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!

2088. 'Behold I will bless him, I will make him fruitful, and I will multiply him, more and more' means that they were to be furnished and endowed with goods of faith and with truths from that source, without limit. This is clear from the meaning of 'being blessed', 'being fruitful', and 'being multiplied'. 'Being blessed' means being endowed with all goods, as shown in Volume One, in 981, 1096, 1420, 1422. 'Being fruitful' means the goods of faith with which they were to be endowed, and 'being multiplied' the truths from that source, as also shown in Volume One, in 43, 55, 913, 983.

[2] Who exactly are celestial people and who spiritual would take too long to describe here. See where they have been described already, for example in 81, 597, 607, 765, 2069, 2078, and many times elsewhere. In general celestial people are those who have love to the Lord, and spiritual those who have charity towards the neighbour. For the distinction between having love to the Lord and having charity towards the neighbour, see above 2023. Celestial people are those whose affection for good stems from good, but spiritual people are those whose affection for good stems from truth. To begin with all people were celestial, because they were governed by love to the Lord, and from this they received perception by which they perceived what was good, not from truth but from the affection for good.

[3] But after this, when love to the Lord was no longer what it had been, spiritual people took their place, these being called spiritual when they were governed by love towards the neighbour, which is charity. But love towards the neighbour, or charity, was implanted by means of truth and in this way they received a conscience in accordance with which they acted, not from an affection for good but from an affection for truth. With them charity looks like the affection for good, but is in fact the affection for truth. Because it looks like the affection for good charity is still referred to as good. But that good is a good arising out of their faith. It is these who are meant by the Lord in John,

I am the door. If anyone enters by Me he will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture. I am the good Shepherd; and I know My own and am known by My own. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock and one Shepherd. John 10:9, 14, 16.