“Try rebooting,” my husband tells me.
It seems rebooting is the castor oil of ailing computers. It always gives me a gut ache, like I may never again see beyond the spinning wheel on my screen. I wonder if the disciples may have felt a bit like that after Jesus died.
The Easter holiday is past, but the resurrection is not.
“He presented himself alive to them (the apostles) after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” Acts 1:3; ESV.
Forty days.
Supposing Jesus literally rose from the dead on April 1, He would have still been around walking, talking, and teaching his followers until May 11.
We don’t have a lot of information in Scripture about those days, but we do know He:
- appeared to two on the road
- came to 10 apostles through locked doors
- appeared to 11 with Thomas
- appeared to the disciples while fishing
- ate with them on the shore
- appeared to over 500
The thing that sticks in my mind is He rose from the dead. The disciples witnessed His torture, His betrayal, saw Him take His last breath, touched His hands and His side. Yet, He stayed another forty days, speaking about the kingdom of God and explaining the Scriptures.
What must that have been like? Surely the disciples’ emotions were a rollercoaster.
Such a thing had never been done before. Thousands and thousands of sacrificial passover lambs were put to death through the centuries but one never came back to life. And the enormity of it is mind boggling.
Last Sunday we celebrated the greatest event of history, we remembered how the world changed, salvation was bought, and Satan was overcome. But, the most powerful truth can become second-hand, mundane, back burner, or a great story when needed.
This fact of the gospel, is our daily breath. It is the oxygen of the believer. It is God’s truth. We need it today like the day of our salvation, when we were transformed from death to life.
How wonderful it must have been, on the road to Emmaus, walking with Jesus,
“Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32; ESV).
His entrance through locked doors would have been spectacular. “Touch me, and see…He showed them His hands and feet…Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures…” (Luke 24:36-47; ESV).
And when Peter decided to go fishing, Jesus stood on the shore, “Children, do you have any fish?” And the haul was so full they needed help to bring it in. (John 214-19).
God’s lovingkindness bent down to touch his bewildered followers with post-resurrection love, forgiveness and teaching. He walked with them and talked with them. They ate together.
After Jesus’ resurrection, “…Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31; ESV).
Jesus never meant it to end at the cross or even at the empty tomb.
In so many ways, nothing changed, the world went on and people went back to work, yet everything changed.
God’s love had never before been demonstrated so clearly, faith so certain or forgiveness so powerful.
Death rebooted to life.
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