After you're dead, it's over.

Most of us have been there. If we haven't, then we will some day.

One day, you're sitting with someone. Visiting. Eating. Laughing. Loving.

The next day, they're gone. They've died.

No more visiting with them. No more sharing your favorite meal together. No more hearing their laughter. No more showing expressions of love.

They've died and all that is over.

That's probably what the disciples were thinking, too.

One day they were celebrating the Passover with Jesus, like they had done in the past. They go to the Garden of Gethsemane for a time of prayer. Also, nothing unexpected.

But Jesus had been saying some puzzling things. Betrayal. Watching. Preparing.

While still in the Garden, a mob seizes Jesus. The rumors start.

By the end of the next day, Jesus is dead. Crucified. A public display of the most horrific form of death.

Now it's over. No more visiting with Jesus. No more eating with Jesus. No more laughing with Jesus. No more loving Jesus.

A big hole. Emptiness. Confusion. Fear. It must have eaten away at them for days.

But then on the third day after His death, a couple of women come to tell the disciples that they've seen Jesus.

John and Peter run to the grave. It's empty except for the burial cloths.

Little by little they see Jesus. They hear how others have seen Him. He meets with them. He teaches them. He eats with them. He prepares them.

They thought it was over when Jesus died. But it wasn't.

It had just begun.

(Mark 15-16; 1 Corinthians 15).