‘Jesus himself stood in the midst of them’, and this indicates the personal closeness of the Lord, the familiarity that he showed. He stood in the midst of them. Some modern translations rather weaken it. They say, Jesus stood among them. It's much better to stick to these terms, ‘stood in the midst of them’, because that is the Greek. He stood right in the centre of them. Now there are others with the apostles, and of course there were the two men who went on the Emmaus road, so let's say there are at least fifteen people, possibly twenty, or some say twenty-five, so the room is fairly crowded. Jesus not only comes into the room through the locked doors, but he passes through the middle of these men, standing quite close to each other, and appears in the very centre of them. He is going to be close to them all. He isn't acting like a high priest of old. The high priest who was just picture language, an illustration and prophecy of the coming great high priest, Christ the Lord. And yet he was a dignified figure and robed in a certain way. But Christ comes and he stands right in the midst of them. This is the end of the priesthood. Their future with Christ is going to be as close to him as is possible on earth. The age of faith will begin. Christ is soon going to rise into heaven. The ascension will take place. They will no longer see him. They will not audibly hear his voice. It is the age of faith. All our spiritual experiences since Christ ascended into heaven are by faith. You can put ‘by faith’ in front of anything. When some of our earnest but excitable Charismatic friends tell us they have seen this and heard that, we say, ‘No. All our spiritual experience is by faith.’ Christ demonstrates that nevertheless he is close to his people, standing in the very centre of the apostles. No priesthood, no hierarchy, no episcopal bishops and archbishop or Catholic priests and pope. Wherever we are and whatever we do, if we are walking with him, we conceive him as being by us. Indeed, his Spirit, the Holy Spirit is resident within every true believer. He would no longer be physically and audibly present, but they must believe in his nearness.
‘Peace be unto you.’ That was a common greeting in those days, but from the Lord they knew it meant much more than an ordinary greeting. He had given them his legacy: ‘My peace I give unto you’ (John 14:27). He was preparing them for his death. ‘Here is my last will and testament. Here is what I leave you. I leave you something so precious. I leave you my peace.’ So it has great significance when he says, ‘Peace be unto you.’ The word comes from the Greek verb to join. I leave you reconciliation. You are joined close to me now and forever. It is accomplished; I am yours and you are mine. It's a word full of assurance, full of certainty. We have the peace of God which passes all understanding. In everything we do for him, in every trial, we remember Christ has said, ‘Peace be unto you.’ ‘You are never separated from me. I am only just a prayer away.’
John records the same event, and we see it is more than just a greeting. ‘Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you’ (John 20:21). He is not just giving them peace; he is giving them the ministry of peace, the ministry of reconciliation. We not only have the gift of assurance and peace, we have the commission, the duty of the ministry of peace and reconciliation. The two go together.