“PEACE BE WITH YOU”

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?” —Luke 24:36–38

After Jesus disappeared, the two disciples hurried back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples that they had seen Jesus. As they shared their news, Jesus suddenly was there among them. He gave them a greeting of peace—which initially brought them anything but peace. Still not convinced that Jesus really was alive, they instinctively reacted with fear.

Jesus chided them gently, both with His rhetorical question and also with the assurance that everything had gone exactly as had been planned.

At the time when the disciples had been most convinced that their hopes in Jesus had come to nothing and most afraid that a knock on the door would mean that they were about to be arrested, the divine plans were finally accomplished, and the person entering the room was the resurrected Jesus. They were still not sure what to make of Jesus, so He asked for something to eat and began a Bible study similar to the one He had shared with the two disciples on the road. He concluded with a commission: “You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:48). Their role would now be to testify to the story of His resurrection.

Significantly, their fears and doubts would be part of their testimony. They, too, struggled to believe at first. But their fears were replaced with peace, and their doubts faded as they spent time with the resurrected Jesus. He explained to them how “everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44). Their lives were turned around by the reality of the risen Jesus that they experienced and witnessed. In turn, their story and testimony would begin changing the world.