That First Sunday

On the first day of the week, three days after Jesus’s death, he rose and left his tomb (Jn. 20:1).  That evening, his disciples gathered together behind locked doors to discuss what to make out of the reports they had heard.  Peter and John had rushed to the tomb only to find it empty, and Mary Magdalene claimed that she had seen the Lord.  Suddenly Jesus appeared saying, “Peace be with you.”  All of the remaining disciples except for Thomas saw him.  They saw the scars in his hands and his side.  They ate with him, and then he left (Jn. 20:19-23; Lk. 24:36-43).

According to John, the disciples, this time with Thomas, were together again in the same place “eight days later” (John 20:26).  John reckons time by counting every day.  In other words, it was Sunday, exactly one week from the day of Jesus’s resurrection.

At this point in the narrative we must stop and take notice of something.  If we’re not careful, we’ll pass over a very significant change in the worship patterns of these men.  Remember that they were Jews.  Since childhood they had visited synagogues on the Sabbath.  They had regarded the seventh day with profound religious sentiments.

But everything changed when Jesus rose from the dead.  The disciples started a new precedent, worshiping on the first day of the week.  Less than two months later the apostles established the church on a Sunday (Acts 2), and since then Christians have come together on that day for worship and to commemorate the Lord’s sacrifice in the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2).

We worship on Sunday because on one particular Sunday two thousand years ago a man named Jesus walked out of a tomb that he had been buried in three days before, following his execution.  Every Christian assembly on the first day of the week is a testimony to the power and hope of our faith.

Drew Kizer