“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side.”
(John 20:19,20)
No wonder the disciples were filled with fear. Their leader had been arrested and put to death. His enemies—those who had screamed for his crucifixion and hurled insults at him as he hung dying on the cross—might now be looking for them. Would they, like their Lord, suffer bloody deaths?
On that first Easter evening, the disciples’ fear of death was so overpowering that it led them to hide themselves away, to lock the door and cower behind it.
Desperately they tried to cling to the one thing they still had left, earthly life. After all, everything else that mattered to them had been taken away when Jesus died. The one they had confessed as Lord wasn’t just defeated—he was dead and gone. His teachings now seemed to be nothing more than the dead teachings of a dead man. His precious promises—the promise of real peace with God, the promise of forgiveness for every sin—appeared to die with him. With Jesus dead only their fear remained.
Then he came and stood among them. The one who had truly died on that cross, and who showed them the wounds to prove it, was alive! It had looked like he was defeated, yet he was not. His promises had seemed to be empty and groundless. But his resurrection proved how alive those promises really were. And now this risen Savior had a simple message to share with them: “Peace be with you!”
Jesus had won forgiveness on that cross, and the Father’s anger with the human race’s sin had been removed forever. The resurrected Savior himself was proclaiming this message of peace. And this peace drove out their fear.
God’s message of peace is designed to drive out our fears too. We all face fears in life. Sometimes they are fears about earthly matters, like the fear of losing a job or suffering illness or living alone. Sometimes those fears are spiritual in nature, like the fear of not being forgiven for some troubling, repeated sin. Jesus’ victorious Easter message of peace reminded the disciples that they had no reason to live in fear. God intends that same message of peace to drive away our fears as well.
Lord Jesus, my risen Savior, use your message of peace to drive away my fears! Amen.
From Easter Triumph, Easter Joy: Devotions for the Easter Season. All rights reserved. Explore the whole book!
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