As soon as the Sabbath is over, there is an earthquake, and
an angel rolls the stone away. The
guards go from life to death, as Jesus goes from death to life. The closest women disciples to Jesus go to
the tomb to finish treating Jesus’ body.
They realize they’ll have to move the stone, which they aren’t sure they
can do. They are assuming Jesus is still
dead. But the angel announces that He is
risen. They run back to the disciples
and tell them. They hardly believe them,
but Peter and John run to the tomb. They
find it empty and wonder what happened, and leave. Mary hangs around, and Jesus appears to her,
but she thinks He is the gardener at first.
The guards report back – they’re in trouble. They let a Roman seal on the tomb be broken,
but the chief priests bribe and cover for them with Rome to tell a cover story
that the body was stolen. It seems the
guards were temple ruler guards, not Roman, or they wouldn’t report to the
chief priests.
Late that afternoon, two disciples leave Jerusalem for home
in Emmaus, and Jesus meets them, but they don’t recognize him. They talk like He’s dead and it’s all over,
their hopes are dashed, when He’s right there, alive! Jesus explains from Scripture how He had to
die and rise again. Their hearts burn
within them. He goes home with them,
prays before the meal, they realize it’s Him, and He disappears. They run back to Jerusalem 7 miles in the
dark, and the disciples tell them Jesus has appeared to Peter – that appearance
isn’t recorded anywhere. Jesus then appears
to all of them, lets them touch Him, He eats fish in front of them.
Doubting Thomas wasn’t there, though, and he doesn’t believe
them when they tell him later. It seems
Jesus didn’t appear to them between the first and 2nd Sunday. He wasn’t constantly with them those 40 days
before His ascension.
But the next Sunday he is with them and Jesus appears again,
and calls out Thomas gently to touch and see and believe. This is arguably THE climax of the Gospel of
John, when Thomas falls down before Jesus and says, “My Lord and My God.” John the gospel writer then basically turns to
face the camera and says to us, blessed are those who haven’t seen Him and
believe. You can be like Thomas. Maybe you’ve doubted b/c you’ve never seen
Jesus yourself, but we should believe these witnesses, fall down before Jesus,
and declare our loyalty and love for such a great Savior.
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