Jesus’ Love for Us During the Forty Days

As Christians, we think a lot about Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection (as I believe we should because without His death, burial, and resurrection the rest would not matter). However, have you ever thought about the forty days between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to heaven?

As I began to think about the forty days Jesus spent on Earth after his resurrection, I became overwhelmed by His love for us. From my study of this time period, I could not find any biblical prophecies that Jesus fulfilled during this time period (I could be wrong because I am in no way a biblical scholar). This led me to wonder why Jesus would spend 40 days on Earth instead of returning to heaven once He had shown Himself that Easter Sunday.

Jesus could have easily revealed Himself to a few people on that day and returned to His Father the same day. However, He didn’t. I believe the only reason He did not was because of love:

1. His love for the one who failed him (i.e. Peter). During Jesus’ trial, Peter had denied Jesus three times. After realizing he had failed Jesus, Peter felt guilty and unworthy. During Jesus’ time on Earth after His resurrection, Jesus questioned Peter three times in order to restore Peter to his position within church history. It is during this questioning that Jesus gave Peter the famous charge to “Feed my sheep” (see John 21:15-19).
2. His love of His disciples – After Jesus’ death, the disciples were afraid and confused. However, Jesus’ love for them caused Him to appear to them repeatedly (Matthew 28.16-20; Mark 16.14; Luke 24.36-43; John 20.19-25; John 20.26-31; John 21.1-14; 1 Cor. 15.5) in order to reassure them, strengthen them, and restore their faith.
3. His love for us, the church – Finally, I believe that Jesus remained for forty days because of His love for the church. Jesus knew that in order for the church to survive it would take more than the leaders. Therefore Jesus also appeared to over 500 brethren (1 Corinthians 15:6).

So yes, Jesus could have immediately ascended to heaven after His resurrection. However, He loves us. His love for us caused Him to stay just a little longer here on Earth. Each time I am reminded of God’s love for us, I am overwhelmed. What reminders of Christ’s love have you experienced recently?

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Corine

Corine is the author of several Christian Children Books including: Why We Give Gifts at Christmas Time; What is Love My Journey with Jesus Christ and Why I Give. She enjoys gardening, cooking, and dancing. While she has no biological children, she has had the privilege of helping raise four children through foster care and a host of nieces, nephews and other little people. Among the little people, she is known as Aunt Cor. To learn more about Corine visit www.booksbycorine.com

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