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!

748. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.- That this signifies resistance and victory by means of Divine Truth proceeding from the Divine Human of the Lord, is evident from the signification of blood, when used in reference to the Lord, as denoting the Divine Truth proceeding from Him (concerning which see above, n. 328, 329); and from the signification of the Lamb, as denoting the Lord as to the Divine Human (concerning which also see above, n. 314); from which it is evident that to overcome the dragon by the blood of the Lamb signifies to conquer him, that is, those signified by the dragon and his angels, by means of Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human. It is said, the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human, because all Divine Truth, which fills the heavens, and constitutes the wisdom of the angels in the heavens, proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human; for the Lord's Divine Human is united with the Divine itself, which was in Him from conception, so that they are one. The Divine itself, which was in Him from conception, is what he called Father, and this is united with His Human as the soul is united with the body; this is why the Lord says that He is one with the Father (John 10:30, 38); and that He is in the Father and the Father in Him (John 14:7-11.) And because there is such a union, therefore the Divine Truth, after the glorification of His Human, proceeded from His Divine Human. The Divine Truth proceeding from the Divine Human of the Lord is what is called the Holy Spirit; that this proceeds from the glorified Human of the Lord, He Himself teaches in John:

"The Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified" (7:39).

The glorified Human is the Divine Human. But on this subject more may be seen in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 280-310), also in Heaven and Hell, from beginning to end. That the blood of the Lamb means the Divine proceeding from the Divine Human of the Lord, may be seen above (n. 476).

[2] From these things it can be seen how much the sense of the letter of the Word differs from its spiritual sense; also, how the Word is falsified, when it is regarded exteriorly, and not also interiorly. How much it differs is plain from this, that the blood of the Lamb, in the sense of the letter, means the Lord's passion of the cross, but in the spiritual sense, the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human. If therefore it were to be taken as the literal truth that Michael conquered the dragon by the Lord's passion of the cross, it would follow as a consequence that the Lord by this took away all the sins of the world, and also by this moved His Father to mercy towards mankind, when yet these ideas are in harmony neither with Divine Truth which the angels in heaven possess, nor with a correct understanding of truth. Who could ever suppose that the Lord by the passion of the cross took away all the sins of the world, when notwithstanding every man's character after death is such as his life had been in the world, those who do evil coming into hell, and those who do good into heaven? Who can suppose that God the Father was moved to mercy by the blood of His Son on the cross, and that he had need of such a means, when nevertheless He is in Himself mercy itself, love itself, and good itself? From these things it is evident that the Word here, and in a thousand other places, regarded exteriorly only and not interiorly, is falsified. To regard it exteriorly is to look at it from the letter, but to regard it interiorly is to look at it from the doctrine of genuine truth. When it is believed from doctrine that the Lord subjugated the hells, and at the same time glorified His Human by means of temptations, and that the passion of the cross was the last temptation and the complete victory, by which He subjugated the hells, and glorified His Human, then this can be understood and believed; and that Michael conquered by the passion of the cross is seen to be an apparent truth; but that he conquered by means of Divine Truth proceeding from the Divine Human of the Lord is seen to be a real truth. But if the apparent truth is taken for the real truth and confirmed, the Word is then falsified, according to what was stated above (n. 719), by way of illustration.