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!

44. BRIEF ANALYSIS

This is the Faith of the New Church in simple form. It will appear more fully in the Appendix, and in still greater fulness in the first part of the major work, treating of the Lord God the Saviour, and of the Trinity in Him; of love to God and love towards the neighbour; of faith, and its conjunction with those two loves. This faith will also be treated of in the remaining parts of that work, which will follow in their proper order there. But it is important that this preliminary account of the above-mentioned faith should be shown here to some extent.

The first Article, viz., that there is one God in Whom is the Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ, is shown by the following summary. It is a sure and abiding truth that God is one, that His essence is indivisible, and that there is a Trinity. Since, therefore, God is one, and His essence is indivisible, it follows that God is one Person; and that, since He is one Person, the Trinity is in that Person. That this Person is the Lord Jesus Christ is evident from the following statements: He was conceived of God the Father,Luke 1:34-35: thus, as to His soul and essential life, He is God. Therefore, as He Himself said, the Father and He are one, John 10:30. He is in the Father, and the Father in Him, John 14:10-11. He who sees Him and knows Him, sees and knows the Father, John 14:7, 9. No one sees and knows the Father except He Who is in the bosom of the Father, John 1:18. All things of the Father are His, John 3:35, 16:15. He is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Him, John 14:6; consequently by Him, because He is in Him, thus is He Himself. According to Paul, in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, Colossians 2:9; and according to Isaiah,

Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, Whose name is God, Father of eternity. Isaiah 9:6.

Further, He has power over all flesh, John 17:2 whence it follows that He is the God of heaven and earth.

The second Article, viz., that a saving faith is to believe on Him, is shown by these sayings:

Jesus said . . . He that believeth on Me shall never die, but shall live. John 11:25-26.

This is the will of My Father, that everyone who believes on the Son may have eternal life. John 6:40.

God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not on the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. John 3:36.

There is no need to illustrate and prove the remaining Articles, which are that evils ought to be shunned because they are of the devil and from the devil, that good actions ought to be done because they are of God and from God, yet that man ought to believe that they are from the Lord with him and through him; for the whole Sacred Scripture from beginning to end confirms them and, in short, teaches nothing else than shunning evils and doing goods, and believing on the Lord God. Besides, without these three things there is not any religion, for religion belongs to life, and life is to shun evils and do goods; and man cannot do the one or the other except as of himself. Wherefore, if you remove these three things from the Church, you remove the Sacred Scripture, and religion also; in which case the Church ceases to be a Church.

For a further account of the Faith of the New Church in its universal and particular forms, see below, nos.116-117. All this will be demonstrated in the major work.