John 20:11-23 11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. 19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Mary stood crying outside the tomb, she bent over to look into the tomb, and saw two angels, but she didn’t know they were angels, turned around and saw the resurrected Lord Jesus standing there, she didn’t recognize the Lord Jesus, and Jesus later appeared to two disciples, at first they did not recognize him either. When Mary recognized him, the Lord Jesus told her not to take hold of him, and he told her that he had not yet ascended to heaven to see God the Father.
On Sunday night, the doors of the place where the disciples got together were closed, and the Lord Jesus appeared to them, and when he saw them, he said, “Peace be with you!” The disciples were happy when they saw the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus breathed on them to let them receive the Holy Spirit. This is the same as when God created Adam in Genesis.
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)
This once again shows the divinity of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, who can breathe on people to receive the Holy Spirit.
On January 19th, I learned that a former Vietnamese colleague of my wife passed away that morning, she had gallbladder cancer in June last year and was only in her 40s. Recently, I also learned that several people died because of Covid in China at the beginning of the year. On the evening of the 19th, I was thinking about the shortness of life, and I went to the computer to listen to hymns on YouTube, and it was playing a song called “Life is short”. I hope that more people will believe in the Lord sooner the better before they die, and receive the hope of eternal life and the hope of resurrection.
May God bless you and your family! 🙏😀
