We have to know God as well as human beings, or we are left with cynical despair. The disciples also had a wrong view of God. They did not understand that Jesus must die and must rise from the dead. Human disaster thus became ultimate disaster.
The accounts of the resurrection are brutally honest about the pervasive ignorance of the disciples. Key phrases are about not knowing, not understanding, believing without insight. Even Mary, the apostle to the apostles, the first witness, is able to say no more than “I have seen the Lord”, and what He said.
The reading from Acts shows the consequence of the Easter revolution. Peter has an open mind to the biggest change that could be imagined, the recognition that God has no favourites and that the Gentiles can be part of the church. He is spending his life in a state of joyful expectation because God is the one who raised Jesus from the dead. He is exploring the love and mercy of God in reaching to a lost and sinful humanity with a saving love for all.
That brings us back to our own day. Isaiah was speaking to a people in despair, and his treatment is celebration. “Be glad and rejoice for ever in what I am creating”. A right view of God sees Him as overflowing with such creative force that all our expectations of the future are radically altered and our joy leaps. Alleluia, Christ is risen.