Disbelief - Setting the stage

When Jesus “vanished” out of sight of the two disciples who walked to Emmaus with him, they ran back to Jerusalem, where they had just left, to tell the others that not only was Jesus alive but they had seen him. In Jerusalem, the other disciples were behind closed doors, “for fear of the Jews.” This was probably around the time when those who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover started packing up and heading home. I’ve heard it estimated that the population of Jerusalem during the time of the Passover could climb to over a million people. This enormous crowd was divided between those who believed in Jesus, those who didn’t, and those who didn’t care. But the chief priests had already demonstrated that they were willing to kill to retain their power, so the disciples were laying low, especially now that some were saying that Jesus had risen from the dead.

The disciples themselves were divided as to whether or not they believed that Jesus had risen. The women had run from the empty tomb to tell them what they saw and heard, and Peter, who was among them, had already seen and spoken with Jesus, and the disciples from Emmaus had probably come to report on their experience as well. Despite all those testimonies, many of the disciples still did not believe that Jesus had been resurrected. The IM quotes President James E. Faust as teaching, “Perhaps the Apostles should not be unduly criticized for not believing that Jesus, having been crucified and buried in a tomb, had come back to earth as a glorified being. In all human experience, this had never happened before. It was completely unprecedented. This was a different experience than the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the young man of Nain, or Lazarus. They all died again. Jesus, however, became a resurrected being. He would never die again…
Said President David O. McKay of this experience: ‘The world would never have been stirred by men with such wavering, doubting, despairing minds as the apostles possessed on the day of the crucifixion. What was it that suddenly changed these disciples to confident, fearless, heroic preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ? It was the revelation that Christ had risen from the grave. His promises had been kept, his Messianic mission fulfilled… On the evidence of these unprejudiced, unexpectant, incredulous witnesses, faith in the resurrection has its impregnable foundation.’ Like the Apostles of old, this knowledge and believe should transform all of us to be confident, settled, unafraid, and at peace in our lives as followers of the divine Christ. It would help us carry all burdens, bear any sorrows, and also fully savor all joys and happiness that can be found in this life.”
That was pretty long, but it’s important to remember that whatever judgment we make about how the disciple should or should not have reacted comes with 2,000 years of hindsight. It’s easy to look at their disbelief and condemn them, but they lived in a completely different world than we do, their knowledge and traditions and culture are so far removed from anything that we can understand that we really just need to cut them some slack. But President McKay’s thought that seeing the resurrected Jesus was what changed their demeanor from wavering to confident is interesting. I personally think that it had a lot to do with them receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, but the mind shift that must have happened when they saw the man they had watched be murdered only a few days previously must have been intense.