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!

122. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison. That this signifies that those who are in falsities from evil will attempt to deprive them of all truths from the Word, is evident from the signification of casting into prison, when said of those who are in the spiritual affection of truth, as being to attempt to deprive them of truths from the Word (concerning which we shall speak presently), and from the signification of the devil, as being the hells which are in evil and thence in falsities (concerning which see above, n. 120). The reason why to cast into prison, when said of those who are in the spiritual affection of truth, denotes to attempt to deprive them of truths from the Word is, because truths are in prison, as it were, when falsities break in; and so long as the latter are under the mind's view, truths cannot be seen, still less can they be set at liberty. Those who are in the spiritual affection of truth, that is, those who love truths because they are truths, are detained in such a prison as often as they do not understand the Word, and yet wish to understand it; the falsities which imprison them, rise up out of hell into the natural man, when the delights of the love of self and of the world rule there; for these delights are the origin of all evils and falsities therefrom (see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 65-83).

[2] This is what is meant in the spiritual sense by being cast by the devil into prison; for by the devil is meant hell, and from hell proceeds all evil; and it's influx is into the natural man, and not into the spiritual; therefore it thus affects all those who are in the delights of those loves, and subjects them to itself, and makes them its crew; for all who are in the hells are in evils and thence in falsities from the loves of self and of the world (see the work, Heaven and Hell 551-565); but that the delights of those loves are changed into corresponding things (the nature of which may be seen also in the same work, n. 485-490). This casting into prison by the devil is described in the Word, where it is said that the Jews and the wicked would persecute the disciples of the Lord, evil entreat, and kill them. For by the Lord's disciples are meant all who are in truths from good, thus who are in truths from the Lord; and when these are meant by the Lord's disciples, in a sense apart from persons (which sense is the very spiritual sense of the Word), truths and goods themselves, which are from the Lord by means of His Word, are also meant. (That by the Lord's twelve disciples are meant all things of faith and love in the aggregate, thus all the truths and goods of the church, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 2129, 3354, 3488, 3858, 6397; that the Word in heaven is understood apart from persons, may be seen above, n. 99, 100.)

[3] He who knows that by the Lord's disciples are meant all those who are in truths from good from the Lord, and in an abstract sense, the truths themselves from good, and that by their being cast into prison by the devil is meant the endeavour of those who are in falsities from evil to deprive them of truths, and, in the abstract, detention or imprisonment of truths by falsities, as said above, will be able to understand what is signified in each of these senses in the following passages:

"They shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and into prisons, for my name's sake" (Luke 21:12).

(That for the Lord's name's sake signifies on account of the goods of love and the truths of faith, from Him, may be seen above, n. 102.)

"Then shall they deliver you up to affliction, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated for my name's sake" (Matthew 24:9, 11).

"They will deliver you up to councils, to synagogues, and they will scourge you, for my sake" (Matthew 10:17, 18; Mark 13:9).

"Behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city" (Matthew 23:34).

"There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and let it out to husbandmen. And when the time of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants, and they did unto them likewise: last of all, he sent unto them his son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they took him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him" (Matthew 21:33-44).

"The wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute" (Luke 11:49).

(That by prophets in the Word are meant those who teach truths, and, in an abstract sense, the doctrine of truth, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 2534, 7269; and that apostles have a similar signification, see above, n. 100.)

"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in the heavens; for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:11, 12).

"Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake; for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets" (Luke 6:22, 23).

[4] Similar to this is the signification of the words of the Lord to His disciples, in which He exhorts them to take up their cross and follow Him; as in the following passages:

"Jesus said unto his disciples, If any one will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34);

to deny one's-self, is to reject the evils which are from the proprium.

"Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:27).

Jesus said to the young man who was rich:

"One thing thou lackest; go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and come, take up the cross and follow me" (Mark 10:21).

By this is meant, in the spiritual sense, that he should reject the falsities of Jewish doctrine, should receive the doctrine of truth from the Lord, and undergo assaults and temptations from falsities. They therefore are deceived who believe that those who desire to follow the Lord should sell their goods, and suffer the cross. Because the Lord is Divine truth itself, which (in John 1:1, 2, 3, 14) is called the Word, therefore by the Lord's suffering Himself to be scourged and crucified is signified, that Divine truth which is in the Word was so treated by the Jews (that all things related concerning the passion of the Lord in the Evangelists, involve and signify that the Jews so treated Divine truth, may be seen above, n. 83); therefore the Lord says,

"Remember my word: If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you" (John 15:20).

[5] That the Jews in particular are meant by the devil who should cast the disciples of the Lord into prison, and that, in general, all who call themselves Jews, and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan, are meant, according to what was adduced above, n. 119, 120, is evident from the words of the Lord in John,

"Ye do not understand my speech because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him; when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it" (8:43, 44).

By their father being a murderer from the beginning, and by the truth not being in him, but a lie, is signified that, from the beginning, they had been opposed to truths, and in falsities from evil; for by a murderer is meant a destroyer of the truth of the church, and a father denotes those that were before. (Concerning the quality of the Jewish nation, what it was formerly, and also what it is at this day, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 248; that by the bound in prison are signified those who are in falsities from evil, see Arcana Coelestia 4958, 5096: that to be bound in prison signifies to be held back and separated from truths, n. 5037, 5038, 5086, 5096; and also to be tempted, n. 5037, 5038.)

[6] The reason why the Jews were of such a character was, that they were influenced by the love of self and of the world more than any other nation; and such persons, when they read the Word, apply everything to their own loves, and especially the Jews because they are so often named. The case is similar with others who are in those loves, for the love which rules turns the mind of him who reads to those things only which favour it. For love is like a fire, which gives light to such things, whilst all other things are either passed by as if unseen, or they are considered from the point of view of a sinister explanation, and are thus falsified. Both the latter and the former infest those who are in the spiritual affection of truth, and are what is meant by the devil, who casts into prison those who belong to the Lord's church; for from these all falsities from the spiritual world flow into those who desire truths, and hold them as if they were bound in prison. The same are also meant by those concerning whom the Lord says,

"I was in prison, and ye visited me not" (Matthew 25:43).