Day 34
The Main Event: the resurrection
Read: Luke
24:1-44
The disciples were not expecting Jesus to rise again. With the Pharisees
they shared a contemporary belief of the in the resurrection of the righteous,
they had neither paid attention to, nor understood or believed Jesus' teaching
about his own resurrection. His death completely shattered their belief that he
was the Messiah, the one who would establish God's kingdom. Frankly it’s understandable
why the disciples were not participants in his burial or first to visit the
tomb on the first day of the week.
It was the women of Jesus' inner circle, those who had followed him from
Galilee. Full of love and devotion to their dead friend, they went to the tomb
to anoint Jesus' body with aromatic oil.
To their great amazement, they discovered that the stone which covered
the tomb-entrance was rolled away and that the tomb was empty. They rushed to
report this sensational news to the disciples.
Of itself, the empty tomb could not convince the disciples. Someone
could have carried the body away and buried it elsewhere. Only John believed
immediately, when he saw the empty tomb. Peter and John found the linen burial
wrappings, stiff with dried ointment, as though they still enclosed a body; the
head cloth lay separately, as if Jesus had passed through the shroud. The
visual evidence was important, but their coming encounter would be
transformational.
The disciples were convinced when they personally met the risen Jesus,
hopelessness and despair turned into joyful belief. The lifelike person they
met really was Jesus of Nazareth in bodily form.
Ponder Point
(reflect)
- Jesus is interested in
transforming more than convincing me
Consider
(respond)
- If you don’t expect Jesus to
do what he said will he do it anyway?
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