encountering.
Why does Jesus greet them with peace? Perhaps because he knew that they were afraid. Perhaps because he knew that they might be worried that he would be angry at them for the way that they had deserted him or failed him. And so, he wants them to know that he has a good relationship with them. And perhaps because on this side of the good news of the resurrection, peace is a state where all Christians should be. Because through the events of the resurrection, we see that God indeed will triumph over every worry and over every problem, and therefore we should live in the peace that comes from knowing that Jesus is Lord.
“Peace be with you,” says the resurrected Jesus. Meaning, the peace of God be with you. Meaning all of the things that the peace of God is be with you. Meaning the love of God is on you. The care of God be near you. The plan of God be before you. The truth of God be in you. The joy of God pour in you. The forgiveness of God be imprinted on you. The serenity of God reassure you.
“Peace be with you,” says Jesus. “Shalom to you.” This is what the resurrected Jesus brings. Shalom to you.
And so the text says Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” And after he said this he showed them his hands and his side, then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.”
The Church never got over this greeting. Like a first kiss, the community of faith always remembers that this was the way that the resurrected Jesus first greeted the community of the disciples. The gospels remember that the resurrected Jesus spoke an intimate word to Mary, and that while they did not know he was the resurrected Jesus, he discoursed at length on the road to Emmaus with two disciples.
But when he appears to the community of faith, together, as the resurrected Jesus, he greets them with God’s peace. It must have been very healing for them. It must have been experienced as an unusual act of God’s grace for them. It must’ve made a deep impression on them and helped them, because they never forgot it.
In fact, they continued it. They adopted it as a sign, as a greeting, as a witness. This exchange of God’s peace began to be a regular part of the fellowship of those faithful to Christ, especially as they gathered for worship. And as they shared their resurrected Lord with each other, they tied it intimately with the Lord himself.
And so it became not only “Peace be with you,” but now “The Peace of Christ be with you.” The peace that was possible for us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, may that peace be yours.
In the Aramaic and Hebrew practice of the Middle Eastern cultures, they accompanied this greeting not with a handshake, not with an embrace, but with a kiss. Not a romantic kiss, but the collegial kiss of fellowship on the cheek, which many of us have known and exchanged.
We see evidence of this several places in the letters of the New Testament. In Romans chapter sixteen, it says, “Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.”
In I Corinthians, chapter sixteen, it says, “All the brothers and sisters send greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.”
In II Corinthians, chapter thirteen, it says, “Greet one another with a holy kiss. All of the saints greet you.”
And in I Thessalonians, chapter five, “Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss.”
Finally, in I Peter, chapter five, “Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.”
Over time, the church has learned that a kiss, even a collegial one, is not appropriate, possible, or comfortable for everyone. And so people approach each other in greeting in Christ with a variety of forms, some a kiss, some a handshake. For some a word. For some an embrace. The peace of Christ be with you.
By incorporating this Christian greeting as a ritual, as part of the worship of the earliest church and forward, the disciples were witnessing to the resurrection of Jesus. The greeting was an external witness of their faith that Jesus was resurrected.
Well in a similar way that the unity candle at a wedding symbolizes the unity of two made one, or like wedding rings are an outward sign of an inward vow. Or like the Lord’s Supper as sort of a Christian “Pledge of Allegiance.”
In this church, on most Sundays, we continue this practice with our greeting after the confession. In the early church, the greeting of peace was more. This greeting was a recognition, a witness, that the peace which comes through Jesus comes as a gift. A gift from God.
So we say, “The Peace of Christ be with you,” as a way of remembering the gift of peace which Christ promised us through the Holy Spirit. And across the centuries, this greeting has become more. It has been a reminder to the community that as Christians, we are called to the ministry of hospitality. This is a part of our Old Testament heritage as well as our New Testament faith.
In Romans, chapter twelve, it reads, “Contribute to the needs of the saints. Extend hospitality to strangers.” And then in Hebrews, chapter thirteen, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.” So by doing that, some have entertained angels without knowing it.
Across the centuries, this greeting has become more. It has served as a sign amongst the community of faith that in Christ God reconciles us. It has served as a sign of our mutual recognition, which all too often may be a work in progress. In that sense, the greeting is also, then, a sign of hope. Hope for the promised reconciliation of the world.
So we know that this greeting of peace in the name of Jesus Christ is an ancient practice, that it is widely scriptural. It is connected especially to Jesus. It is a witness to the resurrection. It is a sign of reconciliation. And it is an expression of Christian hospitality.
In some congregations, the exchange of Peace is a quick, quiet, token gesture among strangers. In other congregations it is an explosive and joyful event that goes on for some time as friends greet one another.
Frankly, when the Greeting of Peace was added to the service here, many people at first found it disconcerting. From their earliest years, they had been trained not to speak in church. Suddenly, in the middle of worship, they were being told to greet, or shake hands, with the people around them, as if they were out in the breezeway by the coffeepot. It had felt almost unbridled to them.
Concerned that some folks might start leaping across the pews to tell jokes to one another, or simply distracting from a quiet reverence. I acknowledge that. And I also recognize that we must find a style of worship that is appropriate for us as a congregation. Or at least at a particular worship service within this congregation.
But I continue to be willing to risk losing my credentials as a card-carrying Calvinist and ask you to share in the greeting for these reasons. First of all, this is a world desperately in need of external signs of reconciliation. Every day we see many images of places in this world, nation, and community, that we are not reconciled, but that we are painfully and often violently divided.
Witness the consuming division between the Israelis and Palestinians this very week. Witness the racial fights at a county high school last month. Witness the tension in many of our homes and in our own lives. For us to share in this greeting, at least once a week with one another, is a very important image, a kind of nurturing of the promise of God that in Christ, we will be reconciled.
Often we are not reconciled, even with each other in this room. But in Christ, in this greeting, we act out this hope, goal, promise, as a kind of sanctifying practice. Indeed, as a sort of interactive, participatory prayer.
Secondly, there is not love of God without love of neighbor. It is a temptation to believe that when we worship on the Sabbath, we are coming to spend some time alone with God. That is not what Sabbath worship is about. It may well be what daily devotional practice is about. Or private evening prayer. But Sabbath worship is about being a part of the Christian community. That is why we gather with each other. That is why we gather with our practices, our faults, our annoying eccentricities, of which some of you have more than others. It is a part of bearing one another’s burdens.
And even when we do not know each other in worship, and even when we may be amongst strangers, we are acting out the gospel truth that Christ has called us to be each other’s neighbors. Like the story of the Good Samaritan, that is not always pleasant. But it is a Christian obedience. And sometimes we all feel like Greta Garbo when she said, “I vant to be alone.” And the Christian mark allows for those times.
Sabbath worship, however, is a time when we come together. And the greeting in the Peace of Christ helps us to witness to our unity. Our unity as brothers and sisters in Christ, even when the world may give very little evidence of it.
It is not a trivial thing. The practices and rituals we regularly share in the maintenance of divine worship are enormously powerful and shaping, both for us and for our children. In the Greeting in Christ, we are saying to them and to each other and to the world, “We know that God has created us to be in community with each other.”
In her book Practicing Our Faith, Dorothy Bass tells the story of a woman who comes to the pastor after church one Sunday to tell him how much this greeting has become to her. “I know there are some people who find it an interruption,” she said, “but I live alone, and I have yet to make many friends here. This is the only place all week where anyone speaks to me in the name of Jesus Christ. It is the only place where anyone touches me. It is the only moment all week where I am a part of a community that claims to care. Please, never change it.”
I tell you, there are people amongst us like that. Bear one another’s burdens. Be ye kind and tenderhearted to one another. Peace be with you.
Finally, and sadly, there is today a great deal of scandal and publicity about inappropriate and abusive touch, even in the church. Especially in the church. And we lament it. It must grieve Jesus, who seems in the Gospels to so value children. Where this abuse has occurred, it is an enormous violation of sacred trust, an abuse of the holy kiss of peace. As one of our very close Catholic priest friend said to our staff on the phone this week, “Obviously, there are things in our house that are not right, and God has brought us to a time where we must now place His house in order.”
For Catholics and protestants alike, that will only be done through truth-telling, justice, repentance, and forgiveness. However, we must also be the Church, and resist the considerable temptation in the storm of the scandal, to avoid any human contact or intimacy as a way of policing ourselves or protecting ourselves. We must learn to build trust and to remember that all touch is not bad.
The greeting and the Peace of Jesus Christ is a moment when the community of faith can model reaching out to each other in healthy and trustworthy ways. We can reach out in good touch, even as Jesus used touch constructively in his ministry. Publicly, without secret or shame, in community, in love, in trustworthiness, in character, in support, in compassion, and in fellowship.
The greeting in the name of Jesus Christ is a time in worship when we pattern for ourselves, when we remind ourselves, that we serve a resurrected Lord who did not abandon his friends, even after he had been horribly hurt. Jesus stood amongst his disciples when they were afraid. When they were in danger, seeking to give them courage, good news, and hope. Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
© John T. DeBevoise, 2002
