"Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away" (John 20:15).
As we were walking in the cemetery today, an elderly gentleman stopped to chat with my friend and me and made a comment about how people tend to think about Christianity when it's Easter. (And what is Easter about anyway?!) My friend and I had indeed been talking about the resurrection, and it apparently had been on this man's mind as well, or perhaps he had just heard a bit of our conversation.
There's a tendency to move far too quickly away from Resurrection thoughts, though, once the day comes and goes. We don't hear much about the 40 days Jesus remained on the earth after His resurrection and before His ascension back to the Father. Knowing that God always has a purpose or significance for all He does, I'm pondering those 40 days. The exuberant joy Jesus' followers must have felt when they realized Jesus had risen just as He said must have been joy unspeakable.
"... Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time" (1 Corinthians 15:4-6).For certain, one of the purposes for remaining those days was to present Himself as irrefutable proof of His resurrection, that death was not the victor. Jesus' resurrection from the dead is what makes Christianity different from all other faiths. His followers saw and touched His body.
"To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3).Being with Jesus these 40 days thrust the disciples into evangelical mode, spreading the gospel throughout the world.
