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TL;DR:
Jesus was sent to reveal God to the world by living among us. In turn, Jesus sends His followers—including global missionaries—to embody and proclaim His message. Being sent “as the Father sent Jesus” means long-term incarnational ministry: living among and loving people cross-culturally, becoming “Jesus with skin on.”
Were Jesus’ words about sending His chosen disciples meant only for them?
Commentary on John 20:21
On Resurrection Sunday, Jesus appeared to His disciples. John’s Gospel says Jesus greeted the group with the familiar Hebrew word shalom (peace). To assure His followers of His identity, Jesus showed them His hands and side. He then said, “I am sending you.”
Those words should not surprise us. Throughout Scripture, Yahweh reveals Himself as a sending God. What makes John 20:21 stand out is the phrase “As the Father has sent me.”
In the 1954 hymn “So Send I You,” Margaret Clarkson’s text, set to music by John W. Peterson, explores some of what John 20:21 might imply:
“So send I you, to take to souls in bondage
The word of truth that sets the captive free,”
The opening chapter of John’s Gospel says that Jesus (the Word) came and “made His dwelling among us” (John 1:14). We know from the Gospels that Jesus was on earth for more than a 10-day mission trip. Indeed, the Father sent Jesus to earth for 33 years. The Message paraphrase of Scripture calls attention to that fact by rendering the dwelling-among-us phrase as “He moved into the neighborhood.” Because of this, the sending of Jesus has parallels with a call to long-term missionary service.
For God-called missionaries, “as He sent me” means leaving familiar surroundings and crossing wide cultural divides for the long term. It means becoming “Jesus with skin on” and settling among unfamiliar people groups “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
The phrase “Jesus with skin on” comes from the story of a mother trying to calm a frightened child one stormy night. His mother’s assurances that Jesus would be with him in the storm did little to comfort the small boy. He pleaded to get into bed with his parents because, he said, he needed “Jesus with skin on.”
We must consider that “as He sent me” may well imply—as Martin Luther and C. S. Lewis both said—that believers, including missionaries, become little Christs. “As He sent me” should point us to Jesus’ incarnation, in which people saw both the divine and the human. Jesus came to reveal God to us. Paul proclaimed that Christ lives in and through believers (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:27). Therefore, those whom Jesus sends cross-culturally are to reveal Him.
“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” One simple sentence. Ten powerful words.
“If we fail to send, the gospel fails to reach, and if the gospel fails to reach, souls remain unreached.” — Charles Hansen, Nazarene Bible College student
— Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu
This blog post about a world missions Bible passage is one of more than three dozen articles in the “Heart of God” series published in Engage, a monthly online magazine. The series examines what the Bible says about world missions.
In the Bible, God is often described as having “sent” one person or another. God is the initiator of missions and the ultimate sender. He sent prophets, patriarchs, and, eventually, His own Son, Jesus Christ, to fulfill His redemptive plan for humanity. Such sending is an expression of His love and His desire for reconciliation with all people. He wants people worldwide to know of His invitation to enter a loving relationship with Him. As God’s people, we should feel obligated to proclaim that invitation clearly to every ethnolinguistic group on earth.
Like acrostics? Here are more of them.
“The church exists by mission, just as a fire exists by burning. Where there is no mission, there is no church.”
Memorable Quotes About Other Bible Verses
