After Jesus was resurrected, he went to his disciples. He did not go to the Pharisees or Pilate to show that they were wrong, or he was the resurrected God. Instead, he goes to his loved ones.
And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
Matthew 28:9-10 ESV
Soldiers always go to their families and loved ones when they return from duty. They want to spend time with people who matter after all their suffering.
Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
Acts 2:33 ESV
The reason Jesus ascended to heaven was to be with all of us always. We are His beloved disciples.
Yet, who are these disciples? These were the same people who abandoned Jesus. Peter even denied Jesus three times before running away. What was the response of these undeserving disciples? They came back to Jesus.
Judas was the only disciple who did not come to see Jesus after his Resurrection. Some scholars speculate Judas was trying to get hope from his own ability. The other disciples put their hope in Jesus. This is what kept them going.
Jesus goes back to the place, Galilee where the disciples first meet Jesus and started to follow Him. We, too, need to go back to the place where we first met Christ.
Come back to Jesus who always there for us and lay down our ego and sinfulness so that we can die on the cross and to live the resurrected life through His resurrection.
Jesus also wanted to allow His disciples to be healed and be prepared to serve Jesus.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
John 21:15-19 ESV
Peter was confident that he would never betray Jesus and yet he did this three times during Jesus’ most desperate time. Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Jesus. He gives Peter the opportunity to lay down everything before God and accept that he cannot do anything on his own. The death that Peter will die is death on the cross.
But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Matt 12:48-50 ESV
Jesus treated Peter as His brother because Jesus was giving Peter the same ministry He did on earth.
During Easter, we must remember that Jesus died on the cross so we could deny ourselves like Christ did on the cross. This is not just Peter's story. It is our story. We need to think how we can live our life for Jesus. Accept we are weak, but Christ is strong. Jesus will be our strength to overcome and lead us to the cross and make us live the new resurrected life with Him.
2023-04-09 Worship Songs
Everybody, Everywhere
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.