READ: MARK 16:5-7; LUKE 24:1-53

You might have grown up hearing the “Easter story” and the gospel message over and over again. Maybe you understand that Jesus died, that He rose…that He was dead and then alive again. What was it like, though, for those who experienced all of this firsthand?

For the people who knew Jesus and interacted with Him while He was on earth, it had to be incredibly difficult when He was killed. I cannot imagine having a friend and knowing that they had gone through the most painful and gruesome death. While Jesus’s friends were in the midst of their mourning, they found out that He was no longer dead. His body was gone from the tomb where He had been laid. They were told that He had risen—that He was alive.

Many of us have heard about the resurrection enough times to believe it and to have the ability to imagine it happening. But for those who first heard the news, it had to be hard to believe. In fact, the Bible tells us that many of them doubted, and that’s easy to understand. Even though Jesus had hinted at what was to come, they still didn’t comprehend it when they saw it all playing out. They were utterly amazed when they saw Jesus alive and walking around after seeing His beaten and bruised body hanging lifeless on the cross.

But Jesus, in His great love and mercy, spent time with His doubting followers. He showed them where the nails were driven into His hands and where the spear was plunged into His side. He explained how His death and resurrection were foretold throughout the Scriptures. And He ate with them, showing them that He wasn’t a ghost or a figment of their imagination.

What an amazing God we serve. He came and lived among us, and He died and rose again so we could be with Him forever. What an amazing thing it must have been to witness His death and then His resurrection. And how amazing it will be when He returns to earth and raises us from the dead; then we, too, will see Him face to face. • Emily Acker

• Why is it important for us to dwell on the astonishing miracle that is Jesus’s resurrection? (If you want to know more about what His resurrection means for us today, see our “Know Jesus” page.)

• It can be hard to wrap our minds around who Jesus is and what He’s done. Thankfully, He is eager to help us understand. When Jesus appeared to His followers, “he opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). If you want to dig deeper, you can read all four accounts of Jesus’s resurrection in Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20.

For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. Romans 14:9 (WEB)