The Witnesses of the Risen Lord

Welcome to Halting Toward Zion, the podcast where we limp like Jacob to the Promised Land and talk about life, the universe, and everything along the way.

You will notice that I emphasized the words “like Jacob” because I learned recently that there was not only one but two listeners who thought we were limping like chickens to the Promised Land. Both of them are incredibly faithful listeners so props to both of them for sticking with us. We are not limping like chickens. It’s not a reference that you’re missing. We are limping like Jacob. After he wrestled the angel he walked with a limp, and that’s what we’re doing.

And the King James word is ‘halting.’ People have told me, “You’ve got to change the title.” No. We’re too far in.

Too late now.

He ‘halted’ on his leg.

In Luke 24 we have just passed the resurrection of our Lord. I’m trying to remember where we were last time, and I think we got through the resurrection. It’s been a while. We’ve had some scheduling things.

He’s appeared to Mary Magdalene at the tomb, first of all. He appeared to the women who were moving a little more slowly getting back to Jerusalem.

Somewhere on this day he appears to Peter alone, but we’re not told where exactly that fits. Peter and John have rushed to the tomb and found it empty, so sometime after that Jesus met Peter. Possibly on this day, but on some day – probably either this Sunday or the following Sunday – he appears to his half-brother James. Paul mentions this in passing with no further details.

I think the lesson here is that there’s an awful lot we don’t know because God didn’t think we needed to know, and God knows about things like that. So as we try to fit all the pieces together, we’re missing some pieces and that’s okay. We just need to believe what God said. God knows the correct story, and all the pieces do fit together somehow. Sometimes we can reconcile them, sometimes we may have to wait for eternity to say, “Okay, now what was the order here? Peter, was it you or James first? And where were you exactly? And you didn’t seem very encouraged.”

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning…

This is where we get the story again of the women who come and run into the angels, and the angel says, “Why seek ye the living among the dead?”

He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words and returned from the sepulchre and told all these things unto the eleven and to all the rest.

They go and tell the apostles and generally are not believed. Then the camera switches to a road leading away from Jerusalem toward a village called Emmaus, which is some distance, less than a day’s walk. We don’t archeologically know exactly where it is, but the text says that it was three-score furlongs. Three-score is 60. I forget how long a furlong is exactly.

Mine says that it’s the Greek for a stadia, but that doesn’t help us, other than imagining a stadium.

Let me Google that for you. 220 yards is a furlong.

Okay, and there were 60 of them. You can do the math if you want.

So these two men are talking about what’s happened because they’ve been in Jerusalem and they actually know quite a bit, as we’ll see.

And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.

People seem to have trouble recognizing Jesus after his resurrection, and it’s not always clear whether it’s that God just plain stopped them from recognizing him. It sounds like that might the case here, although in Mark’s gospel it says he appeared to them in another form.

I think we’ve all had this experience, and I have lately, of running into someone you know well in a completely different context. The person is dressed differently, haircut is different, looks right at you and says hi and you think, “I have no idea who you are,” and it’s someone you know really well. Context is amazingly determinative of who you can recognize and under what circumstances you can recognize.

What the bodily resurrection did to our Lord physically we don’t know. To what degree he just blinded them so they couldn’t recognize him we don’t know. But it’s important that they didn’t know because had they known, what follows would have been very very different. So the stranger joins them and says –

What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk, and are sad?

In other words, what are you talking about and why is it making you so sad?

And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?

What they’re talking about, specifically the empty tomb, stands in context of the crucifixion, the burial, the triumphal entry, all of Passover week, so in Cleopas’s mind this is very much something that is in the flow of history. If you were here for Passover, everybody’s heard about this by now. Maybe not the empty tomb part, but they know everything else. But he seems to suggest that even that’s beginning to get around pretty fast. “Are you a stranger that you don’t know the things that have come to pass?”

This is one of my favorite lines in the whole Bible. Jesus said to them, “What things?”

There are people who would call our Lord a liar because they desperately want to know the truth, and he knows the truth, and rather than disabuse them of their ignorance he plays along with their ignorance. He doesn’t exactly say, “Hey, whatever could that be? I’m not Jesus,” but he kind of gives them the impression that he’s not, that he doesn’t know about any of this. “What things?”

There’s some lessons here about truth-telling and about who has a right to know what you know, and how forthcoming you need to be with information that someone – in this case, God the Father – has committed to him in private. Sometimes word games are fine. He did not say, “Jesus? Never met him. Don’t know who he is.” He simply says, “What things?”

It’s a sign of a good teacher who uses questions to draw out what exactly they’re talking about. What do they believe and know, because he’s about to teach them a whole lot of things. He’s allowing them first to say what they already know, what they already understand, so that he can basically jump from that, which is what teachers often do. They say, “Tell me what you got out of this reading….Now let me explain it more fully.”

“What do you think it said?” It’s not only what do you know, but what do you think you know? What have you been told? You’ve been talking about this. What conclusions have you come to? “What things?”

And they said unto him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.

They don’t call him the Messiah. They certainly don’t call him the Son of God. They’re still labeling him Jesus of Nazareth. “He’s a prophet,” which is what the believers said when he entered Jerusalem. The people in Jerusalem said, “Who is this?” on the triumphal entry. “Oh, it’s Jesus, the prophet, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

They still haven’t gone any further, even though they’ve heard about the empty tomb. Again that’s more about the nature of evidence and what is convincing and what is not, and what does it mean to be convinced. So they go on –

And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.

They knew it was the Romans but they labeled their rulers as the instigators and therefore responsible – not solely responsible, but certainly responsible.

But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel…

Redeemed Israel? As Christians I think we have a pretty good idea of what that means. We must not assume that they understood what that means.

One of our jobs as Bible teachers is to define terms. If you say ‘redeem,’ most Christians will say, “Yeah, that’s like being saved, right? Something like that.” Yes, but do you understand the full implications of redemption, and what Jesus redeemed us from, and what the purchase price was, and why only he could pay it, and what’s included in the role of a kinsman/redeemer? What did he get and what do we get, besides simply the forgiveness of sins? But they used the language that’s familiar to them, probably without fully understanding it.

Well, they don’t understand it because if they did they would be looking for the redeemer who would come and die for them. They’re not putting two and two together here. “We trusted…” – past tense – “which should have redeemed Israel.”

…and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done.

That is his crucifixion. They don’t say why that number is significant. They may not fully remember, but for some reason it’s kicking around in their minds and they bring it up. “Yes, something happened today that’s important,” but why the numbering? Why not say, “That was Friday. This is Sunday. Or that was the sixth day of the week and this is the first day.” They use the number three, whether or not subconsciously is something else. And by the way, if it’s the third day then – Friday, Saturday, Sunday – it’s the third day. The traditional numbering is correct.

Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre, and when they found not his body, they came [that is to the apostles and apparently to others like Cleopas] saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.

Jewish women were not allowed to give testimony in court. That they’re even acknowledging that the women had something to say that was relevant maybe shows a little bit of growth on their part, but vision of angels? It’s not a vision. They actually saw angels. By casting it as a vision there’s the possibility that it wasn’t real. Maybe it was hysteria or hallucination or hypnosis or something. They had some sort of experience where they agree there were angels, and the angel said this.

“How about believing what they said?”

“Oh. No. We really didn’t even consider that possibility.”

And certain of them which were with us …

In Luke’s version he only mentions Peter running to the tomb, but here he does acknowledge that there were more than Peter. The other one was John, we’re told elsewhere.

…went to the sepulchre and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.

This is the nature of unbelief. You have information. You have these eyewitnesses called angels. You have reliable pious godly women who have told you what the angels have said. You have the evidence that the tomb is empty and that the stone that blocked it has been rolled, if not blasted, away. But since you personally did not see the risen Lord, you’re very confused as to what happened.

Ladies, just think for a moment if your husband treated you this way. Would that make for a pleasant evening?

No.

No.

I didn’t think so. It wouldn’t in our house, I can guarantee that one.

I’m sure we could tell stories, but we don’t need to do that to our husbands.

No, we won’t tell stories. We try to believe our spouses on all occasions, and try to work backwards and find the details. “What details have I missed here that will make this clearer?”

“Where was the miscommunication?”

So they just it hanging. What it is is, “We don’t know what’s going on.”

“You were told. You’ve got angels. True, it was second-hand, but it comes through godly testimony, and the only problem apparently – well, you have two problems. The superficial problem is they were women, but Peter and John said the tomb is empty so there’s that whole thing of how did that happen exactly? Who moved the stone?”

The deeper problem of course is unbelief. They just are not ready to believe that this is what God intended all along, that this is a necessary step in God’s plan.

Jesus lights into them. He does not say, “Well, you’ve made a couple logical errors here. Let’s see if we can correct your thinking.” He does not adopt a Socratic method. “So, these women – do you trust their character? Have they ever lied before? And who moved the stone? Have you thought about that?” He doesn’t do any of that. Notice what he does do.

O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Whoa. Fools. God doesn’t usually call his children fools, but these men had every advantage. They’d walked with the Lord. They knew the apostles. They had eyewitness testimony from the women that the tomb was empty and that angels had said he’s risen. But notice Jesus doesn’t point out any of those things. Notice what he points out – “slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” The Word of God.

The primary fault here is not that they failed to believe the women or make the right deductions from Peter and John’s testimony. Their major problem was they did not believe the Word of God. They did not believe the Old Testament, and for that Jesus calls them fools. “Huh? What are you talking about?” Then he asks a rhetorical question –

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?

“Isn’t this exactly what the law and prophets have said?” You can imagine the ‘deer in the headlight’ look like, “What?”

“Brothers, let me start in Genesis.”

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

Moses would be the Torah, the five books, and all the prophets that followed.

As you both know, I teach a class called Biblical Theology, where we do go from Genesis to Malachi in three quarters. The fourth quarter is the New Testament. Jesus did it a lot faster. This is one Bible study that I would have loved to have been there. “Okay, let me take notes real fast. How did you get through that part so fast? The tabernacle – you did it in like five sentences and it takes me three weeks!”

Somehow he got through everything in the Old Testament during this few hours of walking, and showed them himself in all of the scriptures – not in some.

I have known Reformed Christians, Calvinists, whatever you want to call us, who would literally die for the doctrines of inspiration, infallibility, inerrancy. But when you point to a chapter of scripture and say, “So where is Jesus here?” they say, “He’s not. This is build-up for meeting him later, but this is just a bunch of names, or this is just a bunch of numbers, or this is a lot of political data. Jesus isn’t exactly here, but he’s over in this chapter, and about five chapters later you find him, and there’s this one obscure verse and I think that’s about Jesus.”

This was not our Lord’s approach to this – all of scripture. That means Ecclesiastes. That means Esther. That means Job. That means all the places where it’s easy to say, “Well, it’s setting the stage for Jesus, for the Messiah, but it doesn’t really talk about him.”

I’m writing a Bible curriculum for the RCUS and I was asked to go back and add wisdom literature in the Old Testament, which is more challenging than I thought it would be. I came to Job and I had some ideas about Jesus in Job. Of course there’s “I know my Redeemer lives” and a few things like that. But as I looked through the commentaries – I have a number, and there are more available online obviously – it was amazing how little solid evangelical commentators and Reformed commentators were able to find Jesus in Job. They pointed to the two or three familiar verses, and beyond that it was, “Well, it’s dealing with the problem of sin and suffering, and ultimately only Jesus can solve that. The end.”

“Could you even explain that last remark?” One of them literally ended like that. “What does that even mean? You haven’t talked about it. You just throw it out there at the end to include Jesus?” It suggests that biblical theology is a much-neglected discipline within the Reformed community.

We’re quick to say, “That’s too imaginative.” Yes, imagination is fallen. So is reason. Think Arius. Anyone ever accuse Arius of being too rational? Oh yeah, we have, haven’t we. But that doesn’t mean we stop writing systematic theologies. In fact, that’s the very reason we write them, because we need to reason from scripture, not reason against it.

Our imaginations need to be governed by scripture, and our love of literature and beauty and type and imagery and all that needs to be governed by scripture, and that’s what Jesus is doing. Yes, I’m sure he spent a little time with Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, Psalm 110, Psalm 72, “In thee all nations shall be blessed,” the covenant with David. “Oh thou Bethlehem Ephrata.” “They gave me 30 pieces. A goodly price I was priced at.” “To us a child is born.” “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son.”

No doubt he did that, but he didn’t just cherry pick a few passages here and there. He found himself in all of scripture and explained it to them.

Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went, and he made as though he would have gone further.

Again he knew that’s not what was going to happen, but unless he did that, what was going to happen wasn’t going to happen. He had to get them to stop him and invite him in.

“I’ll just be going.”

“No, wait. This is a wonderful conversation. You’ve opened our eyes to so much. We need to keep talking. Keep talking. We’ll make supper.”

But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us for it is toward evening and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread and blessed it and brake and gave to them.

He took the role of host. We’re not told how that happened exactly. Normally whoever owned the house would act as host, but he takes the role. Maybe they offered it to him.

And their eyes were opened and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the scriptures?

It wasn’t, “Wow, when we saw him wasn’t that so exciting? My heart just burst into flame the moment I saw him!” That’s not what they’re saying and that’s why he kept himself hidden all this time.

That’s an amazing phrase, that their eyes were opened and they knew him. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked.

Excellent, I had not caught that. Very good.

And the final part of their discussion of what they say they know or are talking about is that yes, these people all saw the tomb and the angels, but they didn’t see him. Basically they say that’s what would seal the deal for us, if we could just see him. But when they actually do, it’s not seeing that changes them.

No. It’s “as he opened to us the scriptures.” It’s a lesson for us. Seeing Jesus with our physical eyes is not necessarily helpful. People had been seeing him for 33 years and even his own half-brothers and sisters to this point had not believed in him, though they saw him regularly.

“At least now they would know he was alive.” Yes, but remember the Sanhedrin knew he was alive too, and the Roman soldiers. That didn’t do anything. They needed the scriptures to set their heart ablaze, and specifically they needed Jesus to be the one who used the scriptures.

With that, they responded, “We’ve got to go tell everybody!” which is the normal response once you start understanding scripture. You want to tell somebody. It’s always a great blessing to me when parents of my students come and say, “You know, we keep hearing about Bible class around the dinner table. This is apparently what you’ve been talking about.”

“Praise God. Good. I’m glad it’s sticking and I’m glad they care enough about it to go home and share.”

There was one young lady last year and I actually asked the question. We’ve been doing work on accreditation and this was going on last year and I asked my students, “Do we provide you with a good education?” This was juniors and seniors, and they were very frank and honest and very supportive.

“Yes. For one, we have Bible class every day where we actually learn the Bible,” and they went on and on. But one young lady, I think it was at this point, said, “Yeah, and when I’m hanging out with my non-Christian friends I’m able to explain the Bible better.” I won’t tell you who the young lady was, but I was a little surprised to know that she would talk to her non-Christian friends about the Lord. I didn’t know if she talked to anybody about the Lord. I didn’t know if she was a Christian. I think she got baptized shortly thereafter.

This is what we want. When the Bible touches your heart, when the gospel reaches your heart, you should want to go tell somebody. If you don’t, maybe something’s a little off someplace.

Jesus vanished. “Does that mean it was all a dream? A vision?” No, he was really there but he had other places to go. “Can a resurrected body do that?” I don’t know, but the Son of God can, and sometimes we have to leave it at that. We’ll encounter that again in a minute.

And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem…

They got up, retraced their steps all the way back, and they found the 11, that is the group that was now for a short time being known as the 11. Actually, Thomas was missing, and of course Judas was dead by now. There were others there too, because if you put all the accounts together it wasn’t just them.

…and found the eleven gathered together and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.

So these two guys come back to say, “We just saw Jesus!” and they say, “Yeah, we did too. At least Simon did. Peter saw him,” so at some point he has appeared to Peter, and we don’t know exactly what happened there because toward the end of John, Peter is still kind of sulky and not clear on his position with Christ.

They explained how he was known to them, and the breaking of the bread. Did God just ordain that this echo of the supper should be the trigger, or maybe when he held the bread did they see the nail prints in his wrists? We don’t know and aren’t told exactly. So they’re there high-5’ing everybody and getting all excited, whatever the modern words are.

And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

At this point the disciples think, as all superstitious human beings do, which is to say all human beings, “It’s a ghost!” because the room was locked. They were afraid of the Jews. The Jews would be coming after them now, so they’d snuck in and locked the door.

Do you remember in Lilo & Stitch there’s the moment when all the little girls are talking, then all the sudden Lilo is in the middle of them and you don’t know how she got there, and they just kind of explode out from here like, “Agh! How did you get here?” That’s what I’m picturing.

That’s probably pretty accurate. But notice when he appears to them the first thing he says is, “Shalom.” It’s peace. It is traditional in church services when we come into the Lord’s presence that Jesus’ agent, our pastor, greets us with some offer of grace and peace, because that’s what Jesus did. It is the Lord’s day. His people are assembled in one place. Guess where Jesus is? With them. It is in the evening, but it’s still the first day of the week.

They were terrified. You can imagine the full range of being terrified, all the bodily functions you might lose control of at this point.

But they were terrified and affrighted and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?

Again we might just think, “It’s obviously me. What’s the big deal?” but I think we’re back to where we were with the other guys. “Why didn’t you expect me? I’ve been telling you for 4,000 years I’d show up. How many RSVPs do you need here?”

“Did you not need read the script?”

Exactly. On the ghost thing –

Behold my hands and my feet [that would be marked by the nail scars], that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?

Our Jehovah Witness friends say, “Yeah, see, exactly. He was a spirit. He’d adopted a spirit form. You couldn’t really take the body back because you gave the body as the redemption price, so something happened. It went away. So this is him appearing in spirit form so they can see him.”

That’s why he just said, “Touch it and see that it’s a body.”

It’s a body, and then he asks for food, because if there’s one humbling thing, short of private sanitary needs, that humans do that can be really embarrassing, it’s eating, especially with 12+ guys staring at you. “What, did I miss something on my moustache?”

He asks for food and they have broiled fish and honeycomb. Remember, the last thing he had was lamb and bitter herbs. There’s some significance here. Fish are associated with the Gentile world, and we’ve moved from bitter to sweet. He took the bitterness for us.

And he took it and did eat before them. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

Can I jump back to the fish and honey real fast? Those are wild food products. The lamb you would keep in a flock. The herbs you would grow in a garden. Fish and honey, not so much. There’s something new afoot.

There is. The sacrifices had to come from your flock, from your community, but here fishing – and we get our first hint of this in the tail end of Ezekiel when we see the new temple – fisherman are standing out in the rivers beyond the city fishing for fish in the river of life as it flows toward the Dead Sea. This is not something near at home.

You know the joke. You know what Reformed evangelism is? Having babies. So you’re both great evangelists.

That’s the lamb part, but we’re all supposed to go out and fish in the wild, as it were, and yes, gather honeycomb. You know what might be around the honeycomb? Zzzzzz, bees with stingers. I don’t like things that sting. I really don’t, so there’s that.

The law of Moses, the prophets, and psalms – why are the psalms added? Perhaps for emphasis, but it’s also true that at some point in Jewish tradition the Jews sub-divided the prophets into the prophets formal and what they called the writings, where they put the wisdom literature and a number of other books, mostly books that were written later on in Israel’s history, but the largest by far was Psalms, so this may be a reference to the three parts. Anyway, all of scripture. He says, “There are things in all of these books that are about me.” Again, he does not discount things like Ecclesiastes or Esther.

Sometimes commentators and exegetes find it difficult, even pastors find it difficult to find Jesus. Well, you’re looking the wrong way, I suspect. You need to understand a little bit better about what Jesus is doing in those books. If you’re not seeing in terms of Jesus, if it’s just “somehow he will answer all these problems someday,” –

I sat under a pastor years and years ago. He’s since gone to be with the Lord. He was filling the pulpit in our church and his sermon was to tell the history of Esther, which he did pretty well and then said, “Let’s pray.” No application, no explanation of why this was important, what it had to do with anything. He just told the story, which, you know, is better than nothing by a long shot. He told it faithfully, but he apparently could not see Jesus in Esther.

It is often true that if we’re not intentionally looking to find him, we may miss him. Here Jesus is saying, “Don’t do that.” But this is the thing…

Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures…

If we’re not seeing Jesus in a text, the first thing we should do is turn to Jesus and say, “Lord, open my eyes that I may see. Help me to stop being stubborn. Get rid of stupid presuppositions that are clouding my vision.” As the Greek said to Philip, “Sirs, we would see Jesus.” We need to seek him diligently in the text of scripture. Having opened their eyes –

He said unto them, Thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.

Notice again the calendar element. Paul includes it too in defining the gospel. If it’s the fourth day there’s no gospel.

And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things.

He tells them to wait in Jerusalem until the Spirit should descend.

There may be some compression of material and time here because at this point Luke takes us out to the Mount of Olives and to the ascension, but John tells us there were still some things that happened there. I think we have enough time to at least move a week forward in time and go to John 20.

A mistake that people often make, and it’s not a horrible mistake but it does have some consequences, is to think that Jesus was popping in and out the whole time and showed up regularly. Well, he kind of showed up regularly, but it wasn’t like every day. In fact, about once a week apparently.

What day might it have been?

You know, let’s look at that. We’re in John 20:19.

Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week…

Again, historical note – Jesus had been in the tomb from midnight of what we think of as Sunday, to crack of dawn. We’re not told if he rose before the sun or with the sun or immediately after the sun. The women started out before sunrise and he was already gone when they got there. And now we’re in the evening and it’s still the first day of the week.

This is Roman reckoning. Hebrew reckoning would re-set at sundown, and now that they’re in the evening it would have been the second day, but we’re shifting from a Hebrew reckoning to a Gentile reckoning of time. This is significant in a lot of ways. It’s the same day, so it’s Sunday still.

…when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews…

We get a recap of what Luke said, with a couple details. There’s the “Peace be with you.” He shows them his hands and feet. He commissions them. He breathes on them the Holy Spirit and appoints them as church officers. John is assuming we’ve read Luke and we know what else happens, so he skips along. We’re told something that Luke didn’t tell us.

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall 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.

A couple things here. We call him Doubting Thomas. You know what he’s asking for is what the others already had, and his reaction is exactly the reaction they had until Jesus showed up. They didn’t believe the testimony. What’s interesting is he was not at the cross. The disciples had all fled. The only one as far as we know who was at the cross was John, and he was gone for a good deal of the time.

So how did he know about the print of the nails and all that? Someone had told him, apparently, so he believed the historically testified details of the death, but he wouldn’t believe the evidence of the resurrection, because without the resurrection the death is just a death. It’s a martyrdom, it’s a disappointment, it’s a failure. It’s the resurrection that makes it good news. So he, being faithless at this point, wasn’t willing to believe.

And after eight days again his disciples were within…

We’re not told what they did in between. Probably they showed up in that room. I would show up in that room every day waiting to see what was going to happen.

Jewish reckoning is generally and often inclusive. That is, you count the day you’re on and you count the day you’re going to; otherwise, if you used another reckoning then we’d be in some weird day of the week. But by inclusive reckoning it means today’s the first day – Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Saturday is the seventh day. The next Sunday would be the eighth day.

Also the number eight has played a role in scripture as suggesting resurrection. It’s fullness and then one more. It’s the week is finished and the new day begins, the new week begins, a new time begins.

A new world begins, with Noah.

Yes. Baby boys were circumcised on the eighth day. So John deliberately is working that in there. He could have just said “the next Sunday” or “On the first day of the week,” which it is, but he wants to pull in a good deal of biblical imagery and make us think about it.

One of my girls was very confused not by Hebrew counting but by our counting. She wanted to start on the square you’re on in Monopoly, and her sisters had to tell her, “No, you start counting the next one,” so Western counting to her became Monopoly counting because to her, inclusive counting made more sense. How you count time does matter and it is something worth discussing because this is a history podcast, in case we forget that.

And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut…

So again he passes through space and time, apparates, transports, teleports, performs a miracle – whatever you want to call it. He’s suddenly in the room.

…and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

Again a greeting, Shalom.

Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless, but believing.

Presumably Thomas did, because Jesus just told him to, but we’re not told.

And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

Our JW friends, wanting to get around the full force of that, say, “He was so shocked he swore, ‘My lord and my god.’” No. We can leave that one behind. He acknowledges, “Thou art the Son of God. Thou art the king of Israel.” Now he has a clearer idea even than Nathaniel did as to what that might mean.

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.

“I gave you this evidence. This is a crucial moment of history as we’re shifting out of one covenant to another. You’re the only people who know really about this whole resurrection thing. You’re going to be the witnesses. I’m cutting you slack. I’m giving you an extra amount of external grace, the privilege of seeing me alive that not everyone is going to have. So you should be thankful for that, but not everyone is going to have that. Indeed, those will be blessed who have not seen me with their physical eyes and yet believe.”

He would be talking about us, because we have yet to see Jesus with our eyes, and yet we have after a fashion seen him.

I was thinking Thomas is one of the twelve; therefore, he is one of the apostles, and one of the key distinguishing features of an apostle is someone who has seen the risen Christ and can testify to that fact. So Jesus is particularly showing Thomas because it’s actually the office he’s called to.

It’s kind of an interesting thing to think about because in our day there are those who want to call themselves apostles and revive the office, and yet Jesus is actually saying, “Blessed are those who aren’t apostles, those who haven’t seen me, who don’t have these special gifts that are for a particular time.”

There’s a blessing in not being an apostle, in not seeing the risen Christ, so it kind of shifts the perspective in the same way he does with John the Baptist, where he’s the greatest among women and yet he’s least compared to all of us who get to see and understand the fullness of Christ’s life and resurrection and everything. There’s just kind of some interesting perspectives as we look at history and think about the goodness of not living at that time, but later.

Excellent. Very good.

We’re told by John –

And 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; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

They’re written. You have to read the words. They happened in space and time, but after that you’re dependent upon written testimony inspired by God, written by apostles and their helpers. Again, God lands us four-square back on the Word of God.

I’m looking at the clock and thinking we’re probably running out of time.

That’s about all the time we have, besides recommendations.

So we can finish the last resurrection appearance next time and move on to the ascension in the Book of Acts. Who has a recommendation?

I do! I recommend cross-stitching. I just started a project that is too big. My friend Wendy looked at it and said, “Your children might be all grown up by the time that’s done,” and I think she’s probably right. But you know what? The point is that it’s okay. The point is that it doesn’t have to get done. It’s just a thing to do while I take a break from everything else.

It’s been really nice, something physical, something to do with your hands that just requires enough brain power to get your brain off of everything else. It’s a good leisure activity and I’ve been enjoying it.

Rachel? There was a Christological thing you were going to tell us about.

I was but we didn’t get to the ascension, so I’ll have to remember that I still have that story for next time.

I was going to do one recommendation, but the discussion made me want to do a different recommendation. My husband David has been preaching through Genesis and I in general have been very impressed with how well he has found Christ, not just veneer surface but in the heart of every story that he’s preached through.

Particularly this last week he preached the second half of Genesis 9, which is the sin of Ham. His treatment of what we can also see as Noah’s sin and then the disrespect for authority of Ham and the curse on Canaan and the other blessings – he brought together a lot of biblical theology that I had missed. A teaser – such as Noah was uncovered in his tent, and Jesus was uncovered in front of everyone on the cross, bearing that shame, even bearing the curse of Canaan as the servant of servants. There were various things that he pulled together very well.

He has a whole bunch of Genesis sermons that are also wonderful, and they’re up on our church website, which is Grace Reformed Willows - https://www.gracereformedwillows.org/

Very good. I have a tentative recommendation. As you know, I started reading Jane Eyre.

I’ve been waiting so long to hear your thoughts about this.

Well, you’re going to have wait longer because I’ve got to the gypsy. The chapter leading up the gypsy was, shall I say, disappointing, but I’m hoping she’s going to pick up her slack and get with it again.

I understand the attraction to the book. I want to have read it before. “He that judges a matter before he hears it is a folly and a shame,” so I need to read the whole book.

I will say that I do recommend it to this point because it is exceedingly well-written. At this point I prefer Jane Austen, but there are many good things to say about it, but I can say them better when I finish the book and look back and maybe some things will fall into place a little better. I know how it ends, but how she gets there is what it’s all about.

This is called reading older books. C.S. Lewis actually has an essay someplace on “Why do we read old books?” Well, because there’s usually more to talk about and more thoughtfulness and deeper looks into the human heart, and she does that certainly.

I think we might have to do a special edition of Halting Toward Zion that is just the Jane Eyre book club episode.

I will have to re-read it again, not that I would mind.

Oh no, what a tragedy!

I just have to find the time.

Thank you both so much for this conversation. It’s been a pleasure, as always. Thanks also to David, our producer and my lawfully-wedded husband. Thank you to our financial supporters for keeping the show rolling. If you’d like to join their number, Dear Listener, you can visit patreon.com/haltingtowardzion.

If you’d like to get in touch with us, send us any questions or comments or insights or insults – you know, whatever – [email protected] is the way to reach us.

Thanks so much for listening and we’ll see you next time.