Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024

John 20, 1–9

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. 

“They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”  Mary Magdalene so loved the Lord that even the care of his dead Body was of the greatest concern for her.  First, devastated and broken-hearted by the Lord’s Death, now she finds his tomb empty.  She does not know whether the Jewish leaders have stolen it to prevent its veneration or if those who laid it in the tomb meant it to rest there on temporarily until it could be buried after the Sabbath, since he had not belonged to the family whose tomb it was.  It seems, though, that it was the first possibility that alarmed her.  The “they” who she thinks moved his Body sounds like she was referring to the “they” who killed him.  It was not enough for them that the Lord was dead: they had to hide his Body as well.

She ran directly to Simon Peter and to John to tell them.  She would have known where to find them because John was with her under the Cross on Golgotha and would have learned this from him.  The two Apostles seem to have run off for the tomb without speaking to her, although she must have told them where the Body had been laid to rest, or perhaps John knew from remaining at the Cross until it was taken down by Joseph of Arimathea.

“When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.”  It is significant that the cloths were found very neatly set aside, as it demonstrates that the Body had not been stolen or taken away.  Whether thieves or the Jewish leaders, they would not have bothered to unwrap the linen cloth from the Body before taking it, much less roll up the cloth that had covered his head and then put it in a separate place.  It as though the one who had died had gotten up off the stone bench on which he had been laid and calmly folded up the linen cloth and rolled up the cloth that had covered his face and head, and then set it on the floor in a corner.  This is why John can say that he and Peter “saw and believed”.  Previously, “they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead”.  Now they faced a reality that could only be explained by the Lord Jesus rising from the dead.  The last verse of the Gospel Reading should read, “For they had not before understood the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”  That is, until the Apostles went into the tomb and looked around they had not understood the prophecies, but now they did.  Their eyes were opened.  They walked away from the tomb changed men, and unsure of what would happen next, but very certain that their Master had conquered death.