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Meditations of the Gospel of John: Chapter 20

 


We read John's account of the Resurrection. The Angels encounter Mary Magdalene at the tomb of Jesus and inform her that He is risen. Almost immediately afterwards, Mary encounters the Risen Christ and He tasks her with announcing to His disciples of His Resurrection. One of the disciples, Thomas, does not believe Jesus was resurrected and says that he'll only believe when He sees the nail-print hand of Jesus and His pierced side. Thomas sees and believes, but Jesus declares that those who do NOT see and believe are blessed. Jesus greatly desires and even commands us to have faith. Without faith, we cannot please God. 

When Jesus first appears to His disciples, He says to them 'Peace be unto you.' The implications of this simple statement are huge. First, it reveals Jesus' mercy towards His followers. They virtually abandoned Him during His Crucifixion and Peter even denied Him. Yet, Jesus is not rebuking them for it or showing any anger towards them. Jesus has obviously forgiven them. Next, it reveals that Christ doesn't hold our sins against us. We do not see Christ mentioning the disciples' betrayal of Him anymore. While in the Gospel of Mark's account, Jesus does rebuke the disciples for doubting the Resurrection...He does not condemn His disciples and (according to Luke's Gospel) even shares a meal with them, which indicates fellowship. This goes to show that while The Risen Lord chastises and rebukes His children, He does not hold our sins against us and is always desiring peace and fellowship with us. 


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