Let us recall John's account of Mary's report of her first visit to the tomb, full of sadness—"They have taken away the Lord," and then in contrast place by its side his record of her second report, full of gladness—"Mary Magdalene, cometh and telleth the disciples, I have seen the Lord." The one was a mistaken inference; the other a blessed reality. Between these two utterances on the same day what revelations to them both. But the end was not yet.
"When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you." So John describes the first meeting of Jesus with the disciples after His resurrection. He gives hints of some things of which other Evangelists are silent. With emphasis he notes "that day" as the day of days whose rising sun revealed resurrection glory. That "evening" must have recalled the last one on which they had been together. Then the Lord had said unto them, "Peace I leave with you." But the benediction had seemed almost a mockery, because of the sorrow which followed. But now it was repeated with a renewed assurance of His power to bestow it. Through fear of the Jews they had closed the doors of probably the same Upper Room where they had been assembled before. These doors were no barrier to His entry, any more than the stone to His leaving His tomb.
St. Peter and St. John at the Beautiful Gate—Old Engraving
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As John alone preserved the incident of the pierced side, he alone tells how Jesus "showed unto them His ... side," and said to Thomas, at the next meeting, "Reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My side;" and how this was followed by Thomas' believing exclamation, "My Lord, and my God." With this and the Lord's beatitude for other believing ones, John originally ended his story of the Lord, in these words,—"Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in His name."