"Living on the Right side of Easter"

St. Luke: 24; 19-24. And He said unto them, what things? And they said unto Him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priest and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we trusted that it had been He, which should have redeemed Israel, and besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done.

If you had gone to the Upper Room in Jerusalem on Good Friday night you would have found the door shut and barred “for fear of the Jews.” Inside were eleven despairing, humiliated, trembling men; life was over for them, and their world had crashed in upon them. They had hoped Jesus would have been the Messiah to redeem Israel; He had promised so much. His words had been so fair, and His deeds so gracious. They had believed Him. And now, He was dead, and they were stuck there deluded, frightened, and in real danger from those who had put their Master to death!

Even on Easter Sunday, we find that Peter went to the tomb and found for Himself that the body was gone; but still had some doubts about the Resurrection, for he went away wondering to himself--as to what really happened.