A recurring part of the Easter stories has Jesus remind the disciples that he told them this would happen.

We might compare this to an “I told you so” but it seems far more about being instructive than lording it over them.

He invites them to remember. Then he invites them to see it as an example. This (now) past event will inform their future. If they recognize how it pertains to faith. To following Jesus. And to the nature of God’s mission for the cosmos.

It would be easy enough for us to leave it there. That this was instruction for them. But rare is the part of the story only for them.

What if we take this as instructing us? That we should know that resurrections will happen. Because he says this will happen. That this is how God operates. God has destroyed death and shows forgiveness to the repentant. So we remember what God is like so we might be faithful in the present.