The Lord Christ with His Disciples Forty Days After the Resurrection
The Lord Christ with His Disciples
Forty Days After the Resurrection
They are days of joy in the Lord. They began with a miracle and ended with a miracle. They began with the miracle of the Resurrection and ended with the miracle of the Ascension. Each of these two miracles testifies to the Divinity of the Lord. And between these two miracles, there were many other miracles, such as:
(a) The Lord Jesus entering through closed doors to the disciples, as recorded in (John 20:19, 26). This miracle shows that the body of the Resurrection was a glorified body, unhindered by material barriers—just as He came out of the sealed tomb in the miracle of the Resurrection.
(b) Another miracle: He appeared suddenly and vanished suddenly. Sometimes they found Him walking with them or standing in their midst, as happened with the disciples of Emmaus (Luke 24:15), with the eleven disciples (Luke 24:36), and with the seven disciples at the Sea of Tiberias (John 21:4).
(c) He also at times concealed His identity from them, and at other times revealed Himself, as He did with the disciples of Emmaus (Luke 24:16, 31): “Their eyes were restrained so that they did not know Him,” and later “their eyes were opened and they knew Him.” The same occurred with Mary Magdalene (John 20:14, 16), and also with the disciples at the shore of Tiberias (John 21:4, 7).
(d) A fourth miracle was the great catch of fish. He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish… “full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three” (John 21:6, 11). Then John said, “It is the Lord!” (John 21:7).
(e) We may add to these miracles the appearance of the angels of the Resurrection who announced the good news to all who visited the tomb, and the miracle of the burial cloths from which Christ had risen, with the napkin folded by itself, which made Peter and John believe in the Resurrection (John 20:6–9).
In the Resurrection, Christ fulfilled His promise to His disciples, and they rejoiced greatly to see Him.
He had told them before His crucifixion: “A little while and you will not see Me; and again a little while and you will see Me” (John 16:16). And He also said, “But I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you” (John 16:22). Thus it was written in the Gospel: “Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20).
They not only saw Him, but “He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Therefore, these are joyful days—no prostrations or fasting are practiced in them—because, “As long as the bridegroom is with them, they cannot fast” (Mark 2:19).
As the disciples rejoiced in the fulfillment of His promise, they fully trusted that all His other promises would be fulfilled as well—both what He said before His crucifixion and what He told them after His Resurrection, especially His promises about sending the Holy Spirit and granting them power to bear witness for Him (Acts 1:8), and His promises of divine gifts and protection (Mark 16:17–18). The power of the Lord was revealed in His Resurrection, and the truth of His promises was confirmed.
We also notice that the Lord, in His appearances, chose to whom He would appear, as well as the place and the time.
He chose to appear to Mary Magdalene, to Peter, to the disciples of Emmaus, to the eleven, to Thomas, to the seven disciples, to James, later to Saul of Tarsus, and to more than five hundred brethren (1 Corinthians 15:5–8).
As for the place, He appeared at the tomb to the women, then to Mary Magdalene; also in Galilee, as He had told the women: “Go tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me” (Matthew 28:10, 16). He appeared in the upper room (John 20:19), at the shore of Tiberias (John 21:1), and on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:15)—all at the times He Himself chose. This reminds us of the Scripture: “The kingdom of God does not come with observation” (Luke 17:20).
We do not know when the Lord will visit us with His grace and mercy, when His Holy Spirit will work within us, or when He will speak to our hearts and guide our will. Suddenly, and at unexpected times, we find the Lord present—just as He appeared in the upper room with the doors shut, saying, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19). And Saul of Tarsus, at an unexpected moment, saw a light shining around him and heard the Lord’s voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). Likewise, at an unexpected time, the Lord called the young Samuel and entrusted him with a message (1 Samuel 3:4–14).
Thus the Lord appeared to His disciples in many encounters over forty days—just as He was with Moses the Prophet on the mountain, giving him the written and unwritten commandments, also over forty days. The number 40 itself has symbolism: 10 represents the commandments of the Lord, and 4 represents the four directions of the earth; thus, 4×10 symbolizes spreading the commandments of God to all the world—His commandments to Moses and to the apostles.
Christ did not appear to everyone, but to His disciples, whom He entrusted with His message.
He did not appear to Annas, Caiaphas, Herod, or Pilate, nor to the priests, scribes, Pharisees, or Jewish leaders. They would not have believed, for they were occupied with bribing the soldiers and spreading lies, fighting the Resurrection, and persecuting those who proclaimed it. Of them it is said: “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead” (Luke 16:31).
The Lord Jesus appeared also to women.
He elevated the status of women and gave them a role in society and in the Church. The Gospel of Mark beautifully says: “Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene” (Mark 16:9).
He appeared to her and the other Mary as they were departing from the tomb: “And Jesus met them, saying, ‘Rejoice!’ So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me’” (Matthew 28:9–10). He also appeared again to Mary Magdalene weeping outside the tomb (John 20:14), comforted her, and gave her a message for His disciples: “Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her” (John 20:18).
The forty days with His disciples were days of teaching, enlightenment, and divine transmission.
He “spoke of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). He revealed to them the meanings of all the symbols in the Old Testament. The Gospel says of His meeting with the two disciples of Emmaus: “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). What a treasure of divine knowledge that must have been! Yet St. Luke the Evangelist did not record it for us. And in His meeting with the eleven He said: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” Then “He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures” (Luke 24:44–45).
My brothers, sometimes I feel like gently reproaching our great Saint Luke the Evangelist and saying: Why, dear saint, did you not write all this for us?
This wondrous divine treasure that the Lord revealed to His disciples, interpreting to them the things concerning Himself in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms! But I withdraw my reproach when I recall the Lord’s words to His disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations… teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20). The apostles obeyed and taught us all that the Lord had taught them and explained to them.
Some of these teachings were recorded in their epistles, others in their instructions and church canons. But what of the things not written down?—as St. John said: “Having many things to write to you, I do not wish to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face” (2 John 12; 3 John 13–14).
All these teachings have reached us through the life and tradition of the Church. Thus we regain what the Lord spoke when He opened their understanding.
He must have begun with Moses—from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—explaining the symbols of salvation: from “the seed of the woman who shall bruise the serpent’s head” (Genesis 3:15), to the sacrifices and offerings beginning with righteous Abel (Genesis 4:4), to the Passover lamb whose blood saved the firstborn, as the Lord said: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13). Of this St. Paul later wrote: “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
Every sacrifice symbolized Christ—an innocent one bearing the sins of the guilty and dying in their stead.
The sacrificed animal was innocent; the sinner laid his hand on it, confessing his sins, and it bore his guilt and died for him—“For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and “without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). He likely explained the symbols of the burnt offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, and the peace offering.
He also pointed out symbolic persons: Isaac, representing the sacrifice of the only Son; Joseph, sold by his brothers; and David, who said, “Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head” (Psalm 69:4), and “They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones” (Psalm 22:16). And many more psalmic prophecies, such as: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand till I make Your enemies Your footstool’” (Psalm 110:1), and “The Lord has sworn and will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek’” (Psalm 110:4).
He must have explained the prophecies about Himself—especially those in Isaiah, called the “Evangelical Prophet,” who foretold His birth from a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), His Divinity (Isaiah 9:6), His sufferings and redemptive death: “All we like sheep have gone astray… and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
He likely explained the other symbols pointing to Him: Jonah in the belly of the whale, the bronze serpent (John 3:14), the manna from heaven (John 6), and even the symbols pointing to His Virgin Mother—the golden censer bearing the live coal, and the burning bush that was not consumed (Exodus 3:2).
Time would fail us to recount all He must have taught His disciples during those forty holy days—during which He surely also entrusted them with all the doctrines and rites of the Church.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Watani newspaper on May 2, 1993.
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