Sermon Tone Analysis

*JOHN 20:19-29*

Those familiar with theophanies in the Old Testament will soon recognize the various elements of a theophany~/Christophany (an appearance of God or Christ) here but with a slight variation.

The basic elements of a theophany are: (1) fear; (2) the calming word of “peace” or “do not be afraid” from God or Christ; and (3) a word of commission for the task to be performed.

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*THE CHRISTOPHANY *

*1.        **The Disciples & Fear *

*a.        **Closed Doors *

The disciples were behind closed doors: “/when the doors were shut/…” [20:19].

§         θυρῶν – “/doors/” [20:19], ‘entrance’;

§         κεκλεισμένων - “/shut/” [20:19], perfect passive participle, ‘closed and in some cases locked’;

*b.        **Fear *

They feared what the Jews might do to them after the way in which they had dealt with Jesus: “/disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews/” [20:19].

§         οἱ μαθηταὶ - “/disciples/” [20:19], ‘close follower’;

§         ἦσαν - “/assembled/” [20:19], indicative imperfect active, ‘to be, exist’; ‘to be in a place’;

§         φόβον - “/fear/” [20:19], ‘flight, dread, terror’; ‘basic to the group is the primary verb φέβομαι ‘to flee’, ‘to run from’;

*c.        **The Appearance *

The appearance: “/came Jesus and stood in the midst/…” [20:19].

§         ἦλθεν - “/came/” [20:19], aorist active, ‘to come, go’; ‘move forward or up to’;

§         ἔστη - “/stood/” [20:19], aorist active, ‘to cause to be in a place’; ‘to stand’;

§         εἰς τὸ μέσον - “/midst/” [20:19], ‘the middle, centre’;

*i.        **Fear at His Presence *

The disciples feared the presence of Jesus: “/they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen spirit/” [Luk.24:37].

§         πτοηθέντες - “/terrified/” [24:37], aorist passive participle, ‘be terrified, frightened’;

§         γενόμενοι – aorist middle participle, ‘to come to exist’; ‘to become’;

§         ἔμφοβοι - “/affrighted/” [24:37], adjective, from /en/, ‘in’, and /phóbos/, ‘fear’;

§         ἐδόκουν - “/supposed/” [24:37], imperfect active, ‘to be of the opinion’; ‘to seem to be’;

*ii.

**Theophonic Fear *

In most theophonic reports the fear is engendered by an appearance of the divine.

§         The context of a theophany, the divine appearance, was expected to strike terror in the life of a human because of the common Semitic belief that to see God would mean that one would die.

§         Gideon: “/when Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God!

For because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face/” [Jdg.6:22].

§         John: “/when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead/…” [Rev.1:17].

*Application*

 More than the ten apostles present: “/found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them/” [Luk.24:33].

*2.

**The Self-Identification & Continuity  *

*a.        **The Shalom *

The calming words of Jesus: “/Peace be unto you/” [20:19].

§         εἰρήνη - “/peace/” [20:19], ‘harmony’; ‘shalom well-being and wholesomeness’;

§         ὑμῖν - “/be unto/ /you/” [20:19],

*i.        **The Calming Word  *

What was necessary in such instances was the calming word of /Shalom/:  

§         Gideon: “/Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die/” [Jdg.6:23].

§         John: “/he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last/” [Rev.1:17].

*b.        **The Evidence *

The evidence: “/he showed unto them his side/…” [20:20].

§         ἔδειξεν - “/showed/” [20:20], aorist active, ‘to make known’; ‘to demonstrate’;

§         χεῖρας - “/hands/” [20:20],

§         πλευρὰν αὐτοῖς - “/his/ /side/” [20:20], ‘side of the human body’;

*i.        **The Continuity *

The self-identification marks the continuity of the resurrected Jesus with the Crucified Jesus: 

§         They needed to be sure that he was the same Jesus who was attached to the cross by nails through his hands and that he was precisely the same Jesus who was pierced in the side by one of the soldiers: “/But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water/” [19:34].

§         To prove who he is, Jesus shows them the scars of his suffering and violent death: “/showed unto them his hands and his side/” [20:20].

*ii.

**The Victory >>> The Easter Greeting *

Jesus shows them the scars of his suffering and violent death, not just as signs to recognize him but also as signs of victory.

§         He shows himself to be the triumphant one, the one “/whom they have pierced/” [19:37], in keeping with what [19:37] about the prophetic-messianic significance of his pierced side: “a bone of him shall not be broken” [19:36].

§         The greeting /Shalom/ is the Easter complement of the cry of the cross: “/it is finished/” [19:30].

§         The personalized peace: “/For he is our peace, who hath made both one/…” [Eph.2:14-15].

§         The God of peace: “/Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus/…” [Heb.13:20].

*Application*

Now he returns to them to enable them to share in his victory over death and the grave and thus to give them the sign by which they will be allowed to continue his work on earth as the secret of their power and the content of their message.

§         That clear identification was to become critically important for the Church to maintain; the Crucified is the risen Lord, in the fullest sense of the term, and the risen Lord is the Crucified, the flesh and blood redeemer, whose real death and real resurrection accomplished salvation for the whole person and the whole world’.

*3.

**The Promise Fulfilled  *

The disciples’ response: “/then were the disciples glad/…” [20:20].

§         ἐχάρησαν - “/glad/” [20:20], ‘to rejoice, be glad’;

§         “/And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man takes from you/” [16:22];

*a.        **The Concept of Joy *

Words formed from the Gk.

root /char /indicate things which produce wellbeing.

§         /charis /which is not always clearly distinguished in literature from /chara /means that which brings wellbeing among men (cf.

/charma/);

§         While /chara /(Joy) is the individual experience or expression of this wellbeing.

§         Joy is inward, it has a cause, and it finds expression;

*b.        **Seeing is Believing *

The concept of seeing and believing: “/when they saw the Lord/” [20:20].

§         ἰδόντες - “/saw/” [20:20], aorist active participle, ‘to see’; ‘to pay attention to’;

§         τὸν κύριον - “/Lord/” [20:20],

§         And just as he promised before his crucifixion, their weeping and mourning turned to an effervescent experience of joy: “/you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy/” [16:20].

*Application*

But before detailing the commission, the evangelist wanted to stress for his readers that in this Christophany or appearance the risen Jesus made sure his followers understood that he was the very same Jesus (20:20) who had been their earlier Paraclete, or companion (cf.

John 14:16).

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*THE RESOURCES FOR THE COMMISSION  *

*1.        **The Commission & Continuity *

*a.        **The Son’s Commission *

The Son’s commission: “/as my Father has sent me/…” [20:21].

§         καθὼς - “/as/” [20:21], ‘just as’;

§         ἀπέσταλκέν - “/sent/ /me/” [20:21], perfect active indicative, ‘to send someone out implying for a particular purpose’;

§         The use of the /perfect/ tense rather than the aorist in reference to the commission of Jesus should be understood to indicate that the mission of Jesus still continues.

*b.        **The Disciples’ Commission *

The mission of Jesus as the one sent by the Father remains in force in the mission of the disciples: “/even so send I you/” [20:21].

§         πέμπω - “/send/ /you/” [20:21], present active, ‘send out’; ‘cause someone to carry something to a destination’;

*c.        **The Continuity *

The mission of Christ continues and is effective in their ministry: “/he that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also/…” [14:12-14].

§         The apostles were commissioned to carry on Christ’s work: “/as you have sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world/” [17:18].

§         “/He that receives whomsoever I send receives me; he that receives me receives him that sent me/” [13:20].

*Application*

The form of the fulfillment of the Son’s mission was now to be changed, but the mission itself was still continued and still effective.

§         What Jesus has in mind is one single action, the great movement of the missionary heart of God sending forth his Son into the world, initially through the incarnation, subsequently through the church.

§         The one mission of God has two phases: the first, that of the Son in his incarnate life; the second, that of the Son in his risen life through his people.

*2.

**The Resources & The Commission  *