This week we begin worship with:
Jesus said to [the disciples] again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit."
Locked in a room out of fear, Jesus miraculously appears among them. He greeted them twice with "Peace be with you".
This is not simply to calm them down. This was to convey on them the peace of God. His sacrifice was now complete. Perfect and permanent atonement had been made. They now had peace with God!
All the rituals repeated from their youth to make themselves ceremonially clean only to temporarily enter the temple were now unnecessary. Through the righteousness of Christ they themselves were now suitable to be the dwelling place of God.
Then came the same breath that put life into lifeless man.
. . . then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
The Fall has been undone. We can now walk with God in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8) without shame.
Peace be with you.
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