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!

6451. 'I am being gathered to my people' means that [spiritual good] will come to exist within the forms of good and the truths of the natural which spring from that good. This is clear from the representation of the sons of Israel and of the tribes named after them, to which 'his people' refers here, as forms of good and truths in the natural - dealt with in 3858, 3926, 3939, 5414, 5879, 5951, 6335, 6337 - which, it is self-evident, sprang from him; and from the meaning of 'being gathered to that people' as existing within those forms of good and truths. Since the subject here and in what follows is the gathering of spiritual good, which is 'Israel', that is, its coming to exist within the forms of good and the truths of the natural, which are 'his sons' or the tribes named after them, something must be said about how one is to understand all this.

[2] Within a person there is what is inmost; there are interior things beneath what is inmost; and there are exterior things. All these are utterly distinct and separate. They follow one after another in consecutive order, thus from what is inmost to what is outermost; and in accordance with that consecutive order there is also a flow from one into another. This being so, life flows in by way of what is inmost into the interior things, and by way of the interior things into the exterior ones, in accordance with the order in which they follow one another, and it does not come to rest except in what is last and lowest, where it is brought to a halt. And since interior things flow in accordance with order right through to what is last and lowest and are there brought to a halt, it is evident that interior things exist together within what is last and lowest. But they do so there in the following order: What is inmost and has flowed in occupies the central area; interior things, which are beneath what is inmost, encircle the central area; and exterior things are on the edge all the way round. This applies not merely in what is general and overall but also in every specific thing. The first kind of order is called consecutive order, whereas the second is called simultaneous order. The second arises from the first since everything simultaneous arises from what is consecutive, and then exists as it was when first brought into being.

[3] Because the interior things are also present all together in what is last and lowest, the appearance is that life exists in what is last and lowest, which is the body. The reality however is that it exists in interior things, yet not in them but in what is highest, which is the Lord, the Source of all life. This also explains why the life in the exterior things is obscure when compared with the life in the interior ones, for in exterior things the life is wholly general, the product of many, indeed countless elements that flow in from interior things, yet are seen all together as a general, single whole. All this now shows to some extent how one is to understand the idea that spiritual good, which is 'Israel', will come to exist within the forms of good and the truths of the natural, which are 'his sons' or 'the tribes'. For spiritual good, which is 'Israel', exists in the interior part of the natural, while the forms of good and the truths, which are 'his sons', exist in the exterior part of it. The idea that spiritual good will come to exist in them is meant by 'I am being gathered to my people'.