Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

John 20:21(NIV)

What words do you associate with the word, “go”? Go home? Go away? Go ahead? Go back? 

Do you envision a crowd shouting “Go!” at a sporting event, cheering on your favorite team? Do you think of places you want to visit, of going on a trip, or a vacation? 

Chances are that these associations to the word “go” are much more likely to come to mind than the concept of being sent. But when God instructs God’s people to go, it is almost always a “sending to,” and not a “sending to” a place as much as a “sending to” a person or a people. 

This is the message of Christ to his disciples when he appears to them after the resurrection. Remember, he says, that God sent me to you. And now I am sending you so that the grace of God will be multiplied. And he breathed on them, saying Receive the Holy Spirit. By the power of the Holy Spirit, then, we are moved. We are sent.

As God sent Jesus into a world in need, and as Jesus throughout his earthly ministry personally touched people in need, God sends us as the Body of Christ to serve one another in love, to reach into the loneliest and lowliest places, to continue to minister to a world in need.  

In this season of life, where and to whom are you being sent?

Lord Jesus, love of God in the flesh, you were sent to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Now send us to those who need an extra measure of your grace this day. Amen.