“But Jesus didn’t stay dead. Just like he told the disciples before he died, he rose three days after his crucifiction.”
“So when several women went to Jesus’ tomb to perform a funeral ritual, they didn’t find him, Jesus had risen and was gone.”
“An angel appeared to them and said, ‘Why are you here, looking for Jesus among the dead? Don’t you remember that he told you he would rise?’ The women went to Jesus’ disciples to tell them that Jesus had risen, but the disciples didn’t believe.”
“But why didn’t they believe?” Asked Marissa.
“I know it’s hard to imagine,” Austin said, “especially because Jesus had told them he would rise again. Because it was women who told the disciples, the disciples didn’t listen. They were hurt, and they were stubborn, so they had to go see for themselves that Jesus was no longer in his tomb.”
“Jesus did the women a great honor by having them be the first to know he had risen. In that time, women were seen as less important than men, but Jesus clearly didn’t think that way. He knew that they would have faith, when the men would not.”
“But that’s not the only reason the disciples didn’t believe, and Jesus wanted to teach his disciples what they still had wrong.”
“To teach them, Jesus appeared to his disciples as a stranger so they wouldn’t recognize him, and pretended to not know about Jesus or the crucifixion.”
“This stranger asked the disciples about why everyone was in such a commotion. When the disciples began explaining everything about Jesus and his death, some of his disciples told him that they hoped that Jesus would redeem Israel, but instead he died! Some of the disciples still believed that Jesus should have been a conqueror, rather than someone who came to forgive our sins.”
“When the stranger heard this, he called them foolish! He told them it was necessary that Jesus would have to suffer in the way he had in order to bring true salvation, but they still didn’t believe (remember they still didn’t know he was Jesus).”
“But when they stopped for dinner and the stranger prayed, the disciples’ eyes were opened that this wasn’t a stranger, but was in fact Jesus. And all the words the stranger had said about how it was necessary for Jesus to die, came rushing back to them. Only then did they believe.”
“The disciples loved Jesus very much. They left their homes for him and did nothing but serve him. But that doesn’t mean they were perfect. Through the women being the first to find Jesus had risen and Jesus meeting them as a stranger, they finally were able to understand why Jesus had to die in the way he did.”
Read Chapter eight