“On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”” John 20:19
According to a Business Insider report dated April 24, 2020, over one-third of the world’s population is in some form of lock-down. The fear of spreading the Covid-19 virus has governments around the world restricting social contact among their citizens. Never before in the history of the world have so many people been forced to isolate, nor have the economies of the world ground to such a halt as they have been forced to in our present circumstances.
However, it is not the first time that fear has caused people to endure lock-down. The disciples were cowering in fear behind locked doors, for outside those doors, existed the very real threat of death at the hands of the Jews. They had seen their longed for Messiah die, and all their hopes had died with him! Utter hopelessness, fear, anxiety and panic permeatedtheir hearts and souls. Until…Jesus Christ stood among them and declared the ultimate shalom! When the risen Lord Jesus proclaims peace to his disciples, it is not merely a wish, it is a pronouncement! He does not crave peace for them, He conveys peace to them! Just as His words have the power to bring creation into existence, so His words have the power to bring real peace into the troubled hearts of His disciples!
And that radical change caused the disciples to unlock the doors, and enter into a world that desperately needed the message of peace. The risk of death was just as real as it ever was, but the fear they once felt had been replaced by peace. Our world is in the midst of fear, anxiety and panic – but we can go forth into that world, at the risk of our lives, without fear – for the Prince of Peace has pronounced His peace into our broken souls! In the midst of panic all around, the world must not find a fearful church clinging to temporal life at all costs. Rather, at the risk of our lives, but infused with supernatural peace, we are called to be conduits of His peace by proclaiming the good news of the gospel – there is peace for troubled hearts in the Lord Jesus Christ alone!