A Gospel reflection – the appearance of Jesus after Resurrection

Today’s gospel reading describes one of Jesus’ appearances after the resurrection. How was he greeted? Not with the intense joy we might expect; the gathered disciples were ‘terrified and amazed’. We have to forget two millennia of Christianity and get into the minds of those present. It is unsurprising that all the gospels describe the initial disbelief of those who first encountered the risen Christ,

To gain some understanding we need to recognise the Jesus’ resurrection was something totally new and different from the resuscitation of Lazarus and the boy from Nain. Jesus’ earthly body had been buried. The resurrected Jesus had been transposed into the glory of heaven.

St.Paul (in 1 Cor.15) describes this as four changes:

What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable,
What is sown is contemptible, what is raised is glorious,
What is sown is weak, what is raised is strong,
What is on earth a natural body, what is raised is a spiritual body.

We can’t visualise this difference any more than those disciples could immediately understand what stood before their eyes. But, in this Easter season we can add our gratitude for all that God did and does through Jesus.

John Hoare