Monday Meditation: He’s Alive! Part 1: They did not understand
On this morning after Easter, it’s easy to move on to the busyness and burdens of life and forget about the resurrection.
It’s easy to see it as something distant and fantastic. It’s easy to ignore or avoid the impact it could have on how we handle today.
And so we do well to think about the resurrection long after the hoorays and hallelujahs and happy gatherings of Easter Sunday are behind us.
It’s good to ponder the biblical accounts that confirm the fact of the resurrection and to notice this: Those who encountered the resurrection the first time were undone by it. Jesus had said more than once he would die and then rise again, but the words had meant little to them. One phrase in today’s passage sums up their situation: “They did not understand.”
One reason (of many reasons) we believe in the resurrection is the fact of this misunderstanding. The first followers of Jesus were not caught up in wishful thinking; they had not fabricated some fake news to help themselves cope. Instead, they had to be convinced it was actually true, that Jesus had accomplished something singular in all history. They certainly had never expected him to rise from the dead. But when they could not deny he had, it was a truth too overwhelming not to share.
In the coming weeks, we will consider several accounts showing us men and women flabbergasted by this reality.
In the process, maybe we can stay stunned with them, astounded by the assurance that the suffering and confusion of this world—including our particular pain—are not the sum of reality.
Read: John 20:1-18
Pray: Give us eyes to see, grace to believe, and patience to discover how the fact of Christ’s resurrection can make all the difference today and every week, long after Easter Sunday is over.
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