Suddenly Jesus Met Them

We are continuing our meditations on the resurrection of Christ and what it was like for the disciples that day He arose from the dead. One of the angels at the tomb told the women: “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay” (Matthew 28:6). As the women hurried off to tell the disciples the Lord Jesus met them on the way:

⁸So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me” (Matthew 28:8-10).

Luke tells us that several women reported what had happened to the disciples: “It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles”(Luke 24:10 –emphasis mine). Luke said that the disciples found it hard to comprehend: “But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense” (Luke 23:11). Everything changed that night for the eleven and others in the room, for the Lord showed up in their midst. How wonderful it would be for the Lord Himself to show up in the room. We should not put it beyond the realm of possibilities that He will do that in our day.

Matthew wrote of the guards being fearful for their lives on losing the Lord Jesus as a prisoner. They went to the chief priests and told them exactly what happened. The Jewish elders devised a plan to keep the guards quiet; they paid them a lot of money to say to people that the disciples came during the night and stole the body. If Pilate didn’t find out about it, the soldiers were in the clear. They probably kept the money for a few days so that they could say that they were bought off by the priests if they did not back them up before Pilate (Matthew 28:11-15). This story has been spread among the Jews to this day (Matthew 28:15). 

Over the next forty days, Jesus spent time with the disciples, teaching and eating with them, and appearing to over 500 people at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6), taking away all their doubts and unbelief: 

Jesus gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them throughout forty days and spoke about the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3-4).

My dear friends, some of you may think it hard to believe that One can come back from the dead, but the person we are talking about is God coming in the flesh. He came into the world born of flesh to be the substitute to pay the debt of sin. Every sin is an affront to a Holy God. Justice demands that whosoever sins, must pay the price of death. But God loves you and has come to deliver you of the just payment of your sin. He came to die in your place. Just as in a soccer/football game, when one is unable to continue, a substitute comes on in his place and finishes the game for him, so the Lord substituted Himself for you and as you. He has paid the price for you. Before the crucifixion He said to His disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends”(John 15:13). Paul the apostle, in describing the depths of love that God has for us to deliver us, said, “But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”(Romans 5:8). Keith