When therefore it was evening on that day, which was the first [day] of the week, and the doors shut where the disciples were, through fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and says to them, Peace [be] to you.
On the evening of resurrection day, the disciples hid behind locked doors. They were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Then Jesus stood among them and said, "Peace." Why the fear, how did He get in, and why that first word?
Shut Doors and Fear
The bolted door shows what was in their hearts. No lock could cure it:
Here the closed door showed the fear of the disciples. They were afraid of the Jews. And what could cure their fear? Nothing but fellowship with their risen Lord. And He did not leave them without that cure — blessed be His name. He appeared among them and pronounced His blessing on them. "Peace be to you," He said. "Peace," not because their door was secured, but because Jesus was risen. Who could harm them, while they had in their midst the mighty Conqueror of death and hell?
The Risen Body
The shut doors are not just background detail. One writer reads them as a demonstration of what a risen body can do:
On that day the Lord gave the assembled disciples a striking witness of the power of life in resurrection. The doors were shut where they were, for fear of the Jews, yet Jesus came and stood in the midst. Weakness belongs to the natural body. A wall, a closed door, a chain or a thousand other things stop it, unless a miracle happens. Not so the body raised in power, as the Lord here shows them without a word… Nothing here suggests that the doors opened by themselves; everything suggests the opposite.
Not a Wish but a Gift
Here the words do more than greet. One writer draws the line between wishing someone peace and handing it over:
Peace was now not merely wished. It was pronounced with authority, given to them on the warrant of the cross. Jesus now gave peace to them, because He had already made it for them. And this is the peace that we, who are in it, can tell our fellow sinners about. We do not merely say, "Peace be to this house," as the seventy disciples He sent out were told to do — a greeting, a wish for the good of the house. We proclaim to that house the sure, settled, purchased peace, which sinners have a title to, in the blood of the cross.
Why the Message Lands
The same word answers the deepest problem a person has. It also exposes a road that leads nowhere:
He had left peace as His legacy before the cross. Now alive again from the dead, He announces it to His own. How sweet the sound in a world at war with God! It is doubly sweet where earnest souls have tried and failed to make peace with God for themselves. Their sighs and tears and groans could not do it. Neither could their prayers, longings and agony. Neither could their efforts to avoid evil and hold to good. Such people know best that conscience and heart find no solid peace in self-judgment or self-denial, in thinking about God or in working for Him. In fact, the more sincere they are, the less peace they have. They are on the wrong road altogether. Only the blood of Christ's cross can make peace for a sinful man, and faith receives it on His word.
The First Day of the Week
John names the day. One writer notes what set that day apart:
In time that day would receive its fitting name, "the Lord's day" (Revelation 1:10). It is as characteristic of the Christian as the Sabbath was of the Jew. Two things marked it off: the saints gathered together, and the Lord present in their midst. So it was again at the start of the following week (verse 26)… This was not the day of creation rest, nor of law imposed. It was the day of resurrection, and of the grace that joins the believer to its rich and lasting results.
A Pattern That Still Holds
One writer treats that room as the model for every gathering of believers since:
We turn back to this first assembly meeting, this pattern of what every assembly meeting should be. The Lord has now gone up to His Father, but He has not forgotten those He has left in the world. We have His own words: "Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them" (Matthew 18:20). And the Holy Spirit is with all such believers, to make the presence of the Lord as real to the faith and love of His saints as it was to those disciples on that first day of the week.
Summary
- Fear — The locked door measured their terror. The cure was not a stronger door but the risen Lord among them.
- Entry — No barrier stops Him. The shut doors show the power of a body raised in resurrection, not a door swinging open by itself.
- Peace — His first word is not a wish but an announcement. The cross has already made peace, and He hands it over on His authority.
- Rest — Self-denial, prayer and self-examination cannot make peace. The more sincere the effort, the less the peace.
- Pattern — First day of the week, disciples gathered, the Lord in the midst. That evening set the pattern believers still meet by.