Passage Read: John 21 - Acts 1
Meditation Verses: John 21:12-14
Thought
The significance of the resurrection is hard to fully grasp. The disciples left everything to follow Jesus and spent the next three and a half years with Him, daily walking, talking, learning from Him and seeing all He did. They were followers, not leaders. Then He was killed, and they were devastated. What was the point of the last three years? Jesus wasn't installed as king. But three days later, He rose from the dead and showed Himself to them, two times so far. Yet even now, raised from the dead, He wasn't establishing His kingdom. What was He planning? The disciples hadn't scattered, but remained together, no doubt trying to process all they had just experienced and what it must mean. Interestingly, Jesus for His part, wasn't staying constantly with them, but coming and going. It seems the disciples were still trying to grasp whether this was really the same Jesus they'd spent the last three years with! How could they not recognize Him? Though they called Him Lord, they didn't even fully grasp what that meant. It is interesting to me that Jesus gave them time alone, between visits. They could have given up and gone back to their old lives. When Peter decides to go fishing, probably partly to think and partly to get away from trying to figure it all out, all the rest join him. They're all struggling, and the Lord lets them. In their time of greatest confusion, it's like Jesus is weaning them off His presence, testing them and in effect helping them come together as one to receive the mission He's passing to them, or else letting them give up and scatter.
Application
The disciples passed the test and transitioned from followers to leaders. They weren't cut loose from Jesus' lordship or leadership, but they were brought to a point where they could carry on His will and instructions without Him physically present. Their faith took over from their sight. It was a painful process and a frightening prospect, but they made it. They needed to understand the meaning and truth of the resurrection, and they needed to understand the reality of Jesus as God. Jesus wasn't lost and their purpose with Him. He wasn't a figment of their imagination, and the last three years wasted. They had been chosen and trained to tell everyone who Jesus was; they needed to know it through and through before they could give their lives proclaiming it to others. Who Jesus is should shake me to the core and rip all the truths by which the world lives out from under my feet. It should turn me upside-down and inside-out. It should shatter my earthly reality and replace it with God's eternal reality. I need more shattering, more eye opening. Let these things press on me, Lord, until they break me and break me free.