As the Father sent me
Sent from his presence
On Easter evening the disciples were hiding behind locked doors, afraid, when the risen Christ suddenly stood among them. His first word was peace — peace be to you — and he showed them the wounds in his hands and side. And then, in almost the same breath, he turned that encounter outward into a commission: as the Father has sent me, even so I send you. The meeting with the risen Lord did not end in the safety of the locked room; it flung them out into the world.
This is the pattern of all genuine encounter with God: it sends. The inner room where we meet Christ has a door that opens not only inward but back out to the world. The disciples met the risen Jesus and were immediately commissioned; the presence became a sending. So it is meant to be for us — the deepest encounters with God do not terminate in private bliss but turn us outward in mission.
Notice the staggering measure of the sending: as the Father has sent me, so I send you. We are sent into the world with the same purpose and authority with which the Father sent the Son. And the sending flows from the encounter, in the peace he breathes and the wounds he shows — we go because we have met him, not in our own strength. The temptation is always to want the encounter without the sending, to stay in the room basking in his presence. But the risen One who speaks peace also says, I send you. Will you let your encounter with him become mission?
“As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.”
— Jesus, to his disciples — John 20:21 (WEB)
Let your encounter with the risen Christ become mission — sent from his presence into the world, as the Father sent him, rather than lingering in the room.
“As you sent me into the world, even so I sent them into the world.”
The deeper God draws us, the stronger the wish to stay — to keep the inner room for ourselves and bar the door against everything the world is asking of us. The interior work is to learn the risen Christ's rhythm of peace breathed, then I send you — to take his presence as marching orders rather than a place to hide, and to go out carried by his Spirit instead of your own nerve.
This week, let your time with Christ issue in sending: after meeting him in prayer, ask where he is sending you, and go — into some service, witness, or obedience — carrying his peace into the world rather than withdrawing to bask in his presence.
The enemy is content to let your inward journey curdle into a private refuge, a place to bask while the world he wants neglected goes unloved. But a soul sent from Christ's presence in his peace carries that very life back into the world it was tempted to abandon, turning encounter into the mission it was always meant to become.
There is a temptation, the deeper we go into God, to want to stay there — to treat the inner room as a private refuge, a place to bask in his presence and escape the demands of the world. The risen Christ corrects it. He met his frightened disciples in the locked room with peace, and then, in the same breath, sent them out: as the Father has sent me, so I send you. The encounter did not end in the refuge; it became a commission.
This is the rhythm of genuine union: inward to meet the risen Lord, then outward, sent by him into the world. The room of encounter has a door that opens back to the need outside, and the One we meet there does not let us merely linger; he says, I send you. And he sends us in his peace and by his Spirit, not in our own strength. If your inward journey is making you want only to withdraw and bask, hear the risen Christ: he speaks peace, and then he sends. Encounter with him is meant to become mission.
- Is my inward journey making me want only to withdraw and bask?
- Does my encounter with Christ send me outward, or keep me hidden?
- Where is the risen Lord, having breathed peace, now sending me?
Lord, the deeper I go, the more I want to stay and bask, treating your presence as my private refuge. But you breathe peace and then say, As the Father sent me, so I send you. Let my encounter with you become mission, and send me into the world in your peace and Spirit. Amen.