"Breathe and Live."

"Breathe and Live."

By: Pastor Jack Schneider          

  “[Jesus] spoke to them again and said, `Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so I am  sending you.’ Then He breathed on them[in a powerful, obvious way] and said to them, `Receive the Holy Spirit.”   [John 20:21,22, PJV]

I've always loved this reference! Obviously, the disciples had the Holy Spirit before this time, for they believed Jesus to be the Messiah, and no one can have that faith without the Spirit. Sure, they’d had their struggles, but their confession was real [see John 6], and He readily claimed them as His own.

What’s cool here is that Jesus made a big deal of breathing forcefully onto them, like a person blowing out birthday candles, except this time it’s like someone blowing fire into the candles. “Receive the Spirit,” He said, “in a new and powerful way – to bring life and forgiveness into people’s lives.” Even better, He gave that power, that privilege not just to the disciples but to every believer, with the result that you and I can make a difference of peace and freedom in the lives of the people we touch every day. 

Don’t have your theological diploma from Concordia Seminary? You are still God’s instrument of forgiveness and joy.  Don’t have a PhD. in Clinical Psychology?  You are still able to proclaim peace and acceptance to the depressed and downtrodden.  No MBA?  No problem. By God’s gift of mercy and leadership you are able to share and manage the gifts of God’s people with those less fortunate, coordinating the distribution of blessings.  And it all happens because Jesus breathed on us and said, “You can do it!”

A couple weeks ago I underwent a sleep study to be eligible for a new CPAP machine.  My old one is worn out from guarding against sleep apnea, and it’s time to be replaced. Well, to get a new one, I had to spend a night without my old one…and it was a miserable night of non-sleep. In a controlled environment they make you sleep in one position [not good, with my back], and without the positive air pressure that keeps persons from snoring.  Afterward, it occurred to me that’s what my/our life is like without the Spirit of God – our breath, our being. Without Him, it’s miserable.

In late service we have a song with these words: “This is the air I breathe, Your holy presence Living in me; This is my daily bread, Your very Word Spoken to me. And I’m desperate for You, I’m lost without You. This is the air I breathe.”

Breathe, my brothers and sisters.  Breathe and live.  And while you’re at it, share the life.

- Jack