RESURRECTION

                                                    THE RESURRECTION    

At the end of  the Sabbath, as it began to dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and Mary the wife of Cleophas came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord decended from heaven and came back and rolled the stone from the entrance, and sat on it. His face was like lightning and his garments were white as snow. For fear of him, the guards trembled and fainted away as if they were dead men. But the angel spoke to the women and said, Fear Not. For I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And now go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, for behold he goes ahead of you into Galilee, where you shall see him. There I have told you. They departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring word to his disciples. And as they went to tell them, Jesus met them saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, Be not afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go into Galilee, and there they shall see me.
  On that same day, two of his disciples went to a village called Emmaus which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. They talked together about all these things which had happened. And it came to pass that while they discussed and reasoned together, Jesus himself came near and went with. But they did not recognize him. He said to them, What manner of conversation is this that you make, one to another, as you walk and are so sad!? Cleophas answered, Are you a stranger in Jerusalem? Have you not heard of the things that have come to pass in these days?
Jesus said to them, What things? They said, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him. We had hoped that he was the man who would lead Israel. Today is the third day since these things were done, and certain women astonished us by telling us about how they went to the tomb where he was buried and had a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Certain of our company went to the tomb, and found it was as the women had said, but they did not see him. Then Jesus said to them, O fools! and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them the things in all the scriptures concerning himself. And they drew near to the village where they were going and Jesus was going to walk on, but they stopped him, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent. So he went in and remained with them.