Making Connections

The disciples had been through a very hard time when we meet them in the Gospel text. Earlier, things were coming together. Jesus’ popularity was at an all time high. God was working wonders through Jesus and through them in ways that were beyond imagining. There seemed to be no end of what could be accomplished. Then suddenly it came to a standstill. The Jesus that was seen as someone extraordinary, was killed in a very ordinary and shameful way, and with him their dreams, aspirations and hopes for God’s reign on earth.

Fractured, distracted, disjointed—these are the disciples we encounter. They gather not in order to find a way to continue, but to withdraw from the world, to withdraw from each other. Their relationships with each other are as fractured as their thoughts.

It is to these very people that Christ reveals himself, not as a display of glory, but to bring a word of shalom—peace and wholeness to a troubled people. He comes to bring focus to their thoughts, restore their unity and give them hope for the future. He comes not as an angel, but as himself, as a person among people. And so we witness a kind of second resurrection, the resurrection of the disciples from despair and hopelessness to joy and hope. They learn that Christ’s spirit is with them, that the work which was begun by Jesus before his death, could not be silenced by the grave. Indeed, the power behind the work was not diminished by death, but became stronger through it, as now the disciples would carry on the proclamation of Jesus: God is here, God does love you, and through the miracle of forgiveness and a new perspective on living, God can change lives.(continued ... )

Page: 1 2 Story Gospel Home Content for Making Connections (c) 2006 Norm-Hennig Pereira
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