Late on the first Easter Sunday, after the Lord had risen from the sepulcher, ten of the disciples gathered for the evening in the upper room of a house in Jerusalem (John 20). They were afraid and probably confused. Since their leader had been crucified by the Roman power, as organized by their own Jewish leaders, they feared that now his followers might also be hunted down and punished. They closed and locked the doors. Were any of the women there? The story does not say, but Peter and John were, who saw and talked with the angels that morning, and the stories of the women were known. Some time must have been spent wondering and perhaps arguing - was He really alive? How could they know it was really Him? This kind of thing, coming back to life after you’re dead, this doesn’t happen in this real world, there must be some mistake!

Then two of the followers, not of the twelve, but the two that had gone to the village of Emmaus, came in, excited and bursting with their news. They had seen Him! They had walked with Him for seven miles and He had told them wondrous things! They had only recognized Him when He broke bread and ate with them. "Don’t doubt us, it really was Jesus!"

And then as they all talked and argued, there He was, standing with them in the room. "Peace be unto you," He said, and He showed them His hands and feet and His side, where he was wounded. He calmed them, and told them that just as he had come down to mankind, so they must go out and teach to all people all the true things that He had taught in the years He was with them.

It was these truths about how to live one’s life that were saving, not the disciples themselves. These saving truths have the power to remit or retain sins, because they were from the Lord, the disciples only transmitted them from the Lord to those who would listen and take them to heart. Then He breathed on them - representing His holy spirit - so that they would not only want to pass these truths on to people, but would also be given the words to say whenever the times came. And then He was gone again.

Thomas was not there that night. We don’t know why. And Thomas, when he heard the story, just could not swallow it. "Except I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe", he said. (John 20:25.)

The next verse tells us that the next Sunday they gathered again, and that Thomas was present this time. As before, the Lord was suddenly there, saying again, "Peace be unto you", and then directly to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger… and reach hither thy hand… and be not faithless but believing". Now Thomas's response was, "my Lord and my God". It seems as if the Lord came this time just to convince Thomas, because it was Thomas who needed Him.

I think He does work this way. I am reminded of another story, from the gospel of Mark (Mark 9:17-27) where a father comes to Jesus with a young son who is possessed by a devil, and asks Jesus to cure him, and is asked in turn: "Do you believe I can do this?" In Mark 9:24 the father responds. Crying out, he said with tears, "I believe, help thou my unbelief."

I think many people have this conflict between lingering doubts and a desire to have the doubts taken away. If we carry on and make our decisions in life as if the doubts were indeed gone, then indeed they will lose their strength and actually will be gone.

These are the only details given of these two meetings in Jerusalem. Chronologically the next post-Easter stories are the ones that take place in Galilee.

John does go on to say at the end of his gospel "...many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God...." (John 20:30-31). Perhaps there were more post-Easter stories that weren't written down, but the ones we do have are strong. For the disciples who were involved, there was an unstoppable impact from the life and teachings of the Lord, and His crucifixion, and physical death, and now - in these stories - His resurrection. Hearing the Lord's charges to them, these Galilean fishermen and their colleagues launch out into the wide world, and work to achieve the Great Commission, enduring hardships and persecution, and succeeding - probably beyond their wildest dreams!

838. Let everyone beware of the heresy therefore that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. For someone caught up in the heresy, who does not fully turn away from it before the end of his life draws near, is after death associated with demons of hell. Indeed, they are the goats of which the Lord says,

Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matthew 25:41)

For the Lord does not say of the goats there that they did evil things, but that they did not do good ones. And they did not do good ones because they say to themselves, "I cannot do good of myself. The Law does not condemn me. The blood of Christ purifies me and liberates me. His suffering of the cross has taken away the guilt of sin. Christ's merit is imputed to me through faith. I am reconciled to the Father, in a state of grace. He looks upon me as His child, and He regards our sins as frailties, which He instantly forgives for the sake of His Son. Thus He justifies us through faith alone, and no mortal could be saved if it were not the sole means of salvation. For what other end did the Son of God suffer the cross and fulfill the Law except to take away the condemnation due our transgressions?"

These and many more like them are the things they say to themselves, and so they do not do goods that are good. For their faith alone, which is nothing but a theoretical one, being in itself a faith they are taught and consisting therefore only of knowledge, does not produce any good works. Indeed, it is a lifeless faith, into which no life or soul enters unless the person turns directly to the Lord and refrains from evils as being sins, and this as though of himself. The good things that the person does then as though of himself are from the Lord, and are thus in themselves good.

On this theme we find the following in Isaiah:

Woe to a sinful nation... laden with iniquity, the offspring of evildoers, corrupted children! ...When you spread out your hands, I hide My eyes from you; even if you make many prayers, I will not hear... Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good... (Then) if your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; if they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:4, 15-18)

And in Jeremiah:

Stand at the gate of the house of Jehovah, and proclaim there this word..., "Do not trust in the words of a lie, saying, 'The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah are these (the church of God, the church of God, the church of God is where our faith is).' ...Will you go stealing, murdering, committing adultery, and swearing falsely..., and then come and stand before Me in this house on which My name is placed and say, 'We are rescued,' while you do these abominations? Has this house... become a den of thieves...? 'Behold, I, even I, have seen,' says Jehovah. (Jeremiah 7:2-4, 9-11)