We make a big deal about Jesus’ resurrection on Easter. But I wonder how much you have thought about the resurrection since Easter? Do you think about the resurrection much? I suspect most of us, me included, think about it around Easter, and maybe every now and then when a song mentions it. But I would guess it is not a thought that occupies our minds all that much. Is that a concern? Should we be thinking about Jesus’ resurrection more frequently? And better yet, should our thinking about the resurrection motivate us to do something?
Last week we studied chapter 19, when Jesus’ death and burial happened on a Friday. Notice what day of the week chapter 20 begins on.
“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
Chapter 20 begins on the first day of the week. In the Jewish culture that was Sunday, the day after Sabbath, which was Saturday. The Jewish religious system had all sorts of regulations strictly detailing what could and could not happen on the Sabbath day. Jesus’ followers abided by Sabbath law and didn’t do anything on Saturday that we know of.
So early Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’ followers visits the tomb. I wish we knew more about her. All we know is that Jesus healed her of demon possession, and she became one of his followers. I find it interesting how she, and not one of the 11 disciples, comes to the tomb. Keep note of that, because John seems to make a point in his telling of the resurrection to feature Mary.
What she finds at the tomb is shocking. The stone rolled away from the entrance. She has to tell someone! So Mary runs to where the disciples were staying and she declares her message, the news of the empty tomb.
Do you see what that means? Mary is the first evangelist in Scripture. Evangelist? What do I mean by that? Evangelist and evangelism do not refer only to spiritual things like preaching. The word was used in that era to refer to “the act of declaring good news”. An evangelist was anyone who told about good news.
Mary has some news to share, but is it good news yet? Of course, she doesn’t yet know the whole story. Why Mary jumps to the conclusion that Jesus’ body was moved, we don’t know. We could speculate a whole host of reasons why.
Actually, in a way she is right. His body was moved. Just not how Mary thinks. Mary thinks a human must have moved the body. But we know what really happened. The body moved all by itself, and that empty tomb is very good news.
Also, it is very interesting that Mary, a female, is the one with the news. In that patriarchal culture, you’d think it would be Peter or one of the males. But John makes it very clear that the first one to share news, to testify, to witness, is Mary.
So let’s keep reading.
“So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.”
Peter hears from Mary that the body of Jesus has moved, and Peter bolts out the door to see for himself. The other disciple, who we believe is John referring to himself, follows Peter. I find it hilarious that John includes the detail that as they are running to the tomb John overtakes Peter. What does this detail add to the story? Maybe a sense of their urgency? I suspect John, writing in his old age, is just letting his readers know, “By the way, I am faster than Peter.” Ha! What really matters is that they both see the empty tomb.
John tells us it was at that moment that he believed, but he also tells there is still some confusion because John also tells us that the disciples didn’t understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Maybe John thought Jesus’ body had been taken up to heaven.
Maybe they are also fearing for their lives, because they do not investigate the missing body. Belief is messy thing, isn’t it? We believe, but we also have doubts, which we’ll talk about more in a future post this week.
Peter and John go back to report to everyone else what they saw.
What happens next is nothing short of world-changing. We’ll learn about that in the next post.
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 