When there is uncertainty, fear can creep into our minds and hearts creating hesitation and feelings of being overwhelmed. When those parts of life that once made sense become less coherent, we tend to retreat to where life seemed more stable.
After Jesus’ resurrection, the Gospel writers tell us about different times Jesus appeared to the disciples. We read in John 20:19, “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!’”
The disciples had come face to face with the empty tomb and it did not make sense to them. Over the previous week they had gone from the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem to the Last Supper to the arrest and the cross. The once stable life following Jesus was crashing down around them. Amid their confusion and instability, they hid for fear of what the Jewish leaders might do to them.
Even after Jesus had appeared to them, they were still searching for what might be next for their lives. In John 21:3, we read, “’I’m going out to fish,’ Simon Peter told them, and they said, ‘We’ll go with you.’” Peter along with six other disciples headed to fish. It does not seem they are returning to their vocation; rather, it seems they are returning to what they knew to be stable before they started walking with Jesus. They are trying to understand what is happening in their life and seeking some level of stability.
This same fear can cause us to hide from the world and to return to what gave us stability in the past. As the church seeks to understand her role in the world today where the message of the Gospel is not understood or has been co-opted, we need to recognize the power we have through the resurrected Christ and the promised Holy Spirit.
In The Christ of Every Road: A Study in Pentecost, E. Stanley Jones writes, “The church today is behind closed doors for fear. Pentecost has not closed the hiatus between its message and what it is, so with resources too inadequate to face life it closes the door for fear” (32). When we sense our message cannot bridge the gap between the struggles of this world and the Truth of the Gospel, we hide out of a sense of inadequacy. We fall back into old habits, old programs, and hope for the best.
Jones also writes, “For up to Pentecost the whole thing was on the outside of them, objective, something spoken, acted before them. It wasn’t in them. At Pentecost this gospel came within them, became identical with them—what they had heard and seen and what they were became one, hence they became irresistible apostles of a mighty passion” (32). When we are fearful, the fear can only be overcome with the outpouring the Holy Spirit into our lives. It is not more self-help books or more trying to change our thinking—it is the transformed, actual life of the Holy Spirit at work in us.
If you are fearful and struggle to live the Truth you have heard, seek the Holy Spirit to do a deep work in you. This time between Easter and Pentecost is a great time to consider those places we are afraid and turn them over to the Lord.
Prayer: Lord, when I struggle with fear causing me to retract from community, life, and new experiences, send your Holy Spirit to overcome the fear in me. I want to live the life you have given to me to the fullest. I no longer want fear to control me. Set me free to live fully. In Jesus’ name. Amen.