The apostle John says, that on the first day of the week: ‘When the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus stood among them and said ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, He showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw Him!’ (John 20: 19-20) The wounds were fresh, but they were not bleeding. The glorified body of Christ had no blood, and never will have again! The wounds proved that it was really Him, and they will forever be the marks of what men have done to Him, a reminder that He died to redeem every Christians, those that His Father gave to Him; He gave His life for their redemption and shed His blood to cleanse them from their sins. I wonder if seeing Him alive they thought that He was back among them for good, for His peace filled their hearts once more, yet it was only a short visit, He disappeared again so soon and ascended to heaven!

They never enjoyed His presence again, not until the time, when they, with every believer, will meet Him at the rapture, and go home to heaven to be with Jesus forever as He promised! then together with them, we too shall forever be with the Lord! Never to part nor return to earth as it is now! We live with this assurance founded on what Jesus said to them before His passion: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; (mansions) if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.’ (John 14: 1-4)

After all His appearances, for there were quite a few, the last one was on the mount of Olives, as stated previously, the disciples returned their dwelling place in Jerusalem and continued to wait, behind locked doors in fear of the Jews, (John 19: 19) it is not recorded that they even spoke to anyone outside their circle, to tell the people of Jerusalem that Jesus was risen from the dead. The only witnesses that said to the people that Jesus was alive, are the soldiers that related to the Jewish authorities what had happened, it is written, that they were all troubled at the news: ‘Then the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them: You are to say, His disciples came during the night and stole Him away while we were asleep. If this report gets to Pilate, the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So, the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day!’ (Matthew 28:11-15) With every proof that they had to conclude that Jesus was who He said He was, they still continued to deny it and became worse with time and never stopped fighting the truth.

This story is still believed by many around the world today! Not only by the Jews that are in great numbers around the world, but many Gentiles do so also, for it suits their theories for they do not believe in his divine origin, the very clever men, that are supposedly so enlightened, in these sophisticated days we live in, exclude all revelations given to men by God; yet in the blindness of their dull minds, they are completely incapable to believe the smallest truth about the glorious Son of God, who, by His death and resurrection defeated, sin, death and the devil. I thank the Lord that He has a way of opening men’s heart to the truth and believe! What do you believe about Jesus?

Nevertheless, the disciples knew a lot more than anybody else, because they saw Jesus alive, they saw Him go to heaven, they heard the heavenly envoys which told them that Jesus is destined to return, to this earth (Acts 1: 10-11) for Jesus is due to reign on earth for a thousand years. Yet after all those exciting experiences, they had to face reality, Jesus was back in heaven and they had a job to do, but could not do it in the state they were. They lived through very traumatic times which left them in pieces. How can we imagine what it was like to go through what they went through? In their sorrow, disappointed, they concluded that the death of their master on the cross was the end. Although Jesus did tell them that He would die, that on the third day be would rise from the dead, but they could not understand it not until He appeared alive on many occasions. During the forty days that He spent on earth, before going back to heaven, Jesus healed a lot of the pain, the trauma and the struggles they all felt during these awful days. Nevertheless, they were there in Jerusalem, still wondering how it would all pan out! Let’s not be too harsh at their reactions, it was all hard to grasp and imagine what would follow, I for one, sympathise with their reactions, but a change was promised and it happened!