On reading the
account of Jesus’ resurrection and appearing to His disciples I was struck by
how He gently prepared them to receive the truth.
They had just been devastated because of His death. They were convinced He was the Messiah and
would deliver them from the Romans, but instead the Romans had killed Him on a
cross. This looked like the end of
everything to them. But Jesus rose again
and gently prepared His disciples, including the women, to see Him once more,
the risen Christ. First the women found
the stone over the tomb had been rolled away and looking in saw there was no
body. They relayed the news back to
Peter and John who came to see for themselves.
When they had gone Mary Magdalene stayed at the tomb and met a man she
presumed was the gardener, but when He spoke to her and used her name she
recognised Jesus and believed what she was seeing. She went back and told the disciples that
Jesus was alive, but they did not believe.
Two disciples
decided to leave Jerusalem and go to Emmaus, perhaps it was their home. On the way they talked about all that had
happened that week. After a while a
stranger joined them and having heard their account of the death of Jesus He
began to explain to them from the Old Testament that the Messiah was meant to
die. They invited Him into their home
and at the meal the stranger took bread and broke it and blessed it. It was then that they recognised Jesus and at
once He disappeared. They could not keep
this to themselves but returned the seven miles to Jerusalem to tell the other
disciples, not just the eleven. It was
only after all this preparation that Jesus appeared to His disciples in the
upper room. He suggested they touch Him
to prove He was not a ghost and ate food for the same reason. Again He showed the many places in the Old
Testament which spoke about Him. This shows
we need to know our Old Testament as well as our New.
Jesus appeared to His disciples many times over the next six weeks. They were changed people and ready to receive the Spirit and then to spread the Good News of Jesus boldly wherever and whenever they could.
Jesus still leads
His children tenderly and gently today. And then He sends us out to spread the Good News of salvation in Jesus alone.
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