The Liturgical Season of Easter

Easter Season stretches from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday, 50 days later.  
There are fifty days from Easter to Pentecost. The Church has traditionally divided this period into two parts. Forty days (a common interval in the O.T. and the N.T.) end with Ascension Day and that is followed by ten days, waiting for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. 

On Easter Sunday there were three bodily appearances of the risen Messiah. Early in the morning Mary Magdalene announced the tomb was empty, and when she came back she saw Jesus, at first thinking he was the gardener. In the afternoon Jesus walked with two disciples to the village of Emmaus, and they recognized him when he broke bread with them. In the evening Jesus came through locked doors, showed his hands and his feet, and ate fish with them. 

Thomas found it unreasonable to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead and had appeared to the others the previous Sunday. But when the apostles gathered again on the second Sunday Thomas was convinced by Jesus calling him forward to check his hands and his side. Doubters' Sunday reminds us that doubters are welcome to our gatherings. 

After a month away it was now time for the apostles to go back to their home in Galilee. Jesus had told them he would meet them there. If they set out early on Monday, and spent four nights at inns on the way, they would get to Capernaum before the Sabbath began on Friday evening. But apparently on the journey Jesus was nowhere to be seen. 

They had perhaps planned to announce the resurrection in their synagogue, but by sundown on Saturday what had happened in Jerusalem seemed like a dream. So Peter, joined by six other apostles, decided to go back to fishing. The seven of them did not catch a single fish all that night. Then early on Fishing Sunday morning the Lord appeared on the shore, told them to cast their net, and the catch of one hundred and fifty-three large fish was so big that they had to drag the net on to the shore. There Jesus had a charcoal fire burning with some fish and bread for breakfast. He also cooked some of the fish they had just caught. Then he took the bread and the fish and probably gave thanks (as he had done when he fed the crowd.

John adds that "This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead". Since the two previous occasions were on a Sunday, John perhaps wanted us to know that this breakfast by the Sea of Galilee was on the third Sunday morning.  He then recommissioned Peter to lead the apostles in their proper business of good news fishing.

All that week they would have told the story to relatives and friends in Galilee. And on Saturday they must have announced the astonishing events in their synagogue. Jesus had told them to meet with him on the mountain he had indicated. If he has already met with them on three successive Sundays, they might assume it would again be on a Sunday. There the Messiah outlined his plan for making disciples among all nations.

The apostles were to baptize those who wanted to learn, as he himself had baptized them. The apostles were then to teach the new learners everything they had learned from him. They began doing this with large numbers five weeks later.

The next two resurrection appearances were in Jerusalem. After his conversion Paul heard from those who were there that the Lord "appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters (the Greek "brethren" probably included women) at one time".

On the Saturday and Sunday morning they called for the gathering of five hundred that Sunday evening. That would be an obvious time for them to gather, which is why some call it Convention Sunday. Jesus was physically present with them, and this was perhaps the occasion when he "opened their minds to understand the scriptures". Soon Christians would begin gathering for such conventions all over the world.

The fifth occasion could be called Family Sunday. So far Jesus' brothers had not believed in him, but now James the Lord's brother also meets Jesus alive from the dead, and he joins the circle of disciples. He later became the presiding elder of the Jerusalem Christian synagogue. Within a few days Jesus' others brothers have come to faith. This reminds us that church growth takes place easily through family members and friends.

During that week Jesus had a special gathering of his apostles. This was not on a Sunday since it was the fortieth day after Easter. That momentous Thursday marks a transition from forty days of bodily resurrection appearances to the Messiah's coronation.

On Ascension Day he walked out with them from the city of Jerusalem to Bethany on the east slope of the Mount of Olives. Perhaps he wanted to greet Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Then he blessed them and was taken up into a cloud. This must have reminded them of the Transfiguration when a voice from the cloud said "This is my Son, the Beloved, with him I am well pleased".

The successive personal bodily appearances in different situations had now proved without any possible doubt that Jesus had risen from the dead. His eating with them, cooking breakfast, and walking and meeting with them in various places proved that he was very much alive. It also established the world-wide Church's faith in Jesus’ resurrection body (Apostles' Creed), and the certainty that our resurrection bodies would not be resting doing nothing but totally freed to enjoy all that we have only begun to enjoy in this life.

The first evidence of this faith was the beginning of prayer meetings that week with "certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus". On Apostles' Sunday there was the first business meeting of the new movement. An item on the agenda was a replacement for Judas.

The qualifications required to replace Judas required no evidence of scholarship or even piety. What was required was a man who had been with Jesus from the time when John baptized him right through the three years of ministry to the ascension three days before.

Among the Jews of that day it was only men who could count as witnesses, and at least two were required to prove a case. So the early Christians made sure by having twelve accredited witnesses of the resurrection, which was six times as many as were required. The status of these witnesses is mentioned again and again.

The eighth Sunday of the fifty days is Pentecost, the Sunday of the Holy Spirit. It inaugurated with splendid fanfare the continuing presence of the Lord by the Spirit among his churches. 

(Adapted from an articles by Robert Brow & Wikipedia)