The Best News EVER!

One cannot help but be moved deeply in their souls by the sympathetic gentleness of Jesus in assisting his closest companions to overcome the combination of grief over his crucifixion and stunning astonishment over his resurrection.

Chapter twenty, verses nineteen through twenty-nine of John’s Gospel reveal that just as Jesus was the Master Teacher prior to his resurrection, he continued to develop his disciples immediately after his resurrection by leading them out of their grief, wonder and fear into the glorious realization that he had in fact, been raised from the dead just as he told them numerous times before that he would be.

Just as Jesus’ voice broke through to Mary’s grief in the previous verses, Jesus’ personal presence broke through the fears and doubts of the disciples in a completely unexpected and unparalleled expression of divine love. In a manner similar to how the stone rolled across the borrowed grave of Joseph of Arimathea was no match for the mighty resurrection power of God, the locked on the inside doors of the disciples’ hiding place were no match for the resurrected Jesus’ ability to appear in the midst of the disciples.

Interesting to note is the awareness of Jesus about the impact that his sudden appearance would have upon the disciples as evidenced by the first words that he said, “Peace be with you.” The savage way that the authorities maltreated Jesus, coupled with a sense that the risk they had because of being identified with Jesus, conspired to create a sense of foreboding fear in the disciples that the locked doors symbolized. Suddenly even the locked doors they counted on for security were themselves not secure. No wonder they needed to hear the comforting words from the resurrected Jesus first! Nothing else could break through their fear and wonder that the one who just three days previously had been brutalized to the point of death was now standing alive in their midst.

But Jesus gave them more than words of comfort; he gave them tangible evidentiary proof that the one standing in their midst was indeed the same one that they had followed. He showed them his hands and side that were now different because of his suffering on the cross. Had the hands and side not shown the cruel marks of his crucifixion, the disciples would have known that it could not have been Jesus, for they knew with a certainty that Jesus had been crucified. The unimaginable joy the disciples experienced over actually seeing the resurrected Jesus was not based on fanciful speculation or wishful thinking, rather that joy was based upon the reality of his death in history and the reality of his resurrection in history.

One disciple was missing from this initial encounter with the resurrected Jesus. The disciple Thomas has been criticized by some because of his skepticism and insistence upon proof prior to accepting that Jesus was alive again. Again, just as the locked doors could not prevent Jesus from breaking through to his disciples, the locked doors of Thomas’ skepticism would not prevent Jesus from breaking through to Thomas. Jesus once again appeared suddenly in the midst of his disciples and once again, Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you.” Just as the previous time when he gave the other disciples proof of his resurrection, this time he provided undeniable proof to Thomas thus inviting him to exchange his doubt-based skepticism for fact-based faith. To his credit, Thomas immediately recognized both the reality of the resurrection and the awareness of the deity of Jesus when he said, “My Lord and my God.”
Do we, like the disciples in verses nineteen through twenty-nine, sometimes hide away from our enemies behind locked doors of our own making? Do we, like the disciples, need Jesus to appear in the midst of our fears and negative life experiences in order to replace the power that these things have over us with his fear-dispelling and death-defeating resurrection presence?

Do we hide our unbelief behind masks of skepticism and doubt? Do we, like Thomas, need to exchange our sophistication and scholasticism for the all-surpassing gift of experiencing the resurrected Jesus in every facet of our contemporary lives?

Jesus is VERY intentional. In each of these recorded instances of appearing to his disciples, Jesus calls them to the same purpose for which he came, namely the restoration of Father God’s glory via the GOOD NEWS of the Gospel in rescuing his lost children from eternal death. Lest we miss the purpose of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances to his disciples, let us also remember that through revealing himself to us in our life situations, Jesus is committed to others having the same access through our witness as indicated by his commissioning and empowering of the disciples in these verses.