Ressurection Blues

resurrection blues
(Luke chapter 24, John chapter 20)
The 2nd meeting was fixed for 7pm in 
Peter’s house. Andrew sent out the 
message on the WhatsApp Chat Group.
We were in a meeting earlier in the day 
at Nathaniel’s house when Mary Magdalene, 
Joanna, Mary the mother of James and 
the other women rushed in excitedly. 
They were all talking at the same time, 
we could not make much sense of what 
they were saying.
John spoke up: “Hey, ladies! Calm down! 
Relax! We can’t understand you, please! 
What happened- can you speak one at 
a time?” 
Joanna chose to speak: “Jesus is risen! 
We’re just coming from the tomb- 
He’s not there!”
What? We looked at each other. 
Risen? Suddenly, Thomas suddenly broke 
out in laughter. 
“Risen? How? Ladies, you are hallucinating, 
trust me! Or you probably went to the 
wrong tomb. 
I don’t believe you!”
Mary Magdalene was unimpressed. 
“Well, we were shocked when we did 
not see the body. 
But 2 men appeared in white, dazzling 
clothes and asked us, “Why are you 
looking for the living among the dead? 
He is not here, He is risen!” 
Guys, remember Jesus told us a 
couple of times how He would be 
delivered unto the Jews and be crucified? 
Did that not happen? 
Remember He also said He would rise 
again the 3rd day? 
Today is the 3rd day! He is risen!” 
The men were confused. 
Today is indeed the 3rd day. 
Could this be true? Thomas was not 
buying it. 
“Well, ma’am- I don’t know what you 
saw or didn’t see. 
But I tell you one thing: until I see Him 
myself, until I touch His hands that 
were nailed to that cross, until I 
touch His side that was pierced with 
that spear, I will not believe you!”
Nathaniel came in: “But, erm… remember 
about 18 months ago, Mary and Martha 
called from Bethany when Lazzy was 
sick? 
He later died and the Master raised him 
up after 3 days! I mean, if the Master 
could raise Lazzy after 3 days…” 
The disciples nodded, mulling over 
everything. 
“That makes sense”, Peter said. 
“Ok, guys- I will go to check this thing out 
at the tomb myself. 
Let me confirm this news. 
Can we meet later in my house? 
Andrew will send out the time on the 
chat group. 
Thomas, you wanna come?” 
Thomas sneered, “Thanks, but no- thanks. 
I’m not interested in going after any wild 
goose chase this morning. 
We meet later in the day, guys!”
So we all departed and Peter drove out 
to the Tomb with John. 
We were all a bit apprehensive, we did 
not know what to make out of it all.
7pm, we all gathered at Peter’s house. 
“Guys, indeed the body was not there! 
I took pictures and made a video of 
what I saw”- he passed his iPad around. 
We were buzzing with excitement after 
seeing the pictures and video. 
Thomas was still unimpressed. 
He changed the subject: “Have you guys 
heard about Judas? I just read online he 
committed suicide yesterday! 
To think this guy was with us these 3 and 
a half years. I guess you can never really 
know what is in a man’s heart.” 
Matthew added, “The red flags were there, 
we just ignored them. 
You know he was the treasurer, I kept 
the books. 
Things never added up, but I just 
overlooked them. Maybe if the Master 
had agreed to keep the money in the 
bank, Judas would have been found 
out earlier. Keeping physical cash on 
us made it easier for him to steal money.”
“Wait- Judas stole from the bag? 
Amazing!” James said. “Yes he did”, 
Matthew replied. 
There were times we would receive 
offerings from people, I would count 
and record in the book and pass the 
cash to him. 
When we reconcile the account, 
they never add up! He always had a 
story to tell how the Master asked him 
to do one thing or the other with the 
money. I probably should have asked 
the Master, but I did not want to start 
having trust issues. I also figured if 
Judas had been stealing money, 
the Master would have known. 
He never mentioned it, so I just let it 
slide. 
The developments of the last 3 days 
made me realize he was stealing from 
the bag.”
“Well, like Matthew said- the red flags 
were there, we just ignored them. 
Judas was destined to betray him, 
anyway so he was just fulfilling scripture”, 
Peter concluded. 
“Yeah, right- like you were also fulfilling 
scripture when you denied Him 3 times?” 
Bartholomew asked. Peter got angry! 
“Bart, do you have any issues with me? 
If you do, spill it out!” 
Bartholomew laughed. 
“Issues? We were talking about fulfilling 
scriptures, no? You just submitted that 
Judas’ betrayal of the Master was a 
fulfillment of scripture. 
Your denial was also a fulfillment of 
scripture, innit? If you are not aware, 
I can show you…” Peter stood up. 
He was apparently very angry. 
This was not going as we planned it! 
“Bart, can we meet outside?” 
We all got up to diffuse the situation. 
“Peter, please sit down. 
Nobody is meeting anybody outside 
please…” 
Peter is not the best of guys when 
angry. 
Why did Bartholomew bring this 
denial up now?
In that moment, there was a knock 
on the door. Cleopas and Simon came 
in from Emmaus. 
“Gentlemen, we saw Him! We saw Jesus!” 
Thomas asked, “You too? Where?” 
“We were going to Emmaus about 4 pm, 
we saw this guy in a hooded jacket 
standing by the road and we offered 
him a lift. 
It was Him! 
We were unaware until we got to Emmaus 
and we asked Him to spend the night 
with us. 
We were about to have dinner when 
He took the bread and broke it! 
Immediately we realized he was the one- 
you know how he breaks bread! 
And as soon as we discovered 
He was the one, He just disappeared! 
We could not even continue the dinner- 
we drove back here immediately to tell 
you guys! 
We saw Him! 
We were with Him for about 2 hours, 
He was dissecting the scriptures for us, 
telling us why the Christ had to die 
and all that…” 
Thomas had a sarcastic smile as 
Cleopas went on and on.
Suddenly, Jesus appeared in the room! 
“Peace be unto you”, He said. 
We were all dumbfounded. 
He turned to Thomas and said, 
“Hey, Tom! How are you doing?” 
Thomas was just staring at Him. 
He suddenly lost his voice. 
“Come here, Tom…” Jesus held out 
His hands. “See my hands? 
See the holes? Come and touch them. 
Come and see my side also. 
Don’t be faithless, Tom: BELIEVE!” 
Thomas went on his knees, 
“My Lord and my God!”
“Ah! Now you believe because you 
have seen me! 
Blessed are those who have not 
seen me, but they believe!”
He then turned to us all; “Guys! 
So good to see you again! 
Calm down- I’m not a spirit! 
Tell you what- I’m hungry! 
What’s for dinner?”
Peter’s wife came in, carrying the dinner. 
She saw him and dropped the tray, 
spilling the food all over the floor. 
We all laughed.
Dinner spilled on the floor with 
Jesus around? No problem- we knew 
what would happen next…

Haruna Daniels