In one of his conference addresses, President Dallin H. Oaks said, “Many who call themselves Christians reject or confess serious doubts about the reality of the Resurrection. As if to anticipate and counter such doubts, the Bible records many appearances of the risen Christ.”
We can glean many spiritual insights from studying what the witnesses of the resurrected Savior were doing when He appeared. These accounts of the risen Christ may be more than a means of validating His Resurrection. Through His visitations, Jesus may be teaching us how we can recognize Him today, too.
1. Mary Magdalene: Seek Him Diligently
On the Sunday after the Crucifixion, Mary Magdalene visits Jesus’s tomb and sees that the stone has been removed and the Savior’s body is gone.
She hurries to tell Peter and John, who run to witness it for themselves. Finding only Jesus’s linens in the sepulchre, they return home.
Mary remains weeping by the tomb. When two angels inside ask why she is crying, she tells them and asks where Jesus has been taken. Then, she turns to find Him standing before her, but mistakes Him for a gardener. For the third time, she asks where Jesus’s body is. In response, Jesus calls her by her name—and Mary finally recognizes Him.
This encounter can be seen as a physical manifestation of the Savior’s promise from His Sermon on the Mount: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
Mary, seeking, finds the Savior. If she had hurried away with Peter and John, she wouldn’t have seen Him. But because she waited and kept inquiring, He appeared.
When we are heartbroken and need answers, we can follow Mary’s example. We can ponder, ask questions, pray patiently, and wait. And we can recognize Christ in our lives when we receive personalized revelation or a tender mercy that seems uniquely prepared for us.
It’s often in our most humble and vulnerable moments when we will come to feel that Jesus Christ loves us and knows us by name.
2. Women at the Tomb: Share the Good News
Another account of the resurrected Christ happens that same morning. As the sun is rising, a group of women arrives at the tomb and speaks with two angels, who tell them that the Savior is risen. The women are then told that the Savior is on His way to Galilee, where He will appear to them.
Matthew 28 reads, “And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.”
It’s while the women are hurrying to share the good news that the Savior appears to them. They fall at His feet to worship Him, and He says, “Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me” (Matthew 28:10).
Instead of waiting to appear to the women once they’ve arrived in Galilee, Jesus visits them on their way, giving them the comfort and reassurance to continue.
Like these faithful women, we can “see” Christ as we go to tell our brothers and sisters that He lives. This can look like sharing our faith, participating in Church callings, ministering to and including others, and showing Christlike love.
This visitation reminds us that Jesus Christ is with us as we help others to see Him.
3. Christ’s Disciples: Participate in His Ordinances
Another visitation happens later that day, as two of Christ’s disciples are walking from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus. Jesus joins them on the road, but like Mary at the tomb, the disciples don’t recognize Him.
Assuming that Jesus is a visitor to the area, they explain to Him their confusion over the events of the past week, and Jesus responds by expounding upon the scriptures. He says that this is what the prophets have foretold: Christ needed to suffer these things to enter into His glory.
The conversation continues until the three men arrive in Emmaus. The disciples ask Jesus to stay with them, and He agrees. As they sit down to eat, Jesus blesses and breaks bread, and it’s at this moment that the disciples finally see who He is.
What’s fascinating is that Jesus had been with them for most of their journey; they just hadn’t realized it. Recalling their walk, they even say to each other, “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24:32).
Could this reminder be true for us, too? Even when we don’t realize it, Christ could be walking with us, teaching us, and listening to us as we process our experiences. Many times, His presence may become most obvious only in hindsight.
Another notable element of this visitation is that the disciples recognize Christ as He’s breaking bread—an action that most likely reminds them of the sacrament. This suggests that Jesus becomes visible to us through ordinances. In the temple, especially, is where we can more plainly understand His role as our Savior.
When we struggle to discern His presence, ordinances and covenants bring Jesus into sharper focus.
“Blessed Are They That Have Not Seen”
Seeing Christ in the flesh isn’t something we can likely anticipate in this life. But accounts of His Resurrection teach us how we can recognize Him in other ways: through spiritual seeking, spreading His good news, and participating in ordinances.
When we center our lives on “finding” Christ in these ways, seeing Him with our physical eyes won’t be necessary. As He tells His Apostles on the night of Easter Sunday, “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
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