Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. 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!” John 20:17-19 NIV

How long have you sat with the thought that God calls you family? Pause and let the meaning intoxicate you. Jesus unites himself to the disciples by calling them brothers. The New creation, through the death and resurrection of Christ, has produced a unity. Unity has occurred, a unity so amazing that his brothers have now entered into Jesus’ very own relationship with the One who loved him before the creation of the world. The relationship that Jesus has with the Father is now shared with them. They don’t have a relationship different than what Jesus has with the Father. It is the same relationship. Jesus is sharing his eternal experience of God with them. They have entered into the divine dance that existed between the Father & the Son from eternity. Basically, he is saying, from now on you'll be relating to God as I have. From now on God will hear their prayers as though they were the prayers of Jesus (John 16:26-27). From this point on, John 17:26 will be their experience in which Jesus says the love that God has for him will be inside of them. Now Jesus himself will be inside of them so that the love the Father has for Jesus will be directed toward them. That’s a lot of love and a ton of attention.

Mary hears this good news and goes forth with the message of Jesus’ resurrection to the disciples. Later that Sunday evening, the disciples are behind closed doors because they are afraid. Suddenly, Jesus appears in the middle of them. Imagine this moment of being scared out of your mind, expletives coming out of your mouth, the rush of adrenaline, and now imagine the Lord of creation soothing your fear with his peace. He says, “Peace be with you!” This is what Jesus always does when he finds the family gathered together, leaning on each other in fear, anxiety, weakness, pain, or whatever. When he finds them together, he APPEARS right in the middle of them and spills his peace everywhere. But we want him to appear on our terms, on our individualistic terms. But the only way we’ll be able to see him, the only way that we’ll be able to truly comprehend him is when we are TOGETHER, relationally interdependent on one another! He will not compromise with us! This is the theology supporting all of our gatherings, especially gatherings on the first day of the week. We gather because God made us family.

“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” Psalm 133:1 NIV