If you hear these words, “What do you want first, the good news or the bad news?” always take the good news! When telling people a combination of good and bad news, if the bad news comes first, most people don’t hear the good news. The bad news throws our brain into survival mode, often turning off our ability to process the good news. Take the good news first!
The disciples have been told that they will deny Jesus. That is bad news. They have also been told repeatedly that Jesus is going to die. Also bad news. So it is not wonder that they haven’t been able to absorb the good news of His resurrection. They don’t hear that Jesus will meet them in Galilee. All they have heard is the bad news.
But what would it mean to the disciples that Jesus would rise? We can look back and see that rising means an empty tomb on Sunday morning. We know that the women bumped into Him near the tomb. We know He met with the disciples on several occasions, ate with them, talked with them. We also know that Jesus ascended into heaven right in front of them, disappearing into the clouds.
The disciples had experienced people coming back to life after death as a result of Jesus ministry among them. They would have also read about the three who were raised in the Old Testament. Both Elijah and Elisha raised sons of widows. One man comes back to life after being placed on Elisha’s bones.
They would have seen the widow’s son at Nain brought back to life, and Jairus’ daughter taken by the hand and raised. And they were there when Jesus spoke to Lazarus and he came walking out still wrapped in his grave wrappings.
The one thing these returns to life have in common is the presence of a great person of God. Elijah, Elisha and Jesus played the key role in the return to life. But if Jesus dies, who is going to bring him back to life? What will the agency be to bring Him back from the dead? Someone of importance has to be involved.
So when Jesus tells the disciples about rising, I am sure it was a puzzle to them. And to add to the puzzle, to speak about meeting them in Galilee must have been a puzzle piece that had not box picture to match. I don’t think they would be able to process this information. None of the individuals who they drew as examples knew they were going to die and return to life again. None of them had made plans after their death to meet friends in another area of the country.
It can be very difficult to come to grips with things completely outside our realm of knowledge. And this is exactly what the disciples had to do in order to hear the good news of Jesus return to life.
The Arnold Journey 