from WL Worcester (H Blackmer, ed.), 
The Sower.  Helps to the Study of the Bible in Home and Sunday School
 
(Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union, n.d.)

Table of Contents
 

 

Lesson 30

John 20: 19-31  With the Disciples at Jerusalem

The Story

Primary

The same Easter Day in the evening the disciples were together in Jerusalem, with doors shut for fear of the Jews, and Jesus stood in the midst of them. "Peace be unto you," He said; and He breathed on them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.

But Thomas, one of the disciples, was not with the rest that Easter evening, and it was not until the next Sunday evening that Thomas was made sure. Then the disciples again were together and Thomas with them; again the Lord stood in the midst and said, "Peace be unto you." Thomas was made sure and said, "My Lord and my God." The word spread among all those who loved the Lord, "The Lord is risen indeed."

Junior

In our last lesson we considered three of the five scenes of Easter happiness. Now we consider the fourth and fifth events.

Fourth, with the disciples gathered in the room Easter evening. "Peace be unto you," was the usual greeting, but with what fuller meaning when spoken by the Lord. One of the last things He had said to them was, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you," and, "These things I have spoken unto you that in Me ye might have peace." (John 14:27; 16:33) The wounds in the hands and side helped the disciples to be sure that it was really the Lord. Breathing on the disciples was a sign that His influence would be with them and give them power in their own lives and in the lives of others. The Lord's promises were fulfilled, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you"; "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice." (John 14:18; 16:22) But Thomas was not with the other disciples when the Lord came to them. They told him, but he could not believe.

Fifth, a week later in Jerusalem when Thomas was with them. The Lord was patient with their slowness to believe, and made even Thomas sure. He made it the occasion of a lesson to us all who do not see the Lord in outward form as the disciples did, that we do not need to see Him, that we can feel His comfort and His help in inner ways still more real and sure.


1. What appearances of the Lord on Easter Day do you remember?

2. Where did the Lord come to a number of the disciples together? What was their first feeling when they saw Him?

3. What did the Lord say, and what did He do, to change their fear to joy?

4. Which disciple was not with them when the Lord came? How was he afterwards convinced?

5. Are all the things that the Lord did recorded in John's Gospel, or in all the Gospels? All that we need to know?

Spiritual Study

Intermediate

The great lesson of Easter Day for the disciples and for us was that the Lord still lived and still was with them. His presence after His resurrection was different from what it had been before, but it was no less real. You see that it was different, for the Lord now came to them "the doors being shut," and He vanished out of their sight." (Luke 24:31) In His glorification He had cast off the limitations of material things. Those who saw Him, saw Him now with spiritual sight. "His body was now no longer a material, but a Divine-substantial body." (L. 35; T. 793)

The Lord could not explain to the disciples the change which was taking place, for they could not have understood it; but by words and proofs He made them sure that He was really with them. The Lord is more fully with us than our friends who die. For they leave the natural plane of life and enter into the spiritual life; but the Lord did not leave the natural plane of life. He glorified it, He cast off its limitations and made it Divine. This was the meaning of His saying to the apostles, "A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have." (Luke 24:39) This is why He is called in the Revelation, "the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." (Revelation 22: 13) By the glorification of His human nature, even to His flesh and bones the Lord is with men in the natural life of this world as fully as He is with angels of heaven. "All power is given unto Me," He said, "in heaven and in earth." (Matthew 28:18; A. 5078; H. 316)

Those who wish to give deeper study to the subject of the Lord's resurrection should read carefully the references given above. We quote also a few other sentences of special interest.

"The Lord was conceived from Jehovah; . . . and therefore He could glorify the whole body, so that even that part of the body which is rejected by those who are born of human parents, and putrefies, in Him was glorified and made Divine from the Divine in Himself; and with this He rose, leaving nothing in the sepulchre, differently from any man." (J. post. 129)

"In the sepulchre, thus by death, the Lord rejected and dissipated all the human from the mother, by which He endured temptations and the passion of the cross, since that could not be conjoined with the Divine itself, and thus He put on a Human from the Father; thus the Lord rose with His Human fully and entirely glorified." (De Domino post. p. 42)

"With man the prior forms are not destroyed, but are removed; but with the Lord the prior forms, which were from the maternal, were altogether destroyed and extirpated, and Divine forms received in their place; for the Divine love does not agree with any but a Divine form; all other forms it absolutely casts out; hence it is that the Lord, when glorified, was no longer the son of Mary." (A. 6872)

"The Lord's body itself also, when glorified, that is, when it was made Divine, is nothing else [but the Divine love]." (A. 6135)

The signs which gave the disciples a general proof of the Lord's presence, when understood more deeply contain particular instruction in regard to His presence. He showed them His hands and feet, for the hands and feet represent the natural plane of life in which He is still present with us. The words, "Handle Me and see," are an invitation to make practical proof of the Lord's presence by depending upon Him in our own natural life. The wounds in the Lord's hands and side may suggest His sympathy with our natural trials; His eating of the fish and honeycomb suggests His participation in our natural knowledge and delight. (E. 513, 619)

"Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed." The knowledge of the Lord which is possible to us may be as satisfying as the knowledge which they had who knew the Lord on earth. It may even be surer and more satisfying. Miracles and outward revelations would not help us. "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." (Luke 16:31; A. 7290; E. 1156)

We have found that the Gospel of John is by no means a complete record of the events of the Lord's life. It supplements rather than repeats what is told in the other Gospels. It reveals more than other Gospels of the Lord's love. The last two verses of this chapter express the special purpose of this Gospel of John.

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