At each Easter season the thought of Christendom turns to contemplation of one of the greatest events in human history — the resurrection of Christ Jesus. The great Teacher had been crucified on Calvary. His body had been laid in a tomb by the friends who loved him as they loved no other; and for three days it had lain there while the master Metaphysician worked upon his problem. Then was "the stone taken away from the sepulchre," and Jesus was once more free: he had proved that his life could not be destroyed. The world's belief in death as real and that it could bind him, was overcome by his profound understanding of true being.
After his resurrection, as it is written in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, "he shewed himself alive ... by many infallible proofs, being seen of them [the apostles] forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." Then he "ascended." All very wonderful to mortals who believe themselves to be under material laws which are real and unbreakable, and which ultimate in death! When we remember that the disciples of Jesus had to contend with the mesmerism of the belief in the inevitability of death, just as we of today have to contend with it, we can form some estimate of what his resurrection must have meant to them.
To the disciples, Jesus' rising from the grave brought unspeakable joy; for had not their beloved Master returned to them alive and well? It is easy to picture the gladness that was theirs, in contrast to the gloom which the tragedy on Calvary had caused to fall upon them. How his inspired teaching of the eternal nature of Life would flood through their memories! And back would come, in overflowing measure, their faith in the God and Father of whose goodness and love and presence and power he had taught them. Nothing is surer than that Jesus' victory over the grave, and his appearing to them during the forty days between his resurrection and his ascension, accounted in great measure for the courage, the self-sacrifice, the heroism, which afterwards distinguished the disciples as they carried the glad news of salvation through Christ throughout the then accessible world. Mrs. Eddy has written on page 34 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Through all the disciples experienced, they became more spiritual and understood better what the Master had taught. His resurrection was also their resurrection. It helped them to raise themselves and others from spiritual dulness and blind belief in God into the perception of infinite possibilities."
