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!

3391. 'That Abimelech the king of the Philistines looked through a window and saw' means the doctrine of faith which has regard to rational concepts held within cognitions. This is clear from the representation of 'Abimelech' as the doctrine of faith which has regard to rational concepts, dealt with in 2504, 2509, 2510, 2533; from the meaning of 'the king of the Philistines' as matters of doctrine, dealt with in 3365; and from the meaning of 'a window' as the understanding part of the mind, dealt with in 655, 658, and therefore internal sight, for this in former times was meant by 'windows'. Thus 'looking through a window' is perceiving things that are seen through internal sight. In general those things are cognitions which belong to the external man; but rational concepts - or what amounts to the same, appearances of truth, which are spiritual truths, 3368 - are not cognitions but are held within cognitions since they belong to the rational man, and so to the internal man. And it is characteristic of the internal man to regard the things belonging to the external man, and so to regard the truths held within cognitions. Since cognitions belong to the natural man they are consequently the recipient vessels for rational concepts. For Divine truths flow into the rational part of the mind and by way of the rational into the natural, where they present themselves like an image produced by many objects reflected in a mirror, see 3368.

[2] That 'windows' means the things that constitute internal sight, that is, the understanding, which are referred to by the single term 'intellectual concepts' is clear from the places in the Word introduced in 655, as well as from the following: In Joel,

They will run about the city, they will run on the wall, they will climb into the houses, they will go in through the windows like a thief. Joel 2:9.

This refers to the evils and falsities present in the final days of the Church. 'Climbing into the houses' stands for destroying goods which belong to the will - 'houses' being goods that belong to the will, see 710, 2233, 2234; and 'going in through the windows' for destroying truths and cognitions of those which belong to the understanding. In Zephaniah,

Jehovah will stretch out His hand over the north and will destroy Asshur. Herds will lie down in the midst of her, every wild beast of that nation. The spoonbill also and the duck will lodge in its pomegranates. ¹ A voice will sing in the window, dryness will be on the threshold, for the cedar has been laid bare. Zephaniah 2:13-14.

This refers to the destruction of the truths of faith by means of reasonings, meant by Asshur, 119, 1186. 'A voice will sing in the window' stands for the desolation of truth, and so of the ability to understand what is true.

[3] In the Book of Judges,

She looked through the window, and the mother of Sisera exclaimed through the lattices, Why is his chariot so long in coming? Judges 5:28.

These words come in the prophecy of Deborah and Barak and have to do with the resurgence of the spiritual Church. 'Looking through the window' stands for the reasonings of those who deny truths and in so doing destroy things that belong to the Church; for such reasonings are intellectual concepts in the contrary sense. In Jeremiah,

Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness, and his upper rooms without judgement, who says, I will build myself a wide house and spacious upper rooms, and he cuts out windows for himself, panelling it with cedar, and paints it with vermilion. Jeremiah 22:13-14.

'Building a house without righteousness, and upper rooms without judgement' stands for building a religion out of what is not good and not truth - 'righteousness and judgement' meaning good and truth, see 2235. 'Cutting out windows for oneself, panelling it with cedar, and painting it with vermilion' stands for falsifying truths, intellectual and spiritual. The windows of the Temple in Jerusalem represented nothing else than such things as constitute intellectual and thus spiritual concepts. The windows of the new temple that are mentioned in Ezekiel, 40:16, 22, 25, 33, 36; 41:16, 26, have a similar meaning, for anyone may see that the new temple, the new Jerusalem, and the new earth described in that prophet mean nothing else than the Lord's kingdom, and that accordingly the details mentioned concerning them are the kind of things that belong to that kingdom.

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