40 Days with the Resurrected Lord

Acts chapter 1, verse 3 says that Jesus “showed himself to be alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, appearing unto [the disciples] by forty days and speaking things concerning the kingdom of God.”  Can you imagine the joy and wonder of the disciples, who had so much difficultly understanding the teaching of Jesus about His resurrection, suddenly talking and eating with a man whose death had been witnessed?  We might wonder what Jesus was doing during that 40 days, but the verse clearly tells us: He was showing Himself to be ALIVE!

Sometimes the eyes and the mind can play tricks on us.  We can imagine the distress of the disciples following the twisted trials and terrible crucifixion of their Master.  We can easily see them second guessing their own senses when they first saw Jesus returned from the grave in the flesh!  Some of them stood face to face with their risen Lord and still did not entirely believe.  Some of them walked side by side with the resurrected Lord and didn’t recognize Him.  But, John 20:31 says Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written, demonstrating to the disciples that He was alive “by many infallible proofs.” (Acts 1:3) They had to be convinced to become His followers, and they had to be convinced that He was truly resurrected.

The verse also refers to the passion or suffering of Christ during His crucifixion.  We can imagine the difficulty the disciples might have had in making a connection with a man who had been hanging on a cross in anguish, his flesh torn and bloody, stripped of his garments and utterly put to shame by voracious mobs, with a man standing before them renewed in freedom, health, and vigor.  But when they would finallyrealize that the resurrected man before them WAS the same as He who, three days prior, had suffered the worst humiliation and painful death they could imagine, what rapture and amazement they must have felt.  Jesus Christ had triumphed over death and now here He was as living proof that all men could do the same! (I Cor. 15:54-57)

And, what about that 40 days?  Jesus was with the disciples for over a month following His resurrection.  We don’t have to wonder what He was doing during that time.  Again, He was alive!  Read John chapters 20 and 21.  He had meals with the disciples.  He went fishing with them.  He had conversations with them.  He continued teaching about the kingdom of God.  He did everything a living person (and not an apparition) does to show that He was alive again.  Compared to the account we are given of His childhood, which is practically absent, we are told quite a bit about what He did after the resurrection.

We are also told in Acts 1:3 that Jesus continued speaking about things concerning the kingdom of God.  When Jesus breathed His last, and the temple veil was torn asunder, the new kingdom of the spirit was established and the old kingdom of the flesh was done away with (Mark 15:38, Heb. 10:20).  What a privilege and a challenge it must have been for those at that time who had been living under the Old Covenant of their fathers for many generations to suddenly find themselves no longer bound to that Covenant.  Jesus had to continue teaching about the kingdom, that those disciples might see the correlation between His resurrection and the New Covenant (I Pet. 1:3).

And, what happened after these men and women saw the resurrected Christ for over a month’s time, after He provided many infallible proofs that He was alive, after continuing His teaching about the kingdom of God, and after watching Him ascend into heaven?  The Gospel of Jesus Christ spread like wildfire!  Truly, people can be a little slow sometimes.  Sometimes our senses can be dulled or our sense of reasoning might backfire on us.  The 40 days of proofs and teaching were a critical component of Christ’s mission.  During that time, He thoroughly burst the bubble of any doubt that He truly had returned from the dead, and people were so convinced that they couldn’t help but spread the message around the world Consider the message that Jesus brought.  What were the most prominent points of His doctrine?  He preached that He came to establish a kingdom (Matt. 4:17, John 18:36) He preached that His disciples would be characterized by love for the Lord and for one another (Matt. 22:37-40).  He preached that those who were truly His disciples would follow His commandments (John 14:15).  He taught that He would be delivered into the hands of men and be crucified, then be raised back to life after three days (Matt. 16:21).  One might ask why there wasn’t more of a record following the resurrection…what more was there to say?

Jeremy Koontz.