The apostle John remains true to his favourite subject ‘love.’ In the last two chapters of His Gospel, he mentions how Jesus systematically, with great tact and much love appeared to His disciples, from Mary Magdalene on the Sunday at dawn to more than five hundred on the mount of Olives that saw Him ascend to back to heaven. In the twentieth chapter He mentions how she, finding the tomb empty, distraught at what she found, she run to tell it to the disciples, broken up no doubt! finding Simon Peter and John exclaimed: ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him.’ Hearing this they both run, Peter went in and: ‘saw the strips of linen lying there as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’s head, the cloth was folded by itself, separate from the linen.’ John, at first would not enter the empty tomb, once Peter entered it, John followed him, and adds: ‘He saw and believed.’ It appears to me, that from the time Mary found the empty tomb, that they all felt puzzled and bereft, having discovered that Mary was right, for at first, they doubted her story! They completely forgot that Jesus said, that on the third day He would rise from the dead!

The disciples were living all these amazing experiences in a world very much like ours. A world where there is so much sadness and sorrow, hatred, wars and rumours of wars, murders, hatred; the political and spirituel situation of the nation was very precarious in their days, and it is very dangerous in our days. Although they saw Jesus alive, it did not help them to suddenly grasp the astonishing change, and enjoy the difference that the love of God prepared for them, which would completely change their lives! For, what was happening to them, was nigh impossible to take it all in. It was not long since they saw Jesus dying on the cross, being taken and laid in the tomb! And to suddenly see Him alive was a bit too much; but slowly the manifestations of Him being alive, turned their deep sorrow into joy! Yet, what Luke wrote to his friend Theophilus, proves that Jesus, spend the time He needed, to prepare all the disciples for what was in store for them in days to come, and cause them to realise that the work He began, they would continue with the same power!

So, when what they completely dismissed, happened, they all forsook Him and fled fearing for their lives. We must understand that this odious crime, the killing of their master, and His resurrection was not few days or a week or two after, or a month, it all really happened so quickly, in just over forty-eight hours. So, when Jesus rose from the dead, early on the Sunday, everything was still fresh, they were with Jesus celebrating the Passover till the early hours of the Friday. The dawn was barely breaking when Jesus surrendered to the mob that came to apprehend Him, and by nine of the same morning, was crucified! Just after three p.m. Jesus died, and Joseph of Arimathea with the help of Nicodemus had to lay His body in the tomb, before six p.m. when started the Passover feast! As far as the disciples were concerned that was a sad, unexpected end! It was just after that burial, witnessed by some women, that the apostles, with some women and disciples, shut themselves behind lock doors, in fear of the Jews, wandering what daybreak would bring? On many occasions Jesus did tell them that this would happen, and that He would rise on the third day, but somehow they could not accept it.

Therefore, the guilt they all felt, and all their mixed-up feelings, after all that they witnessed, was very fresh, unbearable, they could hardly believe all that happened in the last hours of a very eventful day, I wonder what they could say to each other, for they were traumatised, numb, broken! Peter, in the silence of his heart, felt deeply the guilt of his denial, so sure of himself was he! He most probably was still tearful, still emotional, remembering the feeling that produced those loving, searching eyes, that looked at him. This happened, as his Master was leaving the judgement hall, carrying His cross. This look of love he knew so well, broke his heart, and leaving the crowd, as it is written, he went and wept bitterly! How did he really feel in the morning of the Passover sabbath? For the unbelievable happened, the wicked Jews have managed in the end to kill Jesus; behind locked doors they feared that they would also arrest them and get rid of them as well? But God’s angels watched over them, and He knew how they felt and that soon, as Jesus said it: ‘Their sorrow would be turned to joy’