Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 447
20:9-28
John
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believed—for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that
said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home.
Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she
stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the
head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had
been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know
where they have put him.”
She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but
she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked
her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him
away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
“Mary!” Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for
“Teacher”).
“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father.
But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and
your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the
Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing
there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed
them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when
they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has
sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you
do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not
with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his
hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in
his side.”
Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas
was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus
was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to
Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into
the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
