(with Mark 16:13-14; Luke 24:33-49)
I. We should misinterpret the incidents of this evening meeting, we should mistake the simple, immediate and precise object which, in using them, our Lord had in view, to explain these words as if they were intended to clothe the eleven apostles, and after them their successors or representatives, to clothe any class of officials in the Church exclusively with a power of remitting and retaining sins. There were others present as well as they. Those other members of the infant Church had the benediction pronounced on them as well as on the eleven; the instructions were given to them, as well as to the eleven; the breath was breathed on them, as well as on the eleven. Had Jesus meant, when He spoke of this remitting and retaining sins, to restrict to the eleven the power and privileges conferred, should He not by some word or token have made it manifest that such was His desire?
II. We are not in the least disposed to doubt that, while Christ speaks of the remitting and the retaining of sins as pertaining to the Church at large, His words cover the acts of the Church in her organised capacity the inflicting and removing of ecclesiastical censures through the office-bearers, in the exercise of discipline. Here, however, we have two remarks to make: (1) That it is only so far as these acts are done by spiritual men, seeking and following the guidance of the Spirit; only so far as they are in accordance with Christ's own expressed will that they are of any avail, or can plead any heavenly ratification; and (2) that all the force they carry is nothing more nor less, than an authoritative and official declaration of what that will of the Lord is. The Church's function is strictly limited to the announcing of a pardon, which it is for the grace of the Heavenly Forgiver alone to bestow. And if, in executing that simple but most honourable office of proclaiming unto all men that there is remission of sins through the name of Jesus, she teaches that it is alone through her channels through channels that priestly or ordained consecrated hands can alone open the pardon cometh, she trenches upon the rights and prerogatives of Him whom she represents, and turns that eye upon herself that should be turned alone on Him.
W. Hanna, The Forty Days,p. 65.
References: John 20:19-23. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 218; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 194; vol. ii., p. 247; vol. iv., p. 264; B. F. Westcott, Revelation of the Risen Lord,p. 79. John 20:19-24. Homilist,2nd series, vol. iii., p. 90.