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!

10153. 'And I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel' means the Lord's presence and His influx through good in heaven and in the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'dwelling', when this is said of the Lord, as His being present and flowing in, His doing so through Divine Good being meant because 'dwelling' has reference to good, see 2268, 2451, 2712, 3613, 8269, 8309, which is why the words 'in the midst' are used, because 'the midst' means what is inmost, and that which is inmost is good (for this meaning of 'the midst', see 2940, 2973, 5897, 6084, 6103); and from the representation of 'the children of Israel' as the Church, dealt with in 9340.

[2] The reason why 'dwelling in the midst', when said of the Lord, means His presence and influx through Divine Good is that the Lord flows into and is present with a person in the good he receives from the Lord. Good composes the person's true self, for everyone's character is conditioned by his good. By good, love should be understood, since anything that is loved is called good. The fact that a person's love or good makes him what he is may be recognized by anyone at all who observes what another is like; for having observed him he can direct him by means of his love wherever he wishes him to go, so much so that when that other person is held under the sway of his own love he is no longer his own master, and reasons which disagree with his love count for nothing with him, while those which collude with his love count for everything.

[3] The truth of this is also plainly evident in the next life. All spirits there are recognized by their loves, and when they are held under the sway of those loves they cannot act in any way contrary to them; for if they act contrary to those loves they act contrary to themselves. They are therefore embodiments of their loves, those in the heavens being embodiments of heavenly love and charity, so beautiful that they are beyond description, whereas those in the hells are embodiments of their own loves, namely self-love and love of the world, and are consequently embodiments also of hatred and vengeance, thus are monsters so awful that they defy description.

[4] Since therefore a person's love makes him altogether what he is, it is evident that the Lord cannot be present in a person's love if it is evil, only in a person's love that is good, thus in his good. People think that the Lord is present in truth called the truth of faith; but He is not present in truth devoid of good. Where good exists however He is present in truth through that good; and He is present in truth to the extent that it leads to good and to the extent that it emanates from good. Truth devoid of good cannot be said to be within a person; it is merely in his memory, residing there as factual knowledge which does not enter the person and form part of him until it becomes part of his life. It becomes part of his life when he loves it, and in love lives in accord with it. When this happens the Lord dwells with him, as also the Lord teaches in John,

He who has My commandments and does them, he it is who loves Me, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him. And My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. John 14:21, 23.

'Manifesting Himself' means enlightening with the truths of faith from the Word; 'coming to him' means being present; and 'making Their home with him' means dwelling in his good.