“Why are you looking in the place of the dead for someone who is alive?” – Luke 24:5

We grieve and mourn when a loved one dies. We weep and cry over the pain of separation. We feel devastated by the person’s sudden absence. Our life, for a while, grinds to a halt and becomes empty and meaningless. In our misery and distress, we wish we also died.

When the dead showed potentials for greatness and excellence, we think of his death as a loss. We wonder why such life has to be wasted in death or aborted prematurely.

ImageJesus’ disciples must have felt this way when Jesus was crucified and died. They were surely overcome with profound grief. But they must be deeply disappointed too. Jesus’ death collapsed their messianic hopes and expectations. For instead of leading them in a triumphant revolt against their oppressors, their liberator was entombed lifeless. We imagine them asking themselves silently whether they wasted time following him and pinning their hope on him, at the same time wondering aloud whether Jesus’ miracles and radical teachings pointed to something real and spectacular

Luke records in his passion account the women who followed Jesus in His ministry went to his tomb very early in the morning on the first day of the week, the third day of Jesus’ death. They carried spices, probably to apply these on Jesus’ body to prevent its fast decay. Luke portrays them as women whose loyalty and love for their master do not end in death. Like the other disciples, their hopes must have been shattered too. But they realized their master deserved their loyalty and commitment even in death.

The women, then, are an example to us on how we treat our relationships. We do not let death separate us from those we love. We do not let our commitment be easily conquered by disaster, by present and future peril. We hold on to good memories and wait for eruption of life.

The women’s act of devotion paid off. They became the first recipients of the news of the greatest miracle ever. Reaching Jesus’ tomb, they found to their surprise and bewilderment not Jesus’ lifeless body but two strange-looking men who told them the staggering but wonderful news: Jesus is alive.

We wonder how the women felt. Did they understand what they heard? Did they believe the messengers? Luke does not tell us but he mentions they remembered Jesus’ word and they hurriedly went back home and told the Eleven disciples the news. They were not only the first witnesses of the resurrection but also its first human messengers.
Luke continues in his narrative the Eleven at first did not believe the women and thought they were talking nonsense. Nonetheless, Peter ran to the tomb and he saw for himself the evidence sans the heavenly messengers. So he went away wondering what had happened. The women remembered while Peter, earlier declaring confidently to Jesus his undying devotion, wondered.The women of Luke’s narrative certainly are not what people think women generally are: gullible, too emotional, lacking in objective inquisition, too intuitive, unrealiable. They are what most men are not: women of faith. Theirs was an incredible power for remembering God’s word. Perhaps the angels did not appear again to Peter because he needed to learn to trust the women’s words.

Written by Millicent A. Guarin

Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” – John 21:12a

The news about Jesus’ resurrection was already out. John narrates He appeared the third time to some of His disciples who went fishing at night. It was already early in the morning when He called out to them on the shore. They had not caught any fish.

We imagine what went inside the disciples as they were in deep water fishing. Certainly, their minds continued to be occupied by Jesus’ resurrection. Probably they wondered what it meant for them.

After long hours in the middle of the sea, they must be frustrated seeing their nets empty. They had not caught even a single fish. A good catch would have been a good interruption of their quiet reverie, lingering sense of ambiguity, and lack of full grasp of what exactly was happening with Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. When the first ray of light broke through the darkness they realized they would have to bear the grumblings of empty stomachs.

When Jesus called out to them on the shore early in the morning they did not recognize Him. Nonetheless, when He told them to let out their nets again to the shallow water at the right side of their boat they exactly did so. Why did they not protest against such a ridiculous demand from a stranger early in the morning? Maybe they were too tired and sleepy to argue. Besides, it would do them no harm if they tried. And didn’t the stranger call them Friends? It would be unwise to offend anyone who offered friendship early in the morning!

Just as Jesus said, they had a good catch, in fact, more than a good catch. To their delightful surprise, their nets were full of fish, big ones at that. John counted 153. What a miraculous catch! Even their fishing tools, their ordinary nets, suddenly had extraordinary limit. They did not tear with such a large catch.

It was John, the beloved disciple, who first recognized Jesus but it was Peter who went down the boat first towards Jesus. The others followed in the boat with the fish. At the shore they found Jesus already grilling some fish for their breakfast. He also had bread for them. As they took breakfast none dared ask Him, “Who are you?”. John mentions everyone knew it was their Lord. As Jesus took the bread and gave it to them, they must have remembered their last supper with Him at the Upper Room when He did the same.

Later, the disciples must have understood their miraculous catch of fish pointed to the new thing God was doing through Jesus. God has not only come to dwell among His people but to also provide for them. The new era Jesus brought with His person, words and deeds is an era where the miraculous transcends the natural. In fact, both natural and miraculous appear together, almost indistinguishable. Jesus’ miracle of healing and exorcism were signs of the new era. Jesus is Lord of the miraculous. He is beyond the natural. He is supernatural.

Such era is truly human in its appearance. Earlier, Jesus in His ministry showed this era has something to do with treating people as humans: the sick were cared for and healed; the sinners were forgiven; the outcasts were accepted and loved; the sorrowful were comforted; and the hungry were fed.

Jesus prepared breakfast for his tired and sleep-robbed disciples. The picture of Jesus preparing breakfast for his disciples is yet another picture of what it means to have God among us. In Jesus, we realize that God is concerned about our physical well-being, that He is concerned with the ordinariness of our lives, that it matters to Him that we eat, that we survive our earthly existence.

What was Jesus doing preparing breakfast for His disciples? He was doing what He came for: to be a man among men.