The Upper Room

Jesus came and stood among them and said,'...Peace be with you! As the Father
has sent me, I'm sending you." John 20:19,21

Today's reading was quite interesting. I started to think about when Jesus was on the cross saying His last few words. "It is finished"
In God's realm or spiritual realm, that is the moment when EVERYTHING changed. Since that moment, we are no longer bounded by our sins. That is the actual moment where He set us free. But did the disciples know that? Obviously not. They were hiding in the room trembling with fear. But after Jesus appeared to them, they started to go out and spread the Gospel with courage. So it seemed like, this was the moment when EVERYTHING changed in our realm. Realization of His resurrection changed the attitudes of these disciples as John Stott mentioned in previous readings. Not only that, He gave us missions to do. Like how our Father sent Him, He is sending us to do what He did for us. It all makes sense because the word Christian means "to be like Christ". And then He told us to receive the Holy Spirit and said, "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven, if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." Now, this can be little controversial. According to Stott, this very quote of Jesus is the reason why Catholics believe that priests have the authority to forgive. Though most Catholics are nice people and very kind, even this small misinterpretation can be dangerous. Who has the authority to forgive? If priests have the authority, why did Jesus have to die for us? That is diminishing Jesus and taking away all the glory from Him. It defeats the whole purpose of Christ. Who interpreted it that way? Was someone lacking laminins in his brain? Sorry I got carried away.... Then, what does Jesus mean? Here is a better explanation I found:

This statement reminds me of another like it in Matthew's gospel. In
Matthew 16:19 we find Jesus saying "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of
heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and
whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."Here Jesus is
giving to us, the church, the keys of the kingdom. By that I think He means that
we hold the keys to the truth of the gospel message. By the gospel message we
open the door for others to enter in. Here He is getting at this business of
forgiveness. How can we be involved in seeing people forgiven? By opening the
door to the kingdom for them. The key is the gospel message. We forgive by
sharing the message which can set others free.

Exactly!!!! He is telling us to share the Gospel. Amen.