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Jn20:11-28 “She supposing him to be the gardener…” Jn20:15 Jesus is the second Adam. Where the first Adam failed to keep and perform the word and will of God, Jesus succeeded. Where he succumbed to temptation of self-realization and the flesh, Jesus did not. Jesus kept his relationship to God intact. Jesus is in the garden. He is in his pristine beauty now and looks and acts in the most ordinary way. Mary thinks he is the gardener. After every exaltation there is a coming down. After his transfiguration Jesus is brought to the demon possessed valley. After Paul experiences Christ on the road to Damascus he is thrust into the desert. We are not meant to stay on the mountain. We are meant to bring what we have received on the mountain into the valley. Touch me not; for I have not yet ascended
To my Father Jn20:17 Jesus is in the garden. He is like the second Adam. He has not ascended to the Father. He has not yet received the Holy Spirit. Until he receives the Holy Spirit he cannot be touched. He cannot be clung to. After he ascends to heaven and receives the Holy Spirit he will tell Thomas to put his hand into his side. So the first ascension takes place way before the forty day ascension. How do we know this? So Jesus said to them again “Peace to you!”
As the Father has sent me, I also send you. And When he said this He breathed on them, and said “Receive the Holy Spirit” Jn20:20-21 If Jesus had not already gone to the Father he could not have breathed the Holy Spirit on the disciples. Why? Because at the cross he gave up the Holy Spirit and thirsted. On the cross he thirsted for the living water, but now, he was sent by the Father and breathed the Holy Spirit upon them and they were born again: born of the Spirit of God. They had received new life, and at Pentecost, they received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the second Adam. If the first Adam had obeyed the Father, he too, would have received the Holy Spirit. He, too, would have eaten from the tree of life. When we are born again, we too, become the second Adam. We, too, receive the Holy Spirit. We, like Christ, before his resurrection, must sacrifice the natural life for the sake of the kingdom of God. If we do this, then just as the disciples were commissioned to remit and retain sin, so we too, will be commissioned to preach the good news of the kingdom of God. In the garden Adam was to convert the natural man into the spiritual man by obedience. Now we must sacrifice the natural life and abandon to God in order to live a sanctified life. So let the Holy Spirit be breathed on you as you take in God’s word. Enter into a new kingdom and be born again. Receive Christ and become a second Adam for the sake of the kingdom and the glory of God. Amen. |