It's All About Easter - Resurrection thoughts from Yancey

In the 40 days between Christ's resurrection and His ascension back to heaven, He made various appearances to the believers.


Appearances of Christ after His resurrection --
Thoughts from Philip Yancey, in The Jesus I Never Knew.


.......There were no angels in the sky singing choruses, no kings from afar bearing gifts. Jesus showed up in the most ordinary circumstances: a private dinner, two men walking along a road, a woman weeping in a garden, some fishermen working a lake...

Life continues in that vein for nearly 6 weeks: Jesus is there, then He's gone.

The appearances are not spectral, but flesh-and-blood encounters.

Jesus can always prove His identity--no other living person bears scars of crucifixion--yet often the disciples fail to recognize Him right away.

Painstakingly, He condescends to meet the level of their skepticism.

For suspicious Thomas, it means a personal invitation to finger the scars. For the humiliated Peter, It means a bittersweet scene of rehabilitation in front of six friends.


The appearances, approximately a dozen, show a definite pattern. Jesus visited small groups of people in a remote area or closeted indoors.


Although these private rendezvous bolstered the faith of those who already believed in Jesus, as far as we know, not a single unbeliever saw Jesus after His death.

Reading the accounts of execution and resurrection back-to-back, I have sometimes wondered why Jesus did not make even more appearances.

Why limit visitations to His friends? Why not reappear on Pilate's porch or before the Sanhedrin, this time with a withering blast against those who had condemned Him?

Perhaps a clue to strategy can be found in His words to Thomas, on the day Thomas' skepticism melted away forever: "Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29).

..."Because you have seen Me, you have believed," He said.

But what about the others?

Very soon, Jesus knew, His personal appearances would come to a halt, leaving only "those who have not seen."

The church would stand or fall on how persuasive these eyewitnesses would be for all--including us today--who have not seen. Jesus had six weeks in which to establish His identity for all time....