Peace I Leave With You

This piece was originally written as the Sunday school notes for the High School Boys Class at St Mark Coptic Orthodox Church, Ripon CA. Deacon Andrew Sharkawy presented the lesson to the students, while I took the blessing of preparing the notes that he used.

My Peace I Give Unto You

Our Lord Jesus Christ’s Appearances After His Glorious Resurrection

Ponder with me this beautiful verse that we hear in the gospel of the Third Hour in the Agpeya from the Gospel of John, Chapter 14 verse 27 where our Lord Jesus Christ states in His final address to the disciples, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you” (John 14:27). Our Lord Jesus Christ’s apparitions all had a specific purpose and were all for the edification of the believers not only alive at the time of the resurrection, but also all believers who are to come. The four gospels delineate to us 10 appearances and apparitions that our Lord Jesus Christ in his wisdom and glory showed to us.

So first, we have 5 initial “post resurrection” appearances.

First, we have his appearance to Mary Magdalene at the door of the tomb, where she supposed him to be the Gardner. When she finally noticed that she was speaking to the Lord of Glory, He explicitly told her to go to the rest and tell them to meet in Galilee. He also appeared to Mary the mother of James (who are his relatives), Salome, and Joanna, who told the eleven again and confirmed Mary’s vision. Then our Lord appeared to Simon Peter, then to the two going to Emmaus, then all the eleven minus Thomas, an the rebuked their unbelief (Mark 16:24) After 8 days, he appears to the eleven once again, including Thomas this time, and he shows Thomas and the disciples the wounds.

Now, within the period between day 8 and day 40 several notable appearances occur, the first of which was when he appeared to the seven disciples who went fishing in the sea of tiberias. Then he appeared again to his disciples with a large gathering of people (more than 500 according to St Paul’s first epistle to the corinthians) and continued his ministry to them. Then he also appeared to James his cousin (called brother in the gospels). They used to call the members of the extended family brothers, even though Jesus Christ himself had no siblings and the Holy Theotokos did not give birth to anyone after Christ.

On the 40th day after resurrection, Christ appeared one last time to the disciples and he led them to the Mount of Olives where he gave them this great commission found in the three gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where He commissions them to preach the good news of the gospel to the whole world, make disciples of all nations, and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

With all these apparitions, its imperative to understand the purpose behind these apparitions, and we find such purpose in the hymns of the Divine Liturgy and the Holy 50’s period that our church so wisely put for us.

The first purpose of the apparitions to the disciples, especially early on with the five apparitions after the resurrection, was to give peace to the troubled and shaken disciples. After the crucifixion, the disciples hid in fear that the Jews would also come for them. The Messiah they had so waited for died a most horrible public death, and there was no consolation in anything or anyone other than Him. This is greatly illustrated by the hymn Epouro, which translates to, “O King of peace, grant us your peace, establish for us your peace, and forgive us our sins.” The disciples needed peace most, and the Lord in his kindness gave them his peace as he said earlier “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives do I give unto you.”

The second purpose of the apparitions was to restore to them power and show them that he defeated death by his own death. This was imperative for the disciples to see because they would later face certain death for preaching the name of their beloved savior. The church beautifully shows us Christ’s power when we chant the troparia of the Resurrection “Khristos Anesti” or translated, “Christ is risen from the dead, by his death he trampled over death, and those who were in the graves, he granted them the eternal life.” What used to rule over all humans as a powerful and evil lord was vanquished by the Lord of hosts.

The third purpose that Christ appeared to his disciples was to establish the order of all things related to the rites of the Church. The reason we are called the “One Holy Universal and Apostolic Orthodox Church of God” is because our church is

• One with Christ

• Holy through Christ

• Gathering all people universally to Christ

• Persistent on the rites that Christ himself taught his apostles.

• Lastly, maintaining the true doctrine that was taught and received from the apostles, explained by the fathers, and kept by the blood of the martyrs.

The rites and orders of our church were for the most part established by Christ himself and given to the apostles. Books such as the didache, called the constitution of christianity, show us how worship was to be expressed in the emerging Christian landscape. Our Church reminds us of this in every single liturgy when we say after the commemoration of the saints “As it was and shall be, from generation to generation and unto the ages of all ages Amen.” The meaning of “As it was” shows us that as it was back in the days of Christ and what he instituted it shall be today and forever, showing us true Orthodox resolve in maintaining our traditions and rites just as Christ put them down.

The fourth purpose of the apparitions of Christ after the resurrection was to grant us the hope that we live on till now, the hope of the resurrection. At the end of our Orthodox Creed, we chant the last stanza that reads “We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the coming age Amen” and we also see this evident in the parlex of the resurrection that says “My Lord Jesus Christ who rose from the dead on the third day, you shall raise us with your power.” And here I would like to bring us back to ancient Egyptians, who believed that the key of life, which is a type of the Cross of our savior, was what allowed them to pass the afterlife in ease. We cannot find any salvation or hope outside the cross of our lord and his glorious resurrection.

The last reason that Christ appeared was to show us his true fulfillment of his being, his love. Let’s look back to when Christ told Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?” Jesus repeated this question three times, but he used different words to mean the same thing. The first two times he asked Peter “Do you love me” he used the greek word Agape which means “deep unconditional love.” Peter of course affirmed that he loved Christ. The third time Jesus said, “Do you love me?”, he used a more common term of love (Mei/menre in coptic) and that’s why Peter was dismayed, because he thought that his betrayal to Christ showed how much he loved him. Christ came to tell him, “Follow me”, again instituting him into his love and restoring him to his position as a disciple and apostle.

May God grant us grace and love to be an appearance of Christ’s powerful love in all that we do and with all whom we meet. Glory be to God forever and ever Amen.