That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! (John 20:19-20)The apostles were scared. It had not been a good week.
They really didn’t know what to do. They were just caught in the moment and had a lot of trouble adjusting to the whole thing. A couple of weeks ago, they had been apostles and Jesus was hanging around with them. Now they were fugitives and Jesus was dead.
They had heard that Jesus had risen from the dead, and for some reason he had appeared to one of the women, not to them. But they just couldn’t be sure.
They were having another of those long, interminable discussions that they had at times. Everybody was pontificating and trying to be in charge. Nobody was really happy. They were all in all really just scared.
Then one of them looked up and –wham! There was Jesus standing there looking at them like he did: kind of an amused, tolerant, loving look, a look that was all his.
Hey, somebody hollered. Look! They all looked around and then they all saw him. He was standing in that relaxed way he had, a look of being in charge without being arrogant about it.
It startled the fire out of them. Even though they had been hoping he would come, really, the last person they expected to see was him.
But there he was. At first, they were just startled and some of them started hollering for lack of anything else to do.
Then they realized it really was him. It was Jesus. And he was alive and he looked so good. The last time they had seen him, he was bloody and beaten and dead. Now here he was, alive and clean and almost shining. He looked good.
He said, Peace be with you, the same thing he said each time he saw them. He held out his hands and showed them the holes, along with his feet.
When they realized it was him, they were overjoyed. What was he going to do? Was he going to stay, would he keep on preaching, would he make them all special beings like himself? What would he do?
They didn’t know, but they were surely excited. One of them commented that they sure wished Thomas was here
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