Study Desk

Standing close to Jesus' cross were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so he said to his mother, "He is your son."

Then he said to the disciple, "She is your mother." From that time the disciple took her to live in his home.

A bowl was there, full of cheap wine; so a sponge was soaked in the wine, put on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted up to his lips.

Jesus drank the wine and said, "It is finished!" Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they did not break his legs.

One of the soldiers, however, plunged his spear into Jesus' side, and at once blood and water poured out.

This was done to make the scripture come true: "Not one of his bones will be broken."

After saying this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord.

So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" Thomas said to them, "Unless I see the scars of the nails in his hands and put my finger on those scars and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

In his disciples' presence Jesus performed many other miracles which are not written down in this book.

After this, Jesus appeared once more to his disciples at Lake Tiberias. This is how it happened.

The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Peter heard that it was the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken his clothes off) and jumped into the water.

Dear Theophilus: In my first book I wrote about all the things that Jesus did and taught from the time he began his work

until the day he was taken up to heaven. Before he was taken up, he gave instructions by the power of the Holy Spirit to the men he had chosen as his apostles.

For forty days after his death he appeared to them many times in ways that proved beyond doubt that he was alive. They saw him, and he talked with them about the Kingdom of God.

They gathered frequently to pray as a group, together with the women and with Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers.

(With the money that Judas got for his evil act he bought a field, where he fell to his death; he burst open and all his insides spilled out.

"For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘May his house become empty; may no one live in it.' It is also written, ‘May someone else take his place of service.'

"So then, someone must join us as a witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. He must be one of the men who were in our group during the whole time that the Lord Jesus traveled about with us, beginning from the time John preached his message of baptism until the day Jesus was taken up from us to heaven."