Read­ing Time: 2 minutes

Introduction

Once more, happy feast of the resur­rec­tion of Jesus! I hope you are still enjoy­ing the bless­ings and grace of the resur­rec­tion. It is the Lord’s mak­ing. It is mar­velous in our eyes. I am sure the Jews regret­ted their action. If they knew what would have been the out­come of their plot to kill Jesus, I sup­pose they would have thought twice. In his second volume, Luke provides us with a detailed account of the mis­sion­ary cum pas­tor­al activ­it­ies of the apostles after the resur­rec­tion and ascen­sion of Jesus. Unlike the instruc­tion in Mat­thew 10:5–6, the Gos­pel can now be taken out­side Israel (cf. Matt 28:19–20). Fol­low­ing the ascen­sion of Jesus, the first offi­cial act of the Elev­en Apostles was to replace Judas Iscari­ot (cf. Acts 1:15–26). Hav­ing done this, they remained in pray­er as instruc­ted by Jesus until the great day of divine empower­ment (Acts 2:1–13). The gen­er­al theme of the Sundays of this sea­son will be The Fruits of Resur­rec­tion. Each part will under­line an aspect of that fruit espe­cially, as recor­ded in the Acts of the Apostles.

The Great commissioning

“As the Fath­er has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). Imme­di­ately after the greet­ing, fol­lowed the great com­mis­sion­ing. Once resur­rec­ted, Jesus appeared to his dis­ciples and com­mis­sioned them to con­tin­ue what he had star­ted (cf. also Matt 28:18–20). Jesus, the One sent by the Fath­er is now the Sender. To be noted is that in this com­mis­sion­ing or send­ing, the three per­sons of the God­head are involved. As the Fath­er sent Jesus, so Jesus sends his dis­ciples, fur­nish­ing them with the Holy Spir­it (John 20:21–22). After the com­mis­sion­ing, Jesus for­ti­fied them by breath­ing unto them, say­ing “Receive the Holy Spir­it. If you for­give the sins of any, they are for­giv­en them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:22–23). With these words, Jesus sealed the com­mis­sion­ing. The dis­ciples can now begin their mis­sion without fear. 

Conclusion

The cel­eb­ra­tion of the resur­rec­tion of Jesus should not be in vain or a mere form­al­ity. Chris­ti­ans should not just rejoice that Jesus died and has washed away their sins and stop at that. The resur­rec­tion must pro­duce fruits as it did in and among the early Chris­ti­ans. Chris­ti­ans must be eager to listen to the teach­ings of the Gos­pel with devo­tion; be in fel­low­ship with one anoth­er; par­take act­ively in the break­ing of bread; and be devoted in pray­er. These things should be sum­mar­ized and mani­fes­ted by their com­mun­al and exem­plary life. God offers each per­son the oppor­tun­ity to arrive at faith. This was why he appeared again and to Thomas one week after. It is not an offence or a sin to sus­tain doubt in mat­ters that per­tain to faith. But once such doubt arises, it must be cleared by the con­sti­tuted author­ity. That is, by those who are cap­able of clear­ing the doubt. May the peace of the Lord be with you always. Like Thomas, may you always seek ways to make your faith and com­mit­ment to God stronger. The peace of the Lord be with you! Sha­lom!

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE:
SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I‑II-III)!! The reflec­tion for the 2^nd Sunday of Pascha is found in The Word of Life, vol. I, pages 231–241. Happy reading!

For details on how to get it, con­tact the author on this link: https://m.me/uchennabiblia?fbclid=IwAR2yeg4a6sDGBp9QGkIvKj6FSADumMokN6lshdE0zuo-JHs6qOmlhA7jyHo
or email me at: postmaster@uchennabiblia.com
or simply send an SMS on 08116100926, and I will get back to you.

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