John 20:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For their consolation and encouragement He says, "As the Father has sent Me, so I send you." You are taking My work upon yourselves. Therefore be of good courage, for I will be with you.

Notice His authority. He did not say, "I shall entreat My Father, and He will send you," but, "I send you."

As God, He strengthened the whole earth, which was as if shaken and falling, by giving it support and foundation in them; cf. 1 Kings 10:12. Therefore through the mouth of the Psalmist He said of the earth and the Apostles: "I have established its pillars" (Ps 74:4).

Indeed, the blessed disciples became, as it were, pillars and the foundation of the truth; cf. 1 Tim 3:15. He says that He sent them as "the Father sent" Him.

In this He indicates at once the apostolic dignity and the incomparable glory of the authority given to them. At the same time He declares the path of apostolic ministry.

For if He thought that He should send His disciples as the Father sent Him, then those who were to imitate Him in everything had to see for what work the Father sent His Son.

Explaining to us in various ways the manner of His mission, He said: "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Matt 9:13). Again: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick" (Luke 5:31).

Besides this, He also says: "I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38). And again: "God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him" (John 3:17).

Therefore, gathering the ministry of apostleship into a few words, He says that He sent them just as the Father sent Him. From this they were to see that they must call sinners to repentance, heal the sick both spiritually and bodily, and in the ordering of affairs seek in no way their own will, but the will of Him who sent them.

They were also to save the world by teaching, so far as this was possible. And indeed, we see that the holy disciples themselves strove to shine in all these things. For one who has once read the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of Saint Paul, no great labor is needed to be assured of this.

The mention that He is sent in no way diminishes the Son, but communicates that He wishes us to understand here not the authority of the One who sends, but the love of the One sent.

Therefore He says: "As the Father sent Me," not the Lord, "so I send you." That is: I send you now not by the authority of a Commander, but with the whole feeling of One who loves you.

I send you to endure hunger, to suffer in chains, to languish in prison, to undergo every possible punishment, and to accept a bitter death for all. Love commands the human mind to fulfill all this, not authority.

For this reason it is said: "As the Father has sent Me, so I send you." That is: "In sending you into the scandals of persecutors, I love you with that love with which the Father loved Me, whom He predestined to go into the world to endure sufferings."

Yet in the expression "to be sent," even the Godhead by nature may be understood. For the Son is said to be sent by the Father in the same way as He is begotten of the Father.

The Son confirms that He sends even the Holy Spirit, who, being equal to the Father and the Son, nevertheless was not incarnate. He says: "When the Comforter comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father" (John 15:26).

Therefore, if the expression "to be sent" had to be understood only as meaning that He became incarnate, then without any doubt it could in no way be said that the Holy Spirit, who was not incarnate, is sent.

But His mission is the very "procession" by which He proceeds from the Father. Therefore, as the Spirit is called "sent" because He "proceeds," so also the Son is fittingly called "sent" because He is "begotten."

When He had armed His disciples with the strong weapon of peace against every warfare, He then sent them to the worldwide preaching, saying: "As the Father has sent Me, so I send you."

Great indeed, most glorious, divine, and heavenly is the apostolic dignity. As the pre-eternal Father sent His only-begotten Son into the world, so His only-begotten Son and God sent His disciples into the universe.

How did the Father send the Son? With all authority and power, as the Son Himself testified, saying: "All things have been delivered to Me by My Father" (Matt 11:27).

The God-bearing Apostles also were sent with power and authority. Therefore they healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead, performed supernatural miracles, and by their teaching subdued the whole world.

"As the Father has sent Me, so I send you." Great is this grace, a gift beyond price. The Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is sent by God. The holy Apostles also are sent by God.

For what purpose did the Father send the Son? "He has sent Me," He says, "to preach good tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to grant remission to those who turn, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of recompense, and to comfort all who mourn" (Isa 61:1-2).

Likewise in another place: "God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him" (John 3:17).

For this same purpose the sign-bearing Apostles were sent: to preach the gospel of salvation, to turn the world from deception, and to forgive men their sins.

Since the power of the All-Holy Spirit alone looses the bonds of sin, the Evangelist therefore brings forward these words of the Savior:

He never resorted to violence or weapons. Rather, by persuasion and miracles He sought to bring people to the knowledge of truth and true piety.

He Himself teaches us this, saying that He received no worldly authority from the Father. When the Jews accused Him before Pilate of calling Himself king of the Jews, Pilate asked whether He was the king of the Jews.

Christ answered in words showing that He had no worldly authority on earth: “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now My kingdom is not from here” (Jn 18:36).

Pilate again says to Him: “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered: “You say that I am a King. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth” (Jn 18:37).

Could He have testified more plainly that He did not come into the world in order to use worldly authority?

The passages of Holy Scripture that speak of this show best what authority Christ actually gave the Apostles. The Church has no authority other than that which Christ gave His disciples, and through them their successors.

If Holy Scripture does not show that Christ’s disciples received any authority other than spiritual authority, then the claims of certain hierarchs are vain. They try to prove that they may also perform the functions of secular authority.

The first and chief authority which Christ gave the Apostles is the authority to preach the Gospel throughout the whole earth and to baptize those who have faith (Mt 28:18). It is entirely clear that this authority is only spiritual.

Another authority given to the Apostles, and through them to the Church, is the authority to bind and loose: “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Mt 18:18).

Appealing to these words of Christ, some began to prove that this also applies to worldly matters. Such proofs are unfounded, because Christ Himself answers them in the following words.

“As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jn 20:21-23).

From this it is clear that the authority to bind and loose, received from Christ by the Apostles, applies only to sins. Thus it applies only to the soul, and by no means to the body, as Chrysostom wisely observes on this matter.

The third authority granted by Christ to the Apostles is the authority to celebrate the mystery of the Eucharist in remembrance of Him (Lk 22:19). This truly cannot be called worldly authority.

The Evangelist Matthew mentions the last authority, which consists in punishing offenders: “If he refuses even to hear the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector” (Mt 18:17).

These words show that the Church cannot impose on offenders any punishments other than removal from ecclesiastical communion and exclusion from the Christian community.

How far Christ and the Apostles were from the thought of any secular authority is clear from this. They most decisively kept such authority away from the Church, preserving for her exclusively spiritual authority.

First turning away from such authority Himself, Christ then told His disciples that this authority belongs not to them, but to worldly sovereigns: “The kings of the nations rule over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors. But you shall not be so” (Lk 22:25; Mk 10:42-43).

By these words Christ teaches His disciples two truths. First, they and their successors must stand far apart from every worldly authority and jurisdiction.

Second, the spiritual authority they possess is not an authority of domination, but an authority of love and goodness. The task of worldly authority is to govern external affairs, while spiritual authority governs the inner movements of the heart.

Origen, among others, says that spiritual persons are not called to lordship in the Church, but to serve their Church. Jerome sets forth the distinction between the authority of a prince and that of a bishop.

The prince rules over the unwilling, while the bishop rules over the willing. The prince subjects by fear, while the bishop himself becomes a servant. The prince guards the body unto death, while the bishop preserves the soul unto salvation.

This teaching of Holy Scripture on the character of ecclesiastical authority was what the fathers of the Council of Ephesus had in mind. In this decree, they reminded all that the arrogance of worldly authority must not creep in under the guise of sacred ministry.

In their sentence against bishops striving to obtain some preeminence over others, the fathers again showed that they had in mind the Savior’s words to His disciples concerning primacy.

“But you are not to be called teachers, for One is your Teacher, Christ, and you are all brethren. Call no man your father on earth, for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.

Neither be called instructors, for One is your Instructor, Christ. He who is greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Mt 23:8-12).

The Ephesian fathers also had before them other words of the divine Teacher, in which He showed the equality of His disciples: “Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever desires to be first among you shall be slave of all” (Mk 10:43-44).