NO SCHEDULE
If you were Jesus and realized that you were going to die and be raised from the dead, surely you would have made many arrangements with your disciples. You would have said, "Peter, John, James, and the rest of you, come here and let me give you a schedule. Firstly I am going to die; secondly, I will be raised from the dead on the third day; thirdly, you must all meet me at a certain place, where I will do certain things among you; fourthly, you must all go to other places, where certain other things will happen; fifthly, sixthly, etc., etc., to number twenty-four." If you were Jesus, you would probably outline it in detail to the disciples. This is our natural concept; this is our religious mind. But read the last two chapters of John—there is no such thing; the Lord Jesus never made any arrangements or left any schedule. From our natural viewpoint, what was done was a mess. Everything occurred as a kind of accident. But, praise the Lord, though they had no schedule, no arrangements, no appointments, they had the resurrected Christ, the living Lord Jesus. This Christ, according to the record of these two chapters, came to His disciples at any time and in any place. He just came! He came in a way which was absolutely different from today’s religion. He never came to a formal meeting—there never was one. If Peter should call an urgent meeting and gather all the disciples to discuss their problems with Jesus, that would fit our concept. But Jesus never met with His disciples in that way.
JESUS APPEARS
TO FOOLISH SISTERS
Following Jesus’ resurrection, His first appearance was to a group of foolish sisters. In a sense, the sisters in the church life are always the foolish ones. Mentally, they are not so clear. The brothers, on the other hand, are always clear—so Peter, James and John stayed home to sleep. They would have said to Mary, "It’s foolish to go so early to the sepulchre! Why don’t you stay home and sleep?" In the church life the sisters are always, in a sense, doing things foolishly. But I tell you, we do need many foolish sisters in the church life. It was through these foolish sisters that the resurrection of Christ was discovered. The Lord’s first appearance was not to the clear brothers, but to the foolish sisters. What can we say? I don’t think the Lord would appear to the clear Christians, but many, many times He does appear to the foolish ones. It is indisputable. The sisters were undoubtedly foolish, but they saw the Lord. They sought the Lord in a foolish way, but we can thank the Lord that they were so foolish. Whenever we become so clear, we are through as far as the Lord is concerned.
The Lord has made me a brother, and I must be satisfied with His creation; but sometimes I say, "Lord, why did you make me a man? I would like to be a sister. As a man it is so easy to miss you, but as a foolish sister, I would see you, I would meet you. I wish that I could be a sister!" The first meeting the Lord Jesus held after His resurrection was with a few sisters—there were no brothers! That was the first meeting of the New Testament with the resurrected Christ.
(Christ versus Religion, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee)
