The Spirit's Breath (Peace 3)
Jesus connects the Spirit & Peace through breath.
I really hesitated in using this passage for one of these three days on peace, but I just can’t ignore it. You’ll have to read a post-resurrection passage during Advent. It is what it is. And Advent is not only about anticipation. It’s about preparation for a life that will need resurrection peace long before resurrection comes.
The words on Jesus’ lips more often than any other after is raised from the dead are: Peace be with you. Multiple times in multiple gospels, it is a refrain of the resurrected Christ.
In John 20:19–23, this connection between peace and the Spirit becomes even more explicit. This is John’s account of Jesus giving the Holy Spirit to the disciples. He tells us Jesus breathed on them and told them to receive the Spirit.
The word John uses for breathed on is only used in this form three times in the whole Bible. It’s here in John 20, but also in Genesis 2:7 and Ezekiel 37, both instances in which God breathes life into lifeless, human bodies.. Peace is new-creation breath. The disciples were “dead” and the resurrected Jesus breathed into them new life. And the charge that came with it was peace.
The Spirit is itself the presence of peace. But Jesus doesn’t just proclaim peace, he commissions it: As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Go and speak peace. Peace is not a feeling to enjoy but a vocation to embody.
So maybe peace is less about circumstances and more about breath, the living presence of Christ in us through the Spirit. Jesus doesn’t lock the doors for the disciples; he comes through them. He meets fear with peace, and then sends peace into the world through ordinary people. This is how peace becomes fruit: not by escape, but by being sent.
John 20:19–23
It was still the first day of the week. That evening, while the disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they aren’t forgiven.”
Prayer
The song I’m sharing with this fruit - peace - is I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. This prayer is meant to resonate with its lyrics.
God,
I hear the bells again this year, ringing through a world that often feels too heavy, too violent, too weary to hope. Hate is strong, and it mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to all. I see it in headlines and I see it on social media.
But you are not dead, and you do not sleep. Your Spirit is still moving, even above the chaos, still breathing peace into frightened rooms, still calling your children to make wholeness where there is fracture.
So let those bells ring in me, not as nostalgia, but as a summons. Teach me to trust that wrong shall fail, and right prevail, not because of force or fear, but because of Christ’s reconciling love.
Make me a peacemaker in word and deed, a bearer of your quiet courage in a loud and anxious world. Let every act of forgiveness, every step toward justice, be a note in that ancient carol of peace on earth.
Holy Father of all creation, I see your loving justice in Jesus of Nazareth. By your Spirit, make me more like him.
Amen.
Here is the song: