66. Dinner Guest

Mary and Mary Magdalene were amazed by what they saw and heard. Suddenly, they saw Jesus himself standing in front of Them. The women wanted to touch him, but he told them they must not.

"Go tell my disciples that you have seen me and that I am going up to meet my Father," Jesus said.

Mary Magdalene ran to find the disciples. Mary hurried after her. They told the disciples everything that had happened. None of the disciples believed what the women said. But Peter was curious, so he went back and found the empty tomb. He began to wonder what was going on.

One day, two disciples were walking down the road on their way to Emmaus. A man walked up to them and asked why they were so sad. They told him that their leader and beloved friend, Jesus, had been cruelly put to death.

"Isn't that what the prophets told us would happen in the Scriptures?" the man said.

Then he began to talk about the Scriptures from Moses on down. The disciples were fascinated. They invited the man to dinner, so they could talk more.

When the men got home, they sat down to a meal of meat and bread. One of them passed the bread to their guest. The man took the bread, blessed it, and gave a piece of it to each of them. As they took the bread, they realized their dinner guest was really Jesus himself!

They looked up, but Jesus had disappeared from sight. The two men ran to find the other disciples in Jerusalem. When they found them, one man told the disciples what happened.

"Jesus has risen just like we were told," one of them said. "We saw him, too."

They told the others how the stranger broke bread like Jesus used to do. Then at that moment, Jesus appeared to them. "Peace be with you," he said.

Jesus told them not to be frightened. He showed them the scars on his hands and feet to prove he was really Christ.

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