1 After the Jewish rest day finished, Mary Magdalene went to the cave where the men put Jesus’s body. It was early on Sunday morning, and it was still dark. She got a shock when she saw the cave. It was open. The stone didn’t block that cave any more. 2 So she ran to Peter, and the follower that Jesus liked a lot, to tell them what she saw in the cave. She told them, “Somebody took our leader’s body out of the cave, and we don’t know where they put him.”

3-4 So Peter and the other follower ran to the cave. The other follower ran faster than Peter, and he got there first. 5 He bent down and looked into the cave, but he didn’t go inside. He only saw the long bits of cloth that Joseph and Nicodemus put around Jesus’s body.

6 Then Peter got there, and he went inside the cave, and he also saw the bits of cloth. 7 The cloth that covered Jesus’s head was folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other follower, that got to the cave first, he went inside too, and he saw the bits of cloth there, but no body, and so he believed that Jesus was alive again. 9 You see, a long time ago, God’s men wrote about this in God’s book. They said that Jesus had to come alive again. But those 2 followers of Jesus didn’t understand it yet. 10 So they came out of the cave, and they went back to their homes.

11 But Mary stood outside the cave, and she was crying. Then she bent down and looked into it, 12 and she saw 2 angel messengers with white clothes sitting at the place where Jesus’s body used to be. One angel sat in the place where the head used to be, and the other angel sat at the other end.

13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

Mary said, “Somebody took my leader’s body away, and I don’t know where they put it.” 14 After she said that, she turned around and saw a man standing behind her. It was Jesus, but she didn’t know it was him.

15 Jesus asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?”

Mary thought he was the gardener, so she asked him, “Sir, did you take his body away? If you did, please show me where you put it, so that I can get it and take care of it.”

16 Jesus said, “Mary.”

Mary turned around, and straight away she knew that he was Jesus, and she said in her language, “Rabboni.” (That word means teacher.)

17 Jesus said, “Don’t hold on to me. I haven’t gone up to my father yet. I want you to go to my followers and tell them that I am going back up to my father, and he is the father of all of you too. He is my God, and he is your God too.”

18 Then Mary went to Jesus’s followers and told them, “I saw our leader Jesus.” Then she told them everything he said.

19 It was Sunday, and that night Jesus’s followers were inside a house. They were frightened. They didn’t know what the Jewish leaders might do to them, so they locked the doors. Suddenly Jesus came and stood in the middle of the group. He said, “Hello. I want you to feel happy and quiet inside yourselves.” 20 Then he showed them the holes in his hands and his side. His followers saw that he really was their leader Jesus, and they were very happy.

21 Jesus said to them, “I want you to feel happy and quiet inside yourselves. And, you know, my father sent me here to the world to give people his message. Well, just like that, I’m sending you out to the people in the world, to give them that same message.”

22 Then Jesus breathed on them and said, “Take the Holy Spirit that I’m giving to you. 23 When you tell people my message, some people will listen properly, and God will say that they are not guilty for the bad things they did, and he will not do payback to them. So you can also say that they are not guilty. But some people will not listen to that message, and then God will say that they are guilty of the bad things they did. So you can also say that they are guilty.”* Matthew 16:19; 18:18

24 Thomas, whose other name was the Twin, was one of Jesus’s special workers, but he wasn’t there at that time when Jesus came to them.

25 The other followers told him, “We saw our leader Jesus.”

But Thomas didn’t believe them. He said, “I will never believe that Jesus is alive, unless I see the nail holes in his hands, so I can put my finger in them, and unless I can put my hand into the hole in his side.”

26 One week later, Thomas and Jesus’s other followers were inside a house, and again they locked all the doors. But Jesus came and stood in the middle of them. He said, “Hello. I want you to feel happy and quiet inside yourselves.” 27 Then he said, “Thomas, look at the holes in my hands, and put your finger in them. And put your hand into the hole in my side. Believe that I am alive. Stop saying that you can’t believe it.”

28 Straight away, Thomas believed that Jesus was alive, and he said, “You are my leader, and you are my God.”

29 Jesus said to him, “Now you believe that I am alive, because you can see me. Listen. There are people that will not see me, but they will believe in me, and God will make them really happy.”

30 You know, Jesus did a lot of other powerful things, and his followers saw him do them, but I didn’t write about all of those things in this book. 31 But I wrote about some of the things he did so that you can believe that Jesus is the Christ, the special man that God promised to send to save us, and so that you can believe that he is God’s son. And if you believe in him, you will live with God for ever.