Easter Sunday The Resurrection of the Lord
Imagine being one of the women, perhaps Mary Magdalene, or imagine being Peter or John. Only days ago you experienced the tragic death of someone you loved as much as you had ever loved anyone, someone to whom you had devoted your life, and suddenly His body is gone, His tomb empty.
What would your reaction be?
Mary said “they”—either the Romans or the Temple officials—have taken the Body; that does, after all, seem the most likely explanation. It would fit nicely with the humiliations they had heaped upon Jesus prior to His death, as well as His death itself. One final humiliation of taking His corpse would merely be the completion of something already begun. Is that what you would believe?
Or would you rather, like John, notice the one out-of-place detail and dare to believe what Jesus had said: that He would rise? Surely ransacking Romans would not have laid the headcloth aside with such care. It was John, not Peter, who witnessed Jesus’ death; John, of all the apostles, saw the mission of Jesus from its earliest days to its final moments: he witnessed the love of God on full display. His faith was not hindered by the guilt Peter yet bore from his denial of Christ, a guilt which clouded his heart: “Blessed are the clean of heart,” Jesus taught, “for they shall see God,” (Matthew 5:8).
This Easter you, too, are confronted by the same reality as those in our Gospel: nowhere in the world does anywhere claim to have the remains of Jesus Christ.
The tomb is empty: do you believe?