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Author: Stephen Weller
757 words, 4 minutes read time

The Disciples Frightened By Jesus

Scripture: Luke 24:33-37; John 20:19

With the previous lesson we finished the section covering the encounter with Jesus as two people traveled toward Emmaus. With this lesson we will begin a section in which Jesus appears to his disciples.

^{Lk 24:33} And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, ^{Jn 20:19} on the evening of that day, the first day of the week. ^{Lk 24:33} And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, ^{Jn 20:19} the doors being locked for fear of the Jews. ^{Lk 24:34} [They said,] “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” ³⁵ Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. ³⁶ As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” ³⁷ But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.

The two travelers who had just experienced the risen Jesus, rose from their table and returned to Jerusalem to report their experience. It is now Sunday evening, the beginning of the Jewish Monday, and the two find and gather together the eleven disciples and others and go to a room and lock the doors for fear of the Jews to have a time of sharing.

It appears from Luke 24:33, from the phrase, “And they found the eleven” that the two travelers were not part of the eleven but were other disciples of Jesus. Verse 34 then adds that the Lord had at some time appeared to Simon which refers to Simon Peter. These two travelers state that the Lord has risen and then support their claim by sharing what had happened on the road to Emmaus and how Jesus made himself know to them by the breaking of bread. The witness of these two thus corroborates the women’s report of their experience at the tomb.

Just as they finished their report, Jesus appears standing before them in the room and said to them, “Peace to you!” Instead of being excited to see Jesus, they react in the same way they did in Matthew 14:26 when the disciples saw Jesus walking on the sea. Then they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. The disciples still are not comfortable when Jesus does things like walking on water or telling a mighty storm to stop and it does, or suddenly appearing in a room with locked doors. Jesus told them that he would be crucified and that he would rise from the dead, but at this point they are still not comfortable with him being there in physical form and think they are seeing a spirit.

For something to think about, was Jesus the voice that spoke to Moses from the burning bush? Was he Melchizedek the king of Salem, priest of the Most High God who was without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God (Hebrews 7)? Was he the angel who appeared to the Egyptian slave named Hagar or one of the three strangers who visited Abraham, or the angel who stayed Abraham’s hand as he was about to sacrifice his son, or the man Jacob wrestled with before encountering his estranged brother, or in the cloud that led the Hebrews through the desert, or to Gideon before commanding him to defeat the Midians, or the angel who told Samson’s mother she’d have a child, or the Majestic Being the prophet Isaiah saw sitting on a heavenly throne, or possibly the man standing in the fire with Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego? (For details on these possibilities use Link A and Link B found below.)

Conclusion

After the two travelers going from Jerusalem to Emmaus had their encounter with Jesus and then when he revealed who he was by the breaking of bread, they quickly returned to Jerusalem to find the eleven disciples and they, with a few others, assembled in a locked room. The two shared their experience with the risen Jesus and when they finished speaking, their testimony was validated by the sudden appearance of Jesus as he stood before them in the room, freaking out the disciples. The lesson ended with a listing of times when Jesus may have appeared in the Old Testament before his birth.