Second Sunday of Easter, April 12, 2026
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
 Breath of God
The doors were locked for fear of the Jews.
Jesus came and stood among the disciples and said,
“Peace be with you!” He breathed on them and said,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.”
John’s words open my eyes wide. What else did Jesus do?
A week later … though the doors were locked,
Jesus came and stood among them and said,
“Peace be with you!”
What didn’t you write about, John?
Jesus did many other miraculous signs
 in the presence of his disciples,
which are not recorded in this book.
What? Tell me more! It’s all so beautiful, you are so beautiful, Jesus.
But these are written that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that by believing you may have life in his name.
… I want to see all of you there is to see.
I remember a weekend many years ago at Robinson Correctional Center, just beyond the Heath bar factory, during a break in our Kogudus weekend retreat. (Kogudus, like Walk to Emmaus and Cursillo, gives us a chance to renew/recover/revisit our love for God, in prison or outside).
I stood outside the gym with Joseph Crawford, who has been in prison for 14 years and would be released in just a few weeks.
“So, Joe, what will you do first when you get out?”
“The first thing I’m going to do is cry. And I’ll have dinner with my family. And I’ll have a great big greasy double cheeseburger somewhere.”
We looked together across the horizon. The sun was shining, the sky was blue. Double rows of bright chain-link fence joined by rolls of razor wire interrupted our view.
“Joe, in 75 days you’ll be able to walk as far as you want to in a straight line. You’ll be able to walk clear across that cornfield. You can keep on going.”
Joseph looked beyond the wire fence, maybe for the first time in a long time. He saw the cornfield. He saw himself in the cornfield. He looked at me. “Dave, you’re going to make me cry right now.”
What kind of joy rises up inside me when I’m released from the locked prison cell of my mind? Big joy. Joy that knows no end. Joy that never needs to stop. Joy that fills me up and won’t let me go. Jesus doesn’t just wander in; he’s through the walls and breathing in my face, and the light he brings … oh, the light he brings! Jesus, you make me cry, joyful hallelujah tears, washing down my face and covering the ground with shouts of thanksgiving. The rocks don’t need to cry out – I’ll cry out, Jesus. You’re alive, you’re here, I’m home.
I want to be with you every moment, Jesus, and see it all.
(Acts 2, Psalm 118, 1 Peter 1, John 20)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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