The scripture passage in today's reading comes from the Gospel of John, Chapter 20, versus 11-31 (Joh 20:11-31). I'm sure most of us are familiar with John's account of what happened after the resurrection. We know that in John's account, Mary Magdalene was crying outside of the tomb when she saw two angels. The angels asked why she was crying and Mary explains that she believes that the body of Jesus has been removed, and she doesn't know where they have laid him. She then has the first encounter with the risen Christ. He tells Mary that she should not try to touch or hold on to him. Since Jesus willingly asks Thomas to touch him later, and appears to the disciples in the upper room, and after speaking with them, asks for something to eat, we can conclude that at least in some ways, Jesus was still quite human. Perhaps he was only telling Mary that she should not cling to him or try to detain him. He had much to do before ascending to the Father.

Next we find the disciples hiding from the Jewish leaders by locking themselves in a room. Jesus suddenly is amongst them. The disciples are naturally overjoyed to see their beloved teacher again. It is truly a miracle that he has appeared to them in this way. He is obviously alive and has been resurrected from death as evidenced by the wounds he showed them in his hands and side.

In verse 21, Jesus reiterates to his disciples the manner in which they are being commissioned, and then he breathes on them and indicates that he is granting them the Holy Spirit:

...21 After Jesus had greeted them again, he said, "I am sending you, just as the Father has sent me." 22 Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone's sins, they will be forgiven. But if you don't forgive their sins, they will not be forgiven." (Joh 20:21-23).

When asked when the Holy Spirit was received by the disciples, most of us would answer quickly that this occurred on the Day of Pentecost. In Acts 2:4, we learn that after the ascension of Jesus, the believers gathered in the upper room and had an experience, and "all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them".

So when was the Holy Spirit actually received by the disciples?

This has been debated by Bible Scholars and three theories have emerged to provide some clarification for this apparent conflict. In the first theory, some argue that this is John's version of the events of the Day of Pentecost, or at least a symbolic representation of what is to come in Acts. Symbolism is the way of John. The problem here is that the disciples did not go out and witness after hearing these words from Jesus. In fact, Thomas was missing from this meeting with Jesus, and the disciples were powerless to convince Thomas that they had seen the risen Lord. In fact, Thomas would then appear to have missed out on receiving the Holy Spirit in the same manner in which the others had received him.

In the second theory, John's depiction of these events is said to be one type of giving of the Spirit and Acts is another. John is a sprinkling with the grace of the Spirit and Acts is the full empowerment of the Spirit. One problem with this approach is that neither John nor Acts seems to know about two separate types of reception of the Spirit.

The third approach looks at John 20:22 as a symbolic giving or promising of the Spirit, which was experientially received on Pentecost.

It remains with the reader to decide which approach satisfies their curiosity for details. We may simply chose not to attempt a reconciliation for both texts. What is more important than harmonizing the passages is the recognition that both John and Acts do indeed insist that the Holy Spirit is necessary for the mission of the church. Mere human power with no other authority is not sufficient to carry out the mission Jesus received from the Father. Likewise, it is not sufficient to carry out the mission the disciples had received from Jesus. It takes the Living Spirit of God dwelling within the believer to produce the results the Father intends, and that is the boldness to share the Gospel with others, the gift of loving mercy, a deep abiding faith in a loving and living Creator, an unexplainable peace felt deep within one's soul, and salvation and deliverance from evil through the forgiveness of sins.