I feel tremendous sympathy for the group of disciples gathered in the upper room. They have been through so much in one week. They have lost their beloved friend, teacher and mentor to a torturous and humiliating death. They are terrified that their lives may also be in danger by association. How do they stay safe when people may easily recognise
them?
They keep hearing stories that he, whom they know was dead, is in fact alive and risen. They have just heard the story of the two who claim to have met Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Have they become unhinged through grief, they may wonder? They must have been deeply disturbed and afraid.
Then Jesus appears to them.
How does one begin to process such an experience? This is not the usual order of things. It is completely beyond our ordinary human experience. No wonder they were in a state of terror. They are deeply traumatised.
Jesus moves into this space offering them the exact words of reassurance that they need. He gives them a blessing of peace. He gently invites them to test the truth of their experience by seeing the wounds in his hands and side and by seeing him eat. They move from terror to joy at realising that the one they thought was lost to them is alive in a new way.
Then Jesus begins to help them to understand by reminding them of the prophesies in the scriptures about him. He helps them to process their experience and to understand what is happening – gently leading them into a new understanding of things.
They have been hiding, afraid for their own lives, safety and reputations. Now they are witnesses to the unimaginable. They had some sense of who Jesus was. Now they know. They know, beyond doubt, that he is the Messiah and that they are the ones chosen to witness to him. One wonders what went through each one of their minds that night. The thoughts, emotions and questions. What conversations
did they have with each other deep into the night? From the moment the truth begins to penetrate, everything shifts. There is a new story emerging even if they don’t quite know how to articulate it. Their understanding has been awakened. What they know now they can never ‘un-know.’
In our own experience too, an encounter with the risen Jesus changes our story. What, perhaps, doesn’t make sense to you? What shifts has the risen Lord brought into your life?
Can you allow the risen Jesus to enter through the closed doors of you heart? Can you hear him say the words: ‘Peace be with you’ and allow him to help you begin to understand what his death and resurrection means for you?
In which spaces of my life am I disorientated, grieving or hiding?
How has your encounter with the risen Lord shifted your understanding of God, yourself and others?
