John 20
19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
John 21
5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.
6 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
12 Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.
Jesus dealt with each need of his disciples. To Mary he said, I’m not ascended yet, go & tell the disciples and Peter. In Jn 20: 9 we find that Peter is still not too sure what is happening, even though he had seen that the grave was empty. Then the two Emmaus disciples rushed into the closed room where most of the disciples were gathered. In vs 19, Jesus was suddenly among them: “Peace be with you” – the assurance and certainty.
We would expect Jesus to give a firm rebuke to Peter (and the others), for they had had heard Jesus promise that He would die and rise again; the message of Mary; had seen the empty grave and had heard the amazing report of the two disciples who had seen Him in Emmaus. Still, they will were fearful and confused. He spoke His peace into their midst as a greeting (for them to His familiar way of greeting them), but also as a command. They were not to fear any longer. Jesus had indeed risen and there was no reason to “fear the Jews”. To Thomas, who was resolute in denying all this evidence, the Lord gave him what he needed: “touch me”, vs 27 – compared to Mary who was not allowed to touch him (there are other wonderful explanations about this but we don’t have time to examine every aspect). This doesn’t give us the right to demand a Thomas like experience.
Jesus didn’t stay with them. He appeared at various times, even to a group of 500 (Acts 1:3) giving “infallible proofs”.
Let’s examine another incident where the resurrected Christ revealed Himself, in John 21. We are not given all the circumstances as to why Peter and the others went fishing. Jesus revealed Himself to them in a different way this time. Their night of fishing was unsuccessful and Jesus knew all about it. He doesn’t mock them when He asks them about their catch, in verse 5. When Peter observes the miracle and hears from John that “it is the Lord”, his instinctive reaction was to get to the Lord as immediately (he cast himself into the sea and swam to His Lord).
Jesus blessed their catch (153 big fish were counted) and blessed them with a meal that He had prepared. What an invitation – “come and eat breakfast”! In this, we see that our Lord had not removed Himself from their daily needs, such as food, but is right there, showing His resurrection power in the ordinariness of life. He didn’t feed them “spirit” fish and bread. (Later on all this was to become very important in the Christian understanding of Jesus being the Son of Man and the Son of God). When John recorded this incident he may have also remembered the parable Jesus had told about those who rejected the invitation to the feast. John also records, in Rev 3:20, the invitation by the risen and ascended Lord to “open the door” to have a meal with Jesus – a continual one.
Throughout the New Testament there are many references to Christ’s resurrection (about 300). Everything hinges on Jesus’ Resurrection. Paul says to Corinthians 1Cor 15 14 & 17, if Christ is not risen then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty … and your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” Resurrection gets you out of your sins. It is the stamp of God of forgiveness and victory.
Paul writes to believers (Col 3: 1 – 5 and in the earlier chapters) expressing the Divine logic of victory over sin and newness of life. Since you are risen, “put to death” sins of flesh (verses 5 & 8). We now have the right, through Redemption at Calvary, the burial, resurrection and ascension, to cast off all wickedness. Why remain in sin any longer? Jesus invites you to “come and eat”. Make a firm decision today to accept His invitation, casting off all sin, and live with Him in resurrection power.