HOLY WEEK SERIES, BONUS BLOG:
- brittbryan1001
- Apr 15, 2023
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 29, 2024
What happened after the Resurrection? The Meaning of Empty Tombs, Roads, & Nets.
The Holy Week series I posted last week walked through the final days of Jesus’s life, and of course ended on Easter with Resurrection Sunday - what the entirety of the Christian faith rests on.
But there was something I did not include in the series and it’s been nagging at me.
Which is that all four gospels tell several stories about encounters with Jesus after his resurrection, before his final ascension.
So, I decided to write this “Bonus Blog,” which will focus on three of those encounters: two from the book of John and one from Luke’s gospel.
I think these scenes are worthy of reflecting on this week, when it might be tempting to leave Easter in the rearview mirror and just return to business as usual.
Because during these moments “in between” Jesus's death on the cross and his revealing himself to his followers, what must everyone have thought? Surely they thought all hope had been lost. They were sure he was the Messiah, and they found themselves grappling with a reality without him. "What now??" They must have been thinking.
Can you relate? The thing you hoped for didn't come to fruition. All that waiting, for nothing. All that wasted time. What now?
Or, the thing you're waiting for just hasn't happened yet. How do you live in those "in-between" moments?
I think it’s interesting to think about, because frankly, life is lived there a lot more than we want to talk about, in the “in-between.” And it can be hard to sense God's presence there.
In between the painful break-up and finding "the one." In between the soul-sucking job and the career of your dreams. In between the "terrible twos" and the empty nest. In between addiction and freedom. In between the grief of loss and the relief of acceptance.
And I suspect that Jesus, strategic as always, knew that life would be full of that in between stuff, and so he appeared to specific people in specific ways during that time, to leave us images of how we are to now live in our “in between” moments of life.
So, I want to tell the three stories, and then propose three reasons we might not recognize Jesus when we are in the “in between” moments of life. And then I will ask some questions for us to consider what we can do while we are in the "in-between."
1.) THE EMPTY TOMB: We don’t recognize Jesus because we get caught up in our own stuff.
When Mary Magdalene arrived at Jesus’s tomb and found it empty, she was grief-stricken, thinking someone had taken his body.
Jesus then appeared to Mary, but she did not immediately recognize him. He asked her why she was crying and who she was looking for.
Verse 15 tells us that Mary thought he was the gardener, so she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). -John 20:16
Mary did not see Jesus until he called her by name. She was so caught up in her grief that she was unable to sense his presence.
It is possible that we don’t see Jesus in our lives because we are too focused on our own grief, disappointment, regret, depression, disillusionment, resentment, distraction, (insert your junk here)…?
When we are focused only on ourselves, then our own junk takes up all the space. How can there possibly be room to recognize Christ in our lives?
What has to happen to you and to me for us to open our eyes to Jesus’s active presence in our lives? How and where can we make more room?
2.) THE EMPTY NETS: We don’t recognize Jesus when we remain stuck in old patterns.
The next chapter in John 21 tells a story about how the disciples did not immediately recognize Jesus, either. They went out to go fishing, but they weren’t having much luck.
Jesus then calls from the shore and tells them to drop their nets on the other side of their boat, and they do. Their nets become so full of fish that they cannot haul it into the boat.
That’s when John realizes it's Jesus and he tells Peter, who then dashes to the shore.
The disciples didn’t know it was Jesus until their nets were full of fish. And their nets weren’t full until they listened to him and put them on the other side of the boat.
And surely the water looked the same on either side of the boat, so why would they think to try the other side?? But Jesus tells us to trust his way. He calls us to have faith, even when we cannot see the full picture.
When we keep doing the same thing, we will keep getting the same result. So if we want something to change, we have to change some things.
What “other way” might Jesus be calling you to? Where can you try putting your faith in him, even when you cannot see the full picture?
3.) THE EMPTY ROAD: We don’t recognize Jesus because we simply are not looking for him.
Luke 24 tells the story about the road to Emmaus. After Jesus had died, two men were walking along, lamenting that one they thought was the Savior of the world was just crucified and all hope was lost.
Jesus started walking with them and asked them what they were talking about. They had no idea who he was, but were shocked that this stranger hadn't heard the news. They were like, “Dude, have you been living under a rock?!”
They explained they had hoped this Jesus guy would be the one to redeem Israel, but he died. Then Jesus said, “Do you not know your Scriptures?? This had to happen.” And he then walked through the whole Old Testament with them, explaining how and why things had to happen the way they did.
As Jesus turned to leave, the men invited him to stay and they sat down to eat a meal together.
Then Jesus broke the bread - and that was the moment the men suddenly recognized him.
They talked and walked for miles with Jesus before they recognized him. How many miles might we have walked in our lives without knowing he was there?
I am not talking about the cheesy “Footprints in the Sand” poem. I am talking about as we walk through the roads of our own lives, in the chaos, in the joy, in the disappointment, in the hurriedness, in the going through the motions…do we recognize him?
What is our road to Emmaus? Where might we encounter Jesus?
Okay, so....what do we do with these stories?
I think what we are meant to do with ALL of scripture is to take what the stories tell us and apply their meaning to our lives today.
Perhaps Jesus appears to us in different ways in different stages of our lives, but I believe it is possible to encounter him anywhere. And I believe he is there in every situation, even if we don’t recognize him.
Even when we are in the midst of our "in-between" moments.
In times of darkness and grief (when we are sitting at gravesides).
In times of struggle or lack of faith (when our nets are coming up empty).
In times of hopelessness and fear (when we find ourselves walking down lonely roads).
He is there with us in the joy and celebrations too, of course. But it’s harder to see and feel the hope when things are not going our way. That’s just the way it is.
And that’s probably why I felt the need to write this "bonus blog." Because I am finding myself in an “in between” season of life right now, and it’s been harder to recognize him lately.
I am grief-stricken, mourning the emptiness of something I long for. I am sitting out there on the water in a boat with empty nets. I am on that lonely road, feeling lost and unsure of the destination.
And I am looking for you, Jesus. I know you are there. Help me to see you and recognize your presence.
If you are feeling that way too, then this blog is for you. To know you are not alone. To accept that a life of faith won’t always be easy. To be reminded that while it might be tempting in a post-Easter world to just go through the motions, that is how we can lose sight of Jesus.
And so it’s a reminder to call our attention back to the one who showed us how to live in the Kingdom of God, on earth as it is in the heavens. Back to the one who loved us to the end, by showing us that “there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
And to remind us of his final words of the Great Commission, just before his ascension:
“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” - Matthew 28:20
Always.
And so, even if we do not recognize him in our moments of grief, or when our nets come up empty, or along lonely roads, may we find comfort in knowing Jesus is surely with us. Always.
Even in the “in-between.”
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
What has to happen to you and to me for us to open our eyes to Jesus’s active presence in our lives?
What “other way” might Jesus be calling you to?
Where can you try putting your faith in him, even when you cannot see the full picture?
What is our road to Emmaus?
Where might we encounter Jesus?
Check out all 6 parts of the Holy Week Series:
Holy Week Series, Part V: Happy Easter! Rethinking Salvation and Living in Light of the Resurrection.
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