More often than not it’s just referred to by the shortened form, The Disciples or Les Disciples.
You won’t find it in the Louvre or the Met or the National Gallery. It hangs tucked away in an old railway station in Paris, now the Musée d’Orsay, on the left bank of the Seine.
It was painted in 1898 by a relatively little known Swiss artist named Eugène Burnand. He was something of an old-fashioned realist at a time when all the cool kids were embracing modernism. The Disciples didn’t make a splash when it was first hung. Burnand’s style was already considered passé by the 1890s. Mike Frost
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THE RISEN CHRIST
“Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” JOHN 20:17
REFLECTION
If you only listen to the media news reports, the expression “good news” sounds like an oxymoron. It seems that much of what is called “news” is only the bad, tragic, or shocking stories. This makes it all the more crucial to realize that those of us who know the ultimate “good news” have a wonderful opportunity to bring hope to lost and desperate people.
What is the best news you have heard recently? Why was this good news for you?
[Answer the Question for us all]
SITUATION
Each of the Gospel accounts makes it clear that Jesus’ followers were not expecting anything to happen the morning of the Resurrection. It started out as just another day of grief and confusion after Jesus’ arrest, trial, conviction, and crucifixion. Jesus had been placed in a tomb, and the conclusion of the Sabbath made it possible for some of the women to visit in hopes of doing a better job of wrapping and anointing the body. We don’t know how Mary and her companions planned to open the tomb, but they certainly didn’t anticipate what they found.
OBSERVATION
Reading John 20:1–18 from the NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. 11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
INSPIRATION
The empty tomb never resists honest investigation. A lobotomy is not a prerequisite of discipleship. Following Christ demands faith, but not blind faith. “Come and see,” the angel invites. Shall we? Take a look at the vacated tomb. Did you know the opponents of Christ never challenged its vacancy? No Pharisee or Roman soldier ever led a contingent back to the burial site and declared, “The angel was wrong. The body is here. It was all a rumor.” They would have if they could have. Within weeks disciples occupied every Jerusalem street corner, announcing a risen Christ. What quicker way for the enemies of the church to shut them up than to produce a cold and lifeless body? Display the cadaver, and Christianity is stillborn. But they had no cadaver to display. This helps explain the Jerusalem revival. When the apostles argued for the empty tomb, the people looked to the Pharisees for a rebuttal. But they had none to give. As A.M. Fairbairn put it long ago, “The silence of the Jews is as eloquent as the speech of the Christians!” Speaking of the Christians, remember the followers’ fear at the crucifixion? They ran. Scared as cats in a dog pound. Peter cursed Christ at the fire. Emmaus-bound disciples bemoaned the death of Christ on the trail. After the crucifixion, “the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders” (John 20:19 NLT). These guys were so chicken we could call the Upper Room a henhouse. But fast-forward forty days. Bankrupt traitors have become a force of life-changing fury. Peter is preaching in the very precinct where Christ was arrested. Followers of Christ defy the enemies of Christ. Whip them and they’ll worship. Lock them up and they’ll launch a jailhouse ministry. As bold after the Resurrection as they were cowardly before it. Explanation: Greed? They made no money. Power? They gave all the credit to Christ. Popularity? Most were killed for their beliefs. Only one explanation remains—a resurrected Christ and his Holy Spirit. The courage of these men and women was forged in the fire of the empty tomb. The disciples did not dream up a resurrection. The Resurrection fired up the disciples. Have doubts about the empty tomb? Come and see the disciples.
(From Next Door Savior by Max Lucado.)
QUESTIONS
Why is Christ’s resurrection important for believers? Imagine how Christianity might look without the resurrection.
Why do you think it is so hard for some people to believe that Jesus rose from the dead?
What does Christ’s resurrection mean to you?
What evidence helps you believe that Jesus rose from the dead?
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