All of Jesus' disciples and other followers forsook Him, one betrayed Him and one denied Him. Matthew 26:56 says they all forsook Him.
They had lost hope in the One who came to redeem them from the curse of the law. Peter was mired in self-pity and despair. Matthew 26:75 says he went out and wept bitterly.
They had given up all to follow Christ and now they were filled with bitterness and total disillusionment. They no longer had the direction or meaning to life that they had experienced during the 3 1/2 years they had been with Jesus. They were now lost and without hope. They were in need of a Savior. But all of this was about to change because of the resurrection of Christ – if only they would dare to believe once again.
Before we can really appreciate the victory that we have in Jesus Christ, because of His resurrection, we need to fully comprehend and understand the amount of suffering He went through on our behalf and the great price that He paid for our victory.
The beautiful thing about the resurrection of Christ is that Jesus understood and sympathized with their weakened condition . His immediate purpose following His resurrection was to restore their belief in Him.
Although Jesus accomplished many wonderful things in the few short years that He had among the people as God in the flesh, His death, burial & resurrection was ministry for which he was sent for.
The great Easter truth is not that we are to live newly after death – that is not the great thing – but that we are to live here and now by the power of the resurrection; not so much that we are to live forever as that we are to, and may, live nobly now because we are to live forever." (Phillip Brooks)
