John 20:21

John 20:21-23 . Then said Jesus again, Peace be unto you — This is the foundation of the mission of a true gospel minister; peace in his own soul, in consequence of his having received pardoning mercy from God through Christ, 2 Corinthians 4:1 . As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you — Christ was the apostle of the Father, Hebrews 3:1 : Peter and the rest the apostles of Christ. And when he had said this, he breathed on them — In a solemn manner, communicating unto them new life and vigour; and saith unto them — As ye receive this breath out of my mouth, so receive ye — That is, ye shall receive; the Holy Ghost — Out of my fulness, in his various graces and gifts, influencing your minds and hearts in a peculiar manner, and fitting you for your great and important embassy. He refers chiefly to those extraordinary influences of the Spirit which they were to receive at the following pentecost. Whose soever sins ye remit — According to the tenor of the gospel; that is, supposing them to repent and believe; they are remitted; and whose soever sins ye retain — Supposing them to remain impenitent and unbelieving; they are retained — So far is plain: but here arises a difficulty. Are not the sins of one who truly repents and unfeignedly believes in Christ, remitted without the absolution by Christ’s ministers here spoken of? And are not the sins of one who does not repent and believe, retained even with it? What then does this commission imply?

Can it imply any more than, 1st, A power of declaring with authority the Christian terms of pardon, whose sins are remitted and whose retained? as is done in the form of absolution contained in our church service: and, 2d, A power of inflicting and remitting ecclesiastical censures? that is, of excluding from, and readmitting into, a Christian congregation? See note on Matthew 16:19 . Some, indeed, are of opinion, that something further than this is intended in this commission, as given to the apostles, namely, the gift of discerning the spirits of men in such perfection, as to be able to declare with certainty to particular persons in question whether or not they were in a state of pardon and acceptance with God; and it must be acknowledged that such a gift was doubtless conferred in certain cases on some, if not on many, of the first ministers of Christ, 1 Corinthians 12:10 .

John 20:21 . When they recognised Him and composed themselves, He naturally repeated His greeting, εἰρήνη ὑμῖν , but now adds, καθὼς … ὑμᾶς . “As the Father hath sent me, so send I you.” In these words ( cf. John 17:18 ) He gives them their commission as His representatives. And in confirmation of it, ( John 20:22 ) τοῦτο εἰπὼν … Ἅγιον . “He breathed on them,” ἐνεφύσησε ; the same word is used in Genesis 2:7 to describe the distinction between Adam’s “living soul,” breathed into him by God, and the life principle of the other animals. The breathing upon them was meant to convey the impression that His own very Spirit was imparted to them.

Peace be unto you; the repeating of this salutation speaketh it more than an ordinary compliment, or form of salutation. It signifieth his reconciliation to them, notwithstanding their error in forsaking him, and fleeing; it prepared their attention for the great things that he was now about to speak to them; it also signified, that he was about to preach the gospel of peace to all nations. As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you; I have now fulfilled my ministry, and am now going to my Father who sent me: now by the same authority that I am sent, I send you, to gather, instruct, and govern my church; I send, or I will send, you clothed with the same authority with which I am clothed, and for the same ends in part for which I was sent.

John 20:21 . Πάλιν , again ) They had not yet altogether comprehended the force of His former salutation: therefore it is repeated, and so is enlarged by additional words.— εἰρήνη , peace ) This constitutes the foundation of the mission of the ministers of the Gospel: 2 Corinthians 4:1 , “Seeing we have this ministry , as we have received mercy , we faint not.”— καθὼς , even as ) Christ is “the Apostle” of the Father, Hebrews 3:1 : Peter and the others were apostles of Christ. He does not discuss at large the subject of His resurrection, but takes for granted the evidence for it, and gives further instructions.— ἀπέσταλκε · πέμπω ) These two verbs differ: in ἀποστέλλω the will of the Sender, and of Him who is sent, is had respect to; in πέμπω , the will of the Sender, as distinguished from the will of the person sent.— πέμπω , I send ) Both this, and what goes before and what follows, are parallel to Isaiah 61:1 , “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings—He hath sent Me,” etc.

21 . Then said Jesus ] Jesus therefore said ; because now they were ready to receive it. Their alarm was dispelled and they knew that He was the Lord. He repeats His message of ‘Peace.’ as my Father , &c.] Better, As the Father hath sent Me . Christ’s mission is sometimes spoken of in the aorist tense, as having taken place at a definite point in history ( John 3:17 ; John 3:34 , John 5:38 , John 6:29 ; John 6:57 , John 7:29 , John 8:42 , John 10:36 , John 11:42 , John 17:3 ; John 17:8 ; John 17:18 ; John 17:21 ; John 17:23 ; John 17:25 ), in which case the fact of the Incarnation is the prominent idea. Sometimes, though much less often, it is spoken of, as here, in the perfect tense, as a fact which continues in its results ( John 5:36 ; 1 John 4:9 ; 1 John 4:14 ), in which case the present and permanent effects of the mission are the prominent idea. Christ’s mission is henceforth to be carried on by His disciples. The Greek for ‘send’ is not the same in both clauses; in the first, ‘hath sent,’ it is apostellein; in the second, ‘send,’ it is pempein . The latter is the most general word for ‘send,’ implying no special relation between sender and sent; the former adds the notion of a delegated authority constituting the person sent the envoy or representative of the Sender. Both verbs are used both of the mission of Christ and of the mission of the disciples.

Apostellein is used of the mission of Christ in all the passages quoted above: it is used of the mission of the disciples, John 4:38 , John 17:18 . (Comp. John 1:6 ; John 1:19 ; John 1:24 , John 3:28 , John 5:33 , John 7:32 , John 11:3 .) Pempein is used of Christ’s mission only in the aorist participle ( John 4:34 , John 5:23-24 ; John 5:30 ; John 5:37 , John 6:38-40 ; John 6:44 , John 7:16 ; John 7:18 ; John 7:28 ; John 7:33 , John 8:16 ; John 8:18 ; John 8:26 ; John 8:29 , John 9:4 ; and in all the passages in chaps. 12–16); the aorist participle of apostellein is not used by S. John, although the Synoptists use it in this very sense ( Matthew 10:40 ; Mark 9:37 ; Luke 9:48 ; Luke 10:16 ). Pempein is used of disciples here and in John 13:20 (of the Spirit, John 14:26 , John 16:7 ). “The general result … seems to be, that in this charge the Lord presents His own Mission as the one abiding Mission of the Father; this He fulfils through His Church. His disciples receive no new commission, but carry out His.” Westcott in loco . send I you ] Or, am I sending you ; their mission has already begun (comp. John 20:17 , John 17:9 ); and the first and main part of it was to be the proclamation of the truth just brought home to themselves—the Resurrection ( Acts 1:22 ; Acts 2:24 ; Acts 4:2 ; Acts 4:33 , &c.).

(21) Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you. —These words may be here a solemn repetition of the greeting in John 20:19 , by which our Lord’s own message of peace is immediately connected with that which the Apostles were to deliver to the world. It is, however, more natural to understand the words in John 20:19 as those of greeting, and these as words of farewell. (Comp. John 14:27 .) Other words had intervened, as we know from St. Luke’s narrative. He is now about to withdraw the evidence of His presence from them, and does so with the customary “ Shalōm; ” but with this He reminds them of the apostleship to which He has called them, gives them an earnest of the Presence which will never leave them, but always qualify them for it ( John 20:22 ), and places before them the greatness of the work to which He sends them ( John 20:23 ). As my (better, the) Father hath sent me, even so send I you.—Comp. Note on John 17:18, where the words occur in prayer to the Father. As spoken here to the disciples ‘they are the identification of them with Himself in His mediatorial work. He is the great Apostle (Hebrews 3:1); they are ambassadors for Christ, to whom He commits the ministry of reconciliation (2Corinthians 5:18 et seq.). He stands in the same relation to the Father as that in which they stand to Him.

He declares to them, and they in His name are to declare to the world, the fulness of the Father’s love, and the peace between man and God, witnessed to in His life and death. He and they stand also in the same relation to the world. At this very moment they are assembled with shut doors, for fear of the Jews, who are triumphing over Him as dead. But to that world, which will hate, persecute, and kill them, as it had hated, persecuted, and killed Him, they are sent as He was sent; they are to declare forgiveness, mercy, love, peace, as He had declared them, to every heart that does not harden itself against them; and they are to find in His presence, as He had ever found in the Father’s presence, the support which will ever bring peace to their own hearts (John 14:27). And when he had said this, he breathed on them.—The word rendered “breathed” occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, but was familiar from its use in the Greek (LXX.) of Genesis 2:7. St. John uses to describe this act of the risen Lord the striking word which had been used to describe the act by which God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life. He writes as one who remembered how the influence of that moment on their future lives was a new spiritual creation, by which they were called, as it were, out of death into life. It was the first step in that great moral change which passed over the disciples after the Crucifixion, and of which the day of Pentecost witnessed the accomplishment.