COMMENTARY
The Gospel today contains three lessons:
The authority of the Church to pronounce absolution
of sins, the call to trust in God through Jesus, and the sufficiency of the
biblical records as containing all things necessary for salvation.
ABOUT FORGIVENESS
In the evening of the Sunday that our Lord
resurrected, He appeared to his 11 disciples and ‘others that were with them’
(Luke 24:33), and after proving to them his physical resurrection, He told them
that they would go to announce ‘that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should
be proclaimed in his Name’ to all nations (Luke 24:47).
Following this, Jesus
proceeded to blow on them, not only the 11 apostles, but also all the ‘others
who stayed with them’ and after telling them that He will send them with the
same command He received from the Father, He also told them:
“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive
the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any,
it is withheld.”
John 20:22-23
The Church of Jesus Christ on Earth, all of us as a
group, not only our Leaders, have the right, through Jesus’s authority, to
announce official forgiveness of sins, to all those who listen to the Gospel,
repent, confess their sinfulness before God and the congregation, and accept Jesus
as their Lord and Saviour. In the same way, it also has the authority in the
Name of Christ, to hold someone responsible and in guilt, who refuses to repent
or holds to heresy.
In history, this authority has traditionally been expressed
through Absolution and Excommunication respectively and controlled by the
Presbytery. However, even though in practice it could be that way, theologically,
it is an authority Jesus gave the whole Church, ordained and non-ordained, to
pronounce forgiveness of sins, officially to all those JESUS has already
forgiven, and to announce guilt and retaining of sinfulness, to all those who
refuse to accept their sin or persist in professing a heresy. Also, it is
important to notice that Apostle Thomas was not present in that occasion (John
20:24).
ABOUT FAITH
The story also mentions that apostle Thomas, who was
not there when our Lord appeared resurrected, refused to believe that others had
seen the Lord alive again. Eight days later, Jesus appeared and granted Thomas the
desire to confirm this reality by touching the Lord’s body and wounds.
Thomas was overwhelmed and did not get to touch the
Lord, but humbly declared: “My Lord and my God”.
Jesus forgave his disbelief, but He also said: “BLESSED
ARE THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN AND YET HAVE BELIEVED.” (John 20:29).
Thomas is recorded as saying “Ὁ
Κύριός μου καὶ ὁ
Θεός μου.”. “Lord of mine, God of mine”.
Taking this passage into context, the fact that he
was speaking to Jesus, right after He invited Thomas to confirm his belief in
Him; it can only logically mean that the exclamation was referring to Jesus, and
that was not a double exclamation, calling ‘Lord’ to Jesus and “God” to the
Father; but a single exclamation where Thomas acknowledged the lordship and
divinity of Jesus.
SUFICIENCY OF SCRIPTURE
The last lesson of the reading has to do with the
sufficiency of the NT as containing all things necessary to salvation.
The author of the gospel of John openly declares
that Jesus did many miracles which are not written in this record (John
20:30-31), and in the next chapter he says that “if they were all written, the
whole world could not hold the books written about them” (John 21:25).
The word translated as ‘did’ comes from the Greek ποιέω,
which means to ‘construct, build, manufacture’, which indicates a physical
reality that comes as consequence of a deliberate physical action.
This is important because in that case, John is
referring only to actions, and not words, meaning all the teaching of Jesus,
that He transmitted orally, they were written down, even when not all his
actions and miracles were.
Moreover, the author also says that these were
writtenin order that the reader may “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31).
In other words, John says that whatever it is written
in the book, is there to confirm us in our belief in Jesus as the promised Messiah
and Son of God, which will be enough to save us.
Since salvation is the goal of the whole work of
Jesus; this declaration clearly states that the book contains all necessary
things to bring us into this salvation that Jesus intended for all humans. Any other
requirement outside the written records of the gospels, and in general, all apostolic
writings, should not be considered as necessary for our salvation, and if
presented that way to us, to know we are before a heresy.
Omar Flores.
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