He is Risen?

"We who read the Gospels from the other side of Easter, who have the day printed on our calendars, forget how hard it was for the disciples to believe. In itself the empty tomb did not convince them: that fact only demonstrated 'He is not here,' not 'He is risen.' Convincing these skeptics would require intimate, personal encounters with the one who had been their Master for three years, and over the next six weeks Jesus provided exactly that...

I see in the appearances a whimsical quality, as if Jesus is enjoying the bird-like freedom of his resurrection body. Luke, for example, gives a touching account of Jesus' sudden arrival alongside two forlorn followers on a road to Emmaus. They know about the women's discovery of the empty tomb, and Peter's eyewitness confirmation. But who can believe such rumors? Is not death by definition irreversible? 'We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel,' one of them says with obvious disappointment.

A short time later, at mealtime, the stranger makes a riveting gesture, breaking bread, and a link snaps into place. It is Jesus who had been walking beside them and now sits at their table! Most strangely, the instant they recognize their guest, he disappears."

Philip Yancey "The Jesus I Never Knew" (c) 1995

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