John 20.1-10

 John 20.1-10

The most dramatic reversal in all of history was the least expected and therefore appeared confusing and chaotic.  Mary Magdalene, who was no doubt highly emotional, arrives at the tomb and finds it empty.  She runs to Peter and no doubt is even more emotional than before and offers the only solution she can fathom: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb.”  We shouldn’t miss the point that the Christian religion and the first witness didn’t begin with great faith but with fear, frustration and a naturalistic explanation.    

Peter and John run to the tomb.  We are not told their state of mind.  Very likely they felt the only way to get this hysterical woman to calm down was to go to the tomb, the correct tomb, and show her everything was normal.  John, being younger outruns the older Peter, but stops going only as far as the entrance of the tomb.  He bends over and looks in the grave and sees that the body isn’t there.  He also notices the grave clothes, but doesn’t make the connection of what is would mean.  Think about it if the authorities, Jews or Romans, were to move the body, why unwrap it first?  Peter arrives rushes in sees the same thing in greater detail.  The evidence is there but what conclusion should they draw?

Verse 8-9 creates for us an enigma. John is said to believe in verse 8 but verse 9 indicates that they, note the plural, did not understand the essential nature of the resurrection.  What was it that John believed?  At this point it wasn’t the resurrection and all of its implications.  At this point what John believed was that the hysterical, crying, emotional woman was right the body was gone.  The beginning of Christianity was not all that auspicious.  It didn’t begin with a powerful and dynamic heroic mature faith.  It began with a whimper and a stumble.  But that was only the beginning.  If our faith is not always heroic and dynamic, if/when we stumble and fail we need not despair.  We are in good company.  What we do is get up and move forward, and we will meet Jesus.  He will make sure of that.

“Lord, when I stumble, help me to carry on.  AMEN”