Jack Hardaway
]
That first breath and that last breath.
A new born, that first choking indignant intake of breath before that first scream.
And then when we breathe our last. Sometimes it stops immediately. Sometimes it slowly fades, getting softer and softer.
Breath.
Breath is Spirit, and Spirit is life.
The life force is the breath of God, animating the first human gathered from the dust of the earth at creation.
Animating the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel, reassembled bone to bone, flesh and ligament and skin, and then the breath that makes them rise anew.
Jesus breathed his last in Mark. In John he gave up his Spirit.
Breath. Breath is Spirit and Spirit is life, the force of life.
The Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.
Jesus suddenly stands among the hiding disciples with their closed and locked doors.
I can imagine it like Gomer Pyle showing up and saying, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”
But the surprise is not that Jesus lives, the surprise is that the disciples were dead, and they didn’t even know it. They were out of breath.
He breathed on them. And the dead live.
And to live, to breathe the breath of God, is to forgive.
There it is. Forgive.
Do you want to live, do you want to be all the way alive? Then forgive.
Do you want to be in communion with God? Then forgive.
Do you want to believe in Jesus? Then forgive.
Do you want to be Spirit filled? Then forgive.
Our choice, to be bound or to be unbound.
Do we want freedom? Liberty? Liberation? To be set free? Forgive.
The freedom of God, Jesus breathes that liberation into us.
That is the Resurrection.
The disciples were dead. Will they now to choose to live with that breath of God fresh on their lips? Will they breathe in? Will they forgive?
Thomas believes. He sees and believes.
With bated breath creation awaits, will we believe as well? Will we breathe in that breath and live, that first gasping choking breath, will we rise from the dead, and forgive?
The dead walk around, everywhere, unforgiving.
The unbelief in the world is breath taking.
The inability to forgive, to be free, to become alive, it binds us, it steals our breath away.
That first breath, and that last breath.
The power to forgive, to bring the dead to life.
Do not doubt but believe.
Breathe.
Breathe deep.