We often think of Easter as one day, the Sunday we celebrate Jesus’s resurrection from the dead. In this mindset, the “Easter season” includes the weeks we spend preparing for this celebration (both in terms of special events at church as well as holiday preparations at home), and Easter Sunday marks the end of this “season.” However, in the Christian tradition, the Easter season actually begins with Resurrection Sunday and ends 40 days later with Ascension Day (or 10 days after that at Pentecost, when the ascended Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit as described in Acts 2). Therefore, this blog is not being posted after Easter but rather in the midst of Easter.
As a way to keep us focused on Jesus’s resurrection after Resurrection Sunday and live into the season of Easter, I decided to do a series of posts examining various statements from the resurrected Jesus. These were spoken during the time between his resurrection and ascension – from the empty tomb to his ascension. The resurrection appearances of Jesus are a place of great variation between the gospel accounts, as the gospel writers more often chronicle different appearances of Jesus rather than different accounts of the same appearance. However, a number of key and common themes emerge in these various accounts. This is not surprising, as different people likely need to hear similar things as they would have similar questions and struggles.
The first theme in the words of the resurrected Jesus that I thought important to highlight is that he offers words of comfort.
The Need for Comfort
It shouldn’t be surprising that the disciples would need to hear words of comfort after witnessing Jesus’s arrest and execution. The man they had followed for years had died a brutal and unjust death and they were grieving the loss of their friend and teacher. However, he was more than their friend and teacher – the disciples saw him as the promised one of Israel who would help make right what was wrong in the world. They viewed him as not just someone who could make their life better, but rather one who would make the world better. Alongside broken hearts stood shattered dreams – as well as fear that the authorities might start to hunt them down, especially if they sought to continue Jesus’s work and spread his teaching.
Rather than starting with words of rebuke for their lack of understanding and clarification of what they should have already known, Jesus often first approaches his grieving and fearful disciples with words to comfort them.
The Comfort of Peace
The first words that Jesus said to his disciples in both Luke 24:36 and John 20:19 are “Peace to you.” These words were common words of greeting in the Jewish world, so some have maintained that Jesus is more or less saying “hello” to them. (Matthew 28:9 also features another common greeting in that time, literally “Rejoice” but likely to simply be “Greetings” as it is translated in most English Bibles.) The context, especially in John 20, points to this being more than just saying hello. After saying this in John 20:19 when he appears to the disciples, Jesus says it again in John 20:21, seeming to emphasize this reality of peace that he brings. This is a peace he had promised to bring in John 14:17 and 16:33, so it is pointing back to the idea that Jesus brings peace and also keeps his promises. In addition, Jesus speaks these words when the disciples were locked up for fear of the Jews (20:19), showing that the disciples had distraught hearts and would need to hear a comforting word; Jesus does this by announcing that he has brought the promised peace to this earth through his death and resurrection. Jesus thus comforts their broken hearts and fearful souls.
Comfort Rather Than Fear
Jesus offers comfort in other ways as well. In Matthew 28:10, Jesus tells the woman who had departed the tomb, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brother” (probably his disciples) “to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.” These words recognize that hearts can be troubled even after seeing Jesus, that continuing his work and speaking about his resurrection can be things that strike fear in us – but we need not be afraid because Jesus is alive.
Comforting Call
Another time that Jesus spoke what I would consider words of comfort was in a private conversation with Mary Magdalene in John 20:11-18. Mary is troubled after seeing the empty tomb and wonders whether someone had taken Jesus’s body and placed it somewhere else. Rather than believing Jesus has risen, she doubts that it has truly happened. When Jesus himself approaches her, she doesn’t recognize him and thinks he is the gardener, causing her to ask him if he was the one who moved Jesus’s body. While we are told in the Emmaus Road passage (Luke 24:13-35) that those disciples were kept from recognizing him (24:16), we see no note of that here; it seems Mary can’t recognize Jesus through her tears. But when he speaks, she recognizes him, not because he speaks a word of instruction or rebuke but rather because he speaks her name (John 20:16), showing himself to be the good shepherd who calls his sheep by name (John 10:3). This shifts Mary’s grief to worship, her despair to delight. Jesus comforts us by calling us by name.
Be Comforted By Jesus’s Resurrection
The truth of the resurrection of Jesus should bring us comfort today. While the resurrected Jesus does not appear to us as he did on the first Easter Sunday and for the next 40 days, he continues to live, bringing us peace and calling us by name so that we should not be afraid.
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