Devotional for the week of May 28, 2023

Spirit of Unexpected Peace

Jesus, crucified and risen Lord of mercy, had a mission for his disciples: share the forgiveness they have received with all those longing to know God. He even had the promised gift of the Spirit to empower them. But first, he had to figure out how to get them out from behind locked doors. Jesus’ disciples were afraid that what had happened to Jesus would also happen to them, so they locked themselves away and hid.

You could picture Jesus standing outside the door of their room, calling: Come on out! It’s okay! Don’t worry! It’s time to start sharing the good news! And the disciples would just say: No! We’re too afraid to open the door!

Instead of getting them out from behind their locked door, Jesus comes on in. Instead of yelling through the door to stop being such cowards, Jesus slips past their fear and their locked-up lives and brings them unexpected peace. His own Spirit of peace moves out of him as breath, as the wind of God that creates new things, and creates in them a new calming faith. Then the mission of mercy begins. This Spirit from Jesus is a pure gift that creates peace, and peace creates mission.

Fear often keeps us locked up, anxious, unable to live the life God has given us. Thankfully, Jesus knows the way past our locked doors and our fearful hiding. Instead of making us feel small for hiding when we are afraid, he breaks through whatever barriers we put up and gets right past our locked doors. Jesus’ own Spirit comes to us through the word, through bread and wine, through silence, through the one next to us, slipping past whatever barriers we put up. The Spirit comes as a gift of peace—peace we can’t create for ourselves, peace that is deeper than our own understanding of it, peace that creates new energy for mission.

Devotional message and art based on the readings for May 28th, reprinted from sundaysandseasons.com.