Luke 24:1-12

A small group of men huddles in a room behind closed doors. They have barred the door against any Roman soldiers who might be seeking them, seeking them as followers of their crucified leader. They have shuttered the windows so that nobody could see them inside. They have even shoved the heavy wooden table against the door. Nobody would even know they were there.

Until they heard a gentle knock on the door. At first they ignored it, but the knocking persisted. Then a soft whisper. “James! John!” A woman’s voice. A familiar voice.

“That’s my mother!” whispered James.

They moved the table back gently, as quietly as they could. John lifted the heavy bar from its place across the door. James opened the door a crack.

“It’s the women,” he whispered to the other men, who moved the table to open the door to let them in.

The women slipped in and joined the men gathered in the middle of the room, as James replaced the bar across the door and others replaced the table.

“The tomb is empty!” began Mary Magdalene. Excitement shone in her eyes.

“Jesus is not there!” added Joanna. She bounced back and forth on her feet.

“We saw two angels!” Mary the mother of James trembled. “They reminded us that Jesus said he would be crucified and then rise again on the third day.”

“And they asked us, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’ I think they meant that Jesus is alive again,” Joanna waved her arms.

But the men surrounding them all shook their heads. “An idle tale,” one muttered.

“Women!” scoffed another. “Who can believe them?”

And the men looked at each other in disbelief and fear. “What do we do now?”

Most of them sat back down, faces sour. Their hands jerked uncontrollably. A few paced the room, biting their bottom lips.

Later in the evening they heard another knock, a stronger knock, made by a man’s hand.

“Who is it?” asked one of the women standing at the door.

The voice that responded was not loud, but certainly strong. “Simon. Let me in. I have news. Wonderful news.”

He quickly slipped inside the opened door and a rush of words tumbled over each other. “He’s alive! He has risen indeed! He came to me! I saw him . . . alive! On my way home from the tomb. He . . .”

But before he could go on, another knock. This time it was two of the followers who had gone to Emmaus. As the table was shoved back against the door, the two caught their breath.

“He’s alive,” gasped Cleopas.

Matthew helped him sit down. “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”

Cleopas appeared not to hear him. “He walked with us back to Emmaus, but we didn’t recognize …”

The speaker stopped in mid sentence, his mouth hanging open. All eyes turned to the front of the room. There, standing in the middle of the room, stood Jesus!

“Peace be with you.” He raised his hand with the familiar greeting as they stared back at him in awe and in fear. How did he get into the room? They had not let him in.

He showed them the wounds in his hands and his feet. Finally, he asked, “Do you have anything here to eat? Ghosts don’t eat, you know.” He winked at them. They watched carefully as the piece of boiled fish was chewed and swallowed.

For a few minutes he explained his death and resurrection to them. “Now stay here in Jerusalem,” he concluded, “until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Still numb with shock and joy, they followed him to Bethany, where he disappeared up into the air. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy! They still weren’t sure what they were to do, but they would be. Resurrection–from fear and anguish.

# # #

The young Pharisee hurried his companions along. “We have to get to Damascus before they get word that we’re coming,” he reminded them. “Otherwise, they’ll all get away.”

“Would it be such a bad thing if one or two of them escaped?” someone asked.

Saul turned and glared at the man who had asked the question. “Of course it would! It’s like a disease! They spread like wildfire. They spread their lies about their dead leader, and people actually believe them. They turn away from Jehovah, from temple worship, from sacrifice. We can’t let that happen! We have to defend Jehovah!”

“I just meant . . .” began the other, but he was interrupted by what he saw, a bolt of lightning coming straight out of a clear blue sky. And then he heard a roll of thunder, thunder, with no clouds above. The lightning seemed to strike Saul directly. He collapsed immediately onto the ground, curled up in a ball.

“Who are you?” he shouted at nothing visible to the others, who only heard an on-going thunder.

As quickly as it had begun, the thunder ceased, and Paul relaxed from his fetal position on the ground. He raised a hand. “Help me up,” he begged. “I can’t see!”

The others raised him up, but he continued to grope around with his arms. “I can’t see. I can’t see.” He appeared to be looking around him, looking for the men who were with him. “What do I do now?”

Unable to see, he sat in the room to which they had taken him. When did the day end? When did the next day begin? He didn’t know.

A knock on the door. An unfamiliar voice. “Saul? From Tarsus?”

“Yes. Who is it?”

Footsteps told him the stranger had entered the room. Someone touched his shoulder.

“Brother Saul, the Lord–Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here–has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

As the man spoke, Paul’s ears seemed to hear in slow motion. “Brother?” Wasn’t that the way the Followers of the Way spoke to each other? He was not one of them. They were the ones he had come to Damascus to gather up and throw into prison. “The Lord Jesus?” Is that the one he had seen, the light that had knocked him off his horse? The one who said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting”?

He heard more words: “So that you may see again.” The one who took his vision would return it? “And be filled with the Holy Spirit.” But he was doing God’s work, rounding up these people, the work of God’s Holy Spirit.

He put his head in his hands, trying to understand. And through his closed eyes, he saw light, like when he would close his eyes in the daytime. When he opened them, he saw the man standing beside him–an older man, with a white beard that covered his neck. Old, but as tall as Saul, with a smile on his face that reached out in friendship.

“I can see! I see you!” Saul kept his feet on the ground, but in his mind, he jumped for joy.

“But there’s more.” He stepped back. “In my head. I …”

“Yes, Saul. You are the Lord’s chosen instrument to proclaim the name of Jesus to Gentiles and their kings as well as to the people of Israel.”

“But …” His inner eyes saw trouble: imprisonments, floggings, a stoning, shipwrecks, adrift at sea.

“Yes, that too. Not everyone will want to accept your message. But you will spread the gospel beyond anyone’s imagination.”

“The gospel?”

“The good news about Jesus, the Son of God. About Jesus, who died for our sins.”

“The one Steven called ‘the Righteous One.’ ” He no longer spoke in questions.

“Yes. Many will believe because of your testimony.”

“Tell me. Tell me the stories of Jesus.”

And Ananias did.

For consideration:

General questions:

1) How does this story follow its Scripture?

2) How does this story expand its Scripture for you?

3) What is the message of this story?

4) How does the message apply to us today?

Specific questions:

5) The disciples did not believe the women, but began to believe Peter what Peter told them. When Cleopas and his companion returned, they were less skeptical. What did it take for them to believe Jesus was real and risen?

6) Might Cleopas’ companion have been his wife? What evidence do you find to support or deny that possibility?

7)  Why did the Pharisees in general and Saul in particular refuse to believe Jesus?

8) Can you name modern people like Saul, who were adamantly opposed to something big but who then turned around and supported it? What did it take for them to change their mind?