(John 20:19–23; Luke 24:36–43; Mark 16:14)
Mary, the mother of the evangelist Mark, had turned her own home into a church, so that, by hosting the Saviour, the house had become the apostles’ temporary headquarters in Jerusalem. It was here that the Lord Jesus celebrated the Last Supper, and some time later, ‘in this very house, the brothers were praying for Peter’s release from prison (Acts 12:7, 12) and it was directly here that he came after the angel had brought him out of prison’1 On Sunday evening, the doors of Mark’s house were locked, and inside were the disciples, gathered there out of fear of the Jews. The Evangelist tells us that “the eleven were sitting at table” (Mark 16:14). Strictly speaking, there were only ten apostles present; Thomas was absent, and Judas had hanged himself. They were all gathered for supper; there was food, but we believe that no one had come there to eat. The atmosphere was very oppressive, marked by fear of persecution and death at the hands of the Pharisees, who were determined at all costs to put an end to this episode involving the Galilean and to wipe out His followers. Added to this situation were the rumours from the myrrh-bearing women, followed by their own accounts, those of Peter and John, and the revelation by Mary Magdalene and Peter of their encounter with the risen Jesus Christ. Luke and Cleopas returned, recounting their own encounter at Emmaus.
Everything was confusing, uncertain, unbelievable and yet surprising. And the result confirms the unease that pervaded the atmosphere in the house: ‘the doors were locked’. What sort of precautionary measure is this, or who could have stopped the fury of the Pharisees and the soldiers: a few wooden doors?! It was not the fact that they had barricaded themselves behind some doors that kept the apostles alive, but Jesus Christ alone, the Risen One. No one could lay a hand on the disciples that evening: their hour had not yet come, for the Lord Jesus had other plans for them. For the time being, the apostles are shut up in the house because they are trapped in their own ideas. They do not know what to do: should they wait for the Jews’ fury to subside, or should they go to Galilee, somewhere far from the place of the crucifixion? But others too had left Jerusalem (Luke and Cleopas), and now they have returned with great and incredible news! St John Chrysostom teaches that this is precisely why Jesus appeared to them in the evening, ‘for it seems that their fear was greatest at that time; indeed, they were in a state of utter terror. He does not come by day, so that they might all be together, for they were in great bewilderment and fear’2).
‘Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you!”’ (John 20:19; Luke 24:36). The disciples were gathered together, but they had no centre, no core, and no force to hold them together. Only Jesus Christ can do this, and that is why He appeared to the disciples in the evening, on the first day of the week. He does not knock on the locked doors, but suddenly appears in their midst. Firstly, we note that Christ did not ‘come’ from somewhere far away, but made Himself visible with His Body, free from any category of space and time, unbound by any law of material things, although He remained material, yet transformed, spiritual: ‘Such a body, raised to immortality, acquires new properties, such as the ability to instantly reveal matter and restore it to its original state; and this explains how His Body passed through the walls. It was not the walls that were dematerialised, but the molecules of His Body. He possesses the power of thought for movement, traversing the air without any physical exertion; when He walked the road to Emmaus with the disciples Luke and Cleopas, He did so in order to be with them, but His risen Body could have appeared in Emmaus instantly, without taking one step after another3”.
We observe that Christ did not ‘come’ from somewhere far away, but made Himself visible with His Body, free from any category of space and time, unbound by any law of material things, whilst remaining material, yet transformed, spiritual. […] He is the centre around which the lives of all people revolve.
It is precisely here that the power of the Resurrection lies: in the fact that He, as God, is not subject to the laws which He Himself established in creation, but rather the order of things is subject to Him. Christ is able to renew these material laws for His divine purposes, so as to empower His human nature to pass through doors or walls: ‘If we do not admit that God can transcend the ordinary laws of nature, we do not admit His Resurrection either. And without the resurrection of Christ, we have no hope that anything follows after death. And this is the most absurd thing of all. Thus, by regarding the laws of nature as everything, we acknowledge that everything is absurd’4
Jesus Christ not only makes Himself visible, but takes His rightful place in their midst. And on the Cross He stood in the middle, between the two thieves, and, having risen, He is the centre around which the lives of all people revolve. His appearance is not as a special guest; rather, Christ becomes the Host of the disciples gathered together and establishes this meeting with the apostles as the foundation for the future existence of the church community.
‘Peace be with you!’ Whilst the apostles were terrified by the death of their Teacher and their own impending death, in this world dominated by fear and anxiety, the risen Christ makes Himself visible to offer Himself as peace. The greeting was intended to comfort the disciples in the grief they were still experiencing and to reassure them regarding the wrath of the Pharisees. However, when experienced more deeply, this greeting reveals Christ as the supreme Peace, as the divine Person who has conquered death and who longs for total communion, in peace and love, with humankind. Only persons can be the subjects of peace and love; otherwise, these states or feelings cannot be understood. This is not a matter of any temporary truce, such as that agreed by armies on the battlefield; rather, the Lord’s greeting reveals that ‘perfect peace and perfect love belong to the supreme Person, to God’. That is why it was embodied, as affirmed peace, in the love felt, in the word spoken. But a person is peace, love and the word not only in themselves, but also in relation to another person, and above all to Christ, the Son of God, Who became man for the sake of humankind, to be all these things for them, to be the giver of peace, love and the word’5
“But they were startled and terrified, thinking they were seeing a spirit” (Luke 24:37). This reaction on the part of the disciples was entirely natural; it proves once again that they were not simply gullible, but had doubts and inner struggles before accepting the miracle of the Resurrection. They knew of apparitions of angels or spirits; they had even seen Moses and Elijah on Mount Tabor; and now they suspected that it was the soul of Jesus appearing, He who was now dead and whose shadow had emerged from Sheol. The fear they felt also stemmed from the conviction that a living body, of flesh and bone, could not pass through walls or locked doors. That is why He said to the disciples: ‘Look at My hands and My feet; it is I Myself’ (v. 39). It was necessary for Jesus Christ to show them His hands, His feet and His side—that is, the marks of the wounds inflicted by His crucifixion and preserved in His Body for all time—both toconvince them that His crucified Body was one and the same as His risen Body, and also to show that Jesus does not wish to forget the Cross and the loving and saving act of His sacrifice, through which He brought joy to the whole world. ‘By baring the side of His Body and showing the marks of the nails, He proved to us beyond doubt that He had raised up the temple of His Body, which had hung upon the Cross, and restored the life of the Body which He had borne, abolishing the death peculiar to the body, for He is Life and God by nature. He chose to show Himself as He had been before, lest it be thought that He took on any form other than that in which He suffered death on the cross’6 Jesus Christ is One and the Same with His Body, identical to the One who was crucified and buried, but He is now radically transformed. “And, knowing that sight alone is not sufficient to distinguish one body from the image of another, and that touch is the decisive sign of a body’s reality—that the certainty derived from touch is stronger than that provided by the eyes— the Saviour invites them to touch Him, ‘for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have’7”. Touching the risen Body and being convinced of its reality would make the disciples fearless witnesses in the face of all dangers, so that it is certain they heeded Jesus’ exhortation and touched the wounds of His Body. Only in this way could St John the Evangelist John to affirm: ‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life […] we proclaim to you’ (1 John 1:1, 3).
Touching the risen Body and being convinced of its reality would make the disciples fearless witnesses in the face of all dangers; thus, it is certain that they heeded Jesus’ call and touched the wounds of His Body.
‘But they still could not believe for joy, and were amazed’ (v. 41). Another natural reaction of human nature, reflecting an inability to comprehend the unique event of the Resurrection, for the apostles are now experiencing a kind of unbelief caused by… joy (?!) In other words, they were saying to themselves: ‘This is impossible; what we see and touch—we cannot believe what is happening to us!’ St Peter the Apostle later experienced the same state of mind when the angel freed him from prison and ‘as he went out, he followed the angel, but he did not realise that what was happening through the angel was real; rather, it seemed to him that he was seeing a vision’ (Acts 12:9). Seeing that a shadow of doubt still lingered in the disciples’ hearts, Jesus gave them further proof of the Resurrection and granted them a special favour: “Do you have anything here to eat?” And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb. And taking it, he ate in their presence” (vv. 42–43).
The Evangelist Mark said that Jesus appeared whilst the disciples were ‘sitting at table’. The fact that Jesus Christ ate after the Resurrection further reveals the importance and uniqueness of the qualities of His Body, which had passed through death and was filled with the Holy Spirit. It is clear from the narrative that Jesus did not stifle the disciples’ freedom or their capacity for understanding, but sought to enlighten them, endeavouring to descend to the level most suitable for their grasp of the mystery. When they did not believe that it was He Himself, Jesus identified Himself through the marks on His Body acquired through the Cross; when they thought He was a spirit from Sheol, Jesus ‘stood’ amongst them to convince them that He was not a phantom floating through the air. Now, having touched Him, they could scarcely believe their joy, and Jesus provides the most human proof of the reality of His risen human Body: material food.
It must be emphasised that Jesus actually ate, but not because He was hungry. The resurrected Body no longer needs a digestive system, for it is fully spiritualised. ‘God established the law of sustaining the body through food when the spirit is not yet strong enough to sustain the body itself in its work through God’s active presence within it. That is why Jesus was able, by His own will, to allow this brief loosening of the bond between His Body and the divinity within Him, even after the Resurrection, in order to convince the Apostles of the preservation of His Body through the Resurrection’8”. The meal shared by Jesus after the Resurrection is entirely distinct from the apparent eating of the angels in the Old Testament. In Genesis, chapter 18, Abraham receives the Holy Trinity in the form of three Men or Angels, to whom he sets out butter, milk and the roasted calf, and ‘whilst they were eating, he sat with them under the tree’ (18:8). If they took the form of angels, how did the Persons of the Holy Trinity eat, or how do angels eat, if they are incorporeal beings? To this question, posed by the Jew Tryphon, Saint Justin the Martyr replies that ‘the angels ate in the same way that we speak when we say of fire that it has consumed everything. Nevertheless, we do not in the least understand that they ate by chewing with their teeth and molars’9 This is figurative language, because ‘the men in whose form the three Angels ate did not consume the food in a digestive sense, but devoured it like fire. Their incandescent nature – figuratively speaking – was able to consume the material food, causing it to vanish. And this only at certain moments, when the need for our salvation requires their intervention in our lives, for otherwise they have no need to eat; but they can eat – for our sake’10”. In the same way, the angel Raphael tells Tobit and Tobiah that ‘all these days I have been seen by you, yet I have neither eaten nor drunk, but it only appeared so to your eyes’ (Tobit 12:19).
In contrast, with the risen Lord Jesus, eating is not apparent, nor is it a mere appearance as with the angels, but is real, to demonstrate that His human nature did not become angelic or of any other kind, but retained its human nature, which He spiritualised and deified. However, this mystery will be fully revealed to us at the Last Resurrection. For now, we can only understand, together with St John Chrysostom, that the mystery ‘is beyond us and it is not for us to explain; all we can say is that the way in which the Lord did these things is marvellous; and that He ate not to satisfy His natural needs, which He no longer felt, but to prove and confirm His Resurrection through kindness and forbearance’11
In the case of the risen Lord Jesus, the eating is not apparent, nor is it a mere consumption as with angels, but it is real, to demonstrate that His human nature had not become angelic or of any other kind, but had retained its human nature, which He had spiritualised and deified. However, this mystery will be fully revealed to us at the Last Resurrection.
Whereas at Emmaus the Risen Lord first taught the disciples, explained the Scriptures to them and then gave them Holy Communion, now, in Jerusalem, the order is reversed: first He opened their external senses by allowing Himself to be seen, heard and touched, by eating in their presence, and only afterwards did He instruct His disciples. ‘Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures’ (v. 45). The Saviour’s words echo that ‘all that is written must be fulfilled’, that is, the divine plan for the salvation of the world through the Sacrifice and Resurrection of the Incarnate Son of God, the disciples realising that at the heart of the Old Testament lies the mystery of the Person of the Son and His redemptive mission, decreed from eternity.
The Evangelist Mark recalls another important detail from that meal: Jesus ‘rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen’ (16:14). The rebuke of the disciples is based, first and foremost, on their attitude of rejection and unbelief regarding the accounts of the Passion, which He Himself had given them whilst still on earth, and secondly, regarding their refusal to believe the testimony of the myrrh-bearing women, Mary Magdalene and Peter. Essentially, this concerns ‘a somewhat culpable unbelief’, as is evident from the Saviour’s rebuke, in which He chides them not only for their lack of faith, but also for the hardening of their hearts (sclerocardia). A hardened heart is not the consequence of unbelief, but its cause. This hardening of the heart refers to a conscience closed in upon itself, a prisoner of its own mental frameworks, incapable of opening itself to the newness of God’12
“And Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, so I send you’” (John 20:21). The meal, the rebuke and the explanation of the Scriptures brought conviction to the hearts of the disciples, who “rejoiced when they saw the Lord”. Having judged that the disciples were now convinced of Jesus’ real existence, He returned to that fatherly and warm atmosphere, bestowing His peace upon them as a sign of divine blessing. Whilst at the first instance peace had been a greeting marking their meeting, now Christ’s peace, addressed to the apostles, was intended to strengthen them for the mission He was about to entrust to them. The Lord greets the grieving women at the tomb with ‘Rejoice!’, but to the apostles He proclaims ‘Peace be with you!’, for they were to wage the fiercest battle in a world that had crucified the King of absolute love. With the peace of Christ in their hearts, the apostles will preach the Gospel of God’s merciful love everywhere and without fear.
Peace is given to give them courage in the missionary mandate, the aim of which is to continue the saving work of Jesus Christ through His Church throughout the world, following the example already set by the Lord Jesus. The sending of the apostles to the people ‘just as’ God the Father sent God the Son into the world reveals both the foundation of the mission and the power of the risen Christ. He demonstrates to them, as a Man, through His sending after the Resurrection, that He is also God. If Jesus sends them with the Father’s power, it means that He is like the Father. For before His Passion and Death, Jesus prayed to the Father: ‘Keep them in Your name’ (John 17:11), and now, after the Resurrection, Jesus sends the disciples out with His divine-human power and authority, so that they may carry out their future ministry, making His power present and effective. He Himself will guide them, and they will make Him present wherever His word is preached, for the apostles set out into the world with this divine empowerment.
He demonstrates to them, as a Man, through His commissioning after the Resurrection, that He is also God. If Jesus sends them with the Father’s power, it means that He is like the Father.
‘And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit! Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins you retain, they are retained”’ (vv. 22–23). In these words, the Lord Jesus reveals the entire Holy Trinity, for the apostles will continue the mission which the Father gave to the Son and which the Son gives to them, but this power is imparted only through the breathing of the Holy Spirit. The breathing of the Spirit on Resurrection Sunday inevitably brings to mind God’s act of breathing at the moment of man’s creation (Gen. 2:7) and the breathing upon the field of the dead’s bones in Ezekiel’s vision (chap. 37). Now, at the Resurrection, the act of breathing is linked to the renewal of creation, first accomplished in the human nature of Christ, which passed through death and was raised above the corruptibility of fallen nature. The Lord Jesus wishes to impart to them too ‘a breath of the new life of His humanity within them’13
The Lord Jesus reveals the entire Holy Trinity, for the apostles will continue the mission which the Father gave to the Son and which the Son gives to them, but this power is imparted only through the breathing of the Holy Spirit.
The breathing does not represent the hypostatic descent of the Holy Spirit, an act which will take place at Pentecost. It must not be confused with, nor entirely separated from, that personal descent on the day of Pentecost. This distinction reveals ‘the apostolic community’s awareness of being, first and foremost, a Paschal community, gathered together to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ. The faith of the apostolic community is founded on the appearance of the risen Saviour Christ. The gift of the Holy Spirit on the evening of the Resurrection is explained in continuity with the scene of the crucifixion’14 This breathing must be understood from the perspective of both the Spirit and the apostles. As for the gift, Jesus certainly bestowed it through this breathing. “Christ could not have said, ‘Take,’ if He had not given’15”. What the Lord is doing now is an early bestowal, prior to Pentecost, as a pledge of what the apostles were awaiting in order to be helped and guided into all truth (John 15:26; 16:13). At the Resurrection, ‘Jesus told them that He was giving them the Holy Spirit and breathed on them, after they had believed that He was the Son of God, by touching His feet and His side, and after his ascension he would give them the Holy Spirit in the fullness of his working power within them’13). The Spirit is now also given as power to the disciples so that they may bear witness to the Lord Jesus as true God and true Man, for ‘no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit’ (1 Cor. 12:3).
On the other hand, the breathing fits into the course of God’s plan for the apostles: first He chose them, over the years He taught them, at the Last Supper He consecrated them, and now He ordains them, for they receive a spiritual gift of the Spirit, the grace of the priesthood, which could not have been bestowed before His Sacrifice. We can therefore speak of a ‘functional communication of the Spirit, intended to help the disciples fulfil a specific function’16 The completion of the ordination, if we may call it that, takes place at Pentecost, when this grace of the priesthood will become active. The act of breathing upon them now makes the apostles ‘better prepared to understand what will happen when they hear the sound like a mighty wind and see tongues of fire distributed amongst them. Strictly speaking, it was then that the Holy Spirit began to work within them, or that they experienced His presence as He began to work in them’13). Then ‘they were all filled with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 2:4).
On Sunday evening, on the day of the Resurrection, Jesus Christ instituted two further Holy Sacraments for the faithful until the end of time: the Sacrament of the Priesthood and the Sacrament of Confession. The power now received by the apostles is divine, for only God can forgive sins, but He does so through priests chosen and consecrated by Him, so as to provide us with an objective path to repentance. The Apostles and their successors will represent Christ with His power and authority. The Lord Jesus reveals Himself once more in all His glory, being fully aware that He is God, Who alone can grant forgiveness when a law given by Him is broken. Thus, from the very first day of the Resurrection, the Saviour continues the work of salvation, which was first accomplished in His human nature, so that He may now extend it to mankind.
Thus, from the very first day of the Resurrection, the Saviour continues the work of salvation, which was first accomplished in His human nature, so that He might now extend it to mankind.
The three Holy Mysteries—the Eucharist, the Priesthood and Confession—celebrated or instituted on Sunday, show us the Saviour’s desire to prepare the apostles for their mission within the Church and to unite Himself with every person who believes in Him and loves Him until the end of time. The honour and responsibility bestowed upon the visible priesthood by Jesus Christ are realised in the fact that priests visibly represent the risen and invisible Christ, Who is given to us in all the other Sacraments. If sin means man’s separation from God, then through the Sacrament of Penance—that is, the confession of sins and their forgiveness by Jesus Christ through the visible priest— as the personal instrument of the Sacraments, this separation is abolished and man may worthily approach the real and fullest possible union in this life with Christ in the Sacrament of Holy Communion.
The Gospel does not mention how this Paschal appearance of Jesus to the disciples came to an end; we do not know how, or indeed whether, Jesus vanished from their sight. Scripture, however, concludes the encounter by describing the effect it had on the disciples: the ten felt compelled immediately to tell Thomas of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
‘Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came’ (John 20:24). What might have been the reasons for Thomas’s absence from the supper on the evening of the Resurrection? The Evangelist John does not specify any reason, whilst exegetes attempt to offer several. Among these, mere chance has been mentioned, though this does not seem to do justice to the significance with which St John records this information. Thomas may have been absent from the group of disciples because he was deeply affected and troubled by the events of the past three days, which had plunged him into despair, leading him to believe that everything was over as far as his life and discipleship with the Teacher were concerned. Another reason may be that, judging by recent events, Thomas had ‘a reaction which, in certain circumstances, gives rise to an unusual desire for solitude and isolation. Traumatised by the rapid succession of events, Thomas seeks a break, introspectively examining his own thoughts and doubts’17. St John Chrysostom maintains that the reason for his absence is that Thomas ‘had not yet returned from his initial flight and dispersion’18). Whatever the reason may have been, we believe that the apostle did not live in indifference or apathy, but was troubled by the many contradictions he was experiencing during those days, which kept him in a state of existential tension. The reason may also be sought in a providential plan, a divine arrangement whereby Thomas was not present on that first evening, precisely so that, through the direct, clear and evident response provided by sight and touch, all might be convinced of Christ’s Resurrection. Thus, Thomas’s absence appears to have been providential for himself and, above all, for all future believers who have not seen Christ with their physical eyes, but love Him with their whole being. His ‘unbelief’ was of great benefit to the Church.
Thus, Thomas’s absence seems to have been providential for himself and, above all, for all future believers who have not seen Christ with their physical eyes, but love Him with their whole being.
One further point must be mentioned. If he was not present on the evening when Christ breathed upon them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit!’, did Thomas then receive the grace of ordination? Firstly, it must be made clear that the power to forgive sins was given to the apostles and their successors, who exercise this grace solely within the church community. Secondly, the breathing of the Holy Spirit refers to the entire apostolic college, even though Thomas was not present, for ‘the power of the Spirit came upon each of those who received the grace and fulfilled the purpose of the One who gave it. But Christ did not bestow it upon some alone, but upon all the disciples. Thus, even those who were not present receive it, for the Giver’s generosity does not extend only to those present, but ascends to the entire company of the Holy Apostles’15”.
- 1
Rev. Dr Ioan Mircea, Dictionary of the New Testament, EIBMBOR, Bucharest, 1995, p. 302.
- 2
St John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Gospel of John, p. 486.
- 3
Olga Greceanu, Reflections on the Gospels, Sofia Publishing, Bucharest, 2010, p. 270.
- 4
St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St John, p. 1151; St Dumitru Stăniloae, note 2173.
- 5
St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St John, p. 1153; St Dumitru Stăniloae, note 2178.
- 6
St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St John, p. 1152.
- 7
Rev. Prof. I. Constantinescu, ‘The Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to the Four Gospels’, p. 82.
- 8
St Dumitru Stăniloae, The Gospel Image of Jesus Christ, p. 276.
- 9
St Justin the Martyr and Philosopher, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, Greek Apologists, in the P.S.B. series, no. 2, published by IBMBOR, Bucharest, 1980, p. 158.
- 10
Mgr. Anca Manolache, ‘A Chapter on Angelology’, in the journal Studii Teologice, 1955, no. 1–2, p. 127.
- 11
St John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Gospel of John, p. 493.
- 12
Associate Professor Dr C. Preda, ‘The Resurrection of the Saviour in the Narrative Tradition of the Gospels’, p. 129.
- 13a13b13c
St Dumitru Stăniloae, The Gospel Image of Jesus Christ, p. 272.
- 14
Associate Professor Dr C. Preda, The Resurrection of the Saviour in the Narrative Tradition of the Gospels, p. 240.
- 15a15b
St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St John, p. 1161.
- 16
André Scrima, A Comprehensive Commentary on the Gospel according to John, p. 394.
- 17
Prot. Dr Marcu Bănescu, ‘Toma’, in the journal Mitropolia Banatului, 1989, no. 2, p. 20.
- 18
St John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Gospel of John, p. 490.