As we have traveled through this Easter season, I have focused on the appearances of the resurrected Jesus to his various followers, the disciples' encounters with the risen body of Christ. We've seen the female followers discover the empty tomb and Mary Magdalene's subsequent encounter with Jesus in the garden. We've seen the appearance to the inner circle of male disciples on subsequent weeks as they hid with their fears and their doubts behind locked doors. And we've seen a glimpse of how the crucifixion and resurrection affected a pair of followers that were not in the inner circle.
These encounters mostly follow a similar pattern. Jesus appears to his followers, there is some recognition of his physical presence (holding on to him, touching his wounds, sharing food), often there is a sharing of some sort of message, and then a command or impulse to share that message.
This week, we return to the group of disciples we are more familiar with (see John 21:1-19). These are members of the inner circle, the male disciples that were closest to Jesus, sometimes referred to as the Twelve. Though not all of them are present, we do find Peter, James, John, Thomas, Nathanael, and a couple of unnamed others.
Apparently they are still trying to figure out what the appearances of Jesus are supposed to mean for them. The gospel writer tells us this is the third appearance to these men, so we can guess we are at least a week out from that first Easter morning when the women discovered the empty tomb and Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene. Later that same day, Jesus appeared to the previously unknown followers on their journey back to Emmaus, and then, that evening, Jesus appeared to his inner circle as they hid in Jerusalem; well, all of them except Thomas. A week later, he again appeared to the men and Thomas was present. So we can safely assume that this appearance follows the one that included Thomas.