James Nisbet Commentary - John 20:19 - 20:19

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James Nisbet Commentary - John 20:19 - 20:19


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THE LORD’S DAY

‘The same day at evening, being the first day of the week … came Jesus and stood in the midst.’

Joh_20:19

‘Very early in the morning, the first day of the week,’ the Lord Jesus by His Resurrection proclaimed His victory over sin and death, and in consequence that first day has become the Lord’s-day, the day in every week on which we commemorate with joy and gladness the triumph of the Lord’s redeeming work. What wonder, then, is it that from that day forward new and hallowed associations were connected in the minds of the Apostles with the first day of the week.

I. The origin of the Lord’s-day.—Of this I would affirm that it is not Jewish. This, indeed, might sufficiently appear from the fact that in the early days of the Church both the first and seventh day of the week were generally observed by Christians, at any rate by those who had been converted from Judaism. All that is Jewish, all the ceremonies, all the observances, all the restrictions and restraints have been altogether swept away, and of these no single trace remains. So far as Christianity is concerned, no single part of the discarded system of Judaism finds a place.

II. What is the governing principle which underlies the observance alike of the Jewish Sabbath and of the Lord’s-day? It cannot be forgotten that our Divine Master has maintained that love is the great, the first commandment. On this governing principle of love to God and love to man hang all the law and the prophets. Religion is not a mere restraint; it is an enthusiasm. Love is the power which is to control all our motives and to direct all our conduct. Whatever there may be in the Divine enactments which appears to be in the nature of restriction or of prohibition of man’s liberty, is imposed in obedience to the demands of this supreme law of love.

III. Guided, then, in our search by this law of love, and applying to the question before us, what does it reveal?

(a) What does love to God demand from us with reference to the observance of the Lord’s-day? Does it not at least require this—that we should remember the day to keep it holy? Love to Him demands our worship. The grateful heart longs to use every opportunity for showing forth His praise, and in His mercy and goodness towards us He has shown us the way, and provided the means by which we may satisfy this need—a need which grows up until it becomes a yearning desire and ardent longing to every true child of God.

(b) Nor is it less important to remember that the fundamental principle of love to man is embodied in the observance of the Lord’s-day. In the old Jewish law this principle was recognised in the commandment which ordained that no work should be performed upon the Sabbath, and on the reason given for the command, ‘That thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.’ We are not unmindful of the fact that our Blessed Lord swept away all those perversions of this grand principle, by which the Pharisees of His day had distorted the Divine command, so that it had become a mere formal observance of legal and burdensome enactments. But the general rule of abstinence from work, except indeed in the performance of duties of necessity and charity, remained. Is it consistent with God’s supreme law of love, that multitudes of weary toilers should be needlessly condemned to the slavery of continuous labour on the day of rest?

—
Prebendary Kitto.

Illustration

‘In these latter days there have been constant controversies, not only between the Church and the world, between the religious and the ungodly, but even amongst religious people themselves, as to the claims of the Lord’s-day, and as to the extent and manner of its observance. The vast increase within the present generation of every form of Sunday entertainment; the boating and cycling excursions, the lawn-tennis parties, the Sunday visiting and Sunday “At Homes” and dinner-parties and dances, and dramatic performances and smoking concerts and boxing clubs, all these are now tolerated and allowed, where they would have been repudiated and condemned a very few years ago.’



THE MESSAGE OF PEACE

‘Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.’

Joh_20:19

The disciples’ sad and gloomy meeting was suddenly interrupted. A new and strange Presence is felt among them, and looking up they see Jesus standing in the midst.

I. Think first of Christ’s action.—He shows the disciples His hands and His side. What a proof of love was this! He shows the marks of His Passion. It was like calling up the Passion before them and reminding them of what He had done for them. But the great thing was that it showed Him to be the same as He had ever been. The Saviour loves to keep the marks of His Passion—those marks by which we may know Him. He keeps them still in heaven, for He Whom John saw in heaven—the Deliverer Who alone was strong enough to open the sealed book—was ‘a Lamb as it had been slain’; and it is to the Lamb that the worship of heaven is paid: ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.’ So He joins His Death and Resurrection together for our comfort.

II. And now listen to the Saviour’s words.—‘Peace be unto you.’ What wonderful—what blessed words to bring back from the grave—the very words they needed most! Their hearts were sad and heavy, dragged hither and thither with doubt and perplexity, and so He says, ‘Peace.’ ‘Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?’ ‘Peace be unto you.’ They were tormented with reproaches and regrets. They had served Him so badly—had acted so differently from what they had intended. Would He—even if it were true that He had risen—would He ever look upon them with favour again? Would He not be altogether estranged from them? And, lo! He comes, and, without a word of reproach or complaint, says, ‘Peace be unto you.’

III. That is His message to us.—That is the message of Easter—peace. Christ is here amongst us (though we cannot see Him) with words and thoughts of peace. ‘Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them,’ and wherever He is, He brings peace with Him, for ‘He is our peace, Who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us … so making peace.’ If you have been trying to kill your sins and bury them with Christ, then Easter Day brings the message of peace. It is not that the war is over—that there is nothing more to do. But we know that Christ has died for our sins and risen again—that He has conquered, and that we in Him may conquer too. The struggle is not over—never will be this side of the grave; but in the midst of the struggle—in doubt, and fear, and temptation—we shall still have peace and joy and hope.

—
Rev. F. J. Middlemist.

Illustration

‘ “Peace be unto you.” In the Greek it is only two words, “Peace to you.” Peace was the legacy of love He left with His people. “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.” And He closed His farewell discourses to His people with this word “peace.” “These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace” (Joh_16:33). And what is peace? It is “joy reposing”; it is that true contentment, that quietness of mind, which flows from simple faith in Christ. It is the sweet calm in the soul of the forgiven sinner. And ever since the first Easter evening, from age to age, especially when His people have been persecuted, tempted, desolate, has Christ come to them and whispered, “Peace.” He has given them a peace which passeth all understanding of man by nature, a peace which the world cannot give, and a peace which passeth not away.’