Sunday, April 8, 2012

Eternal Hope


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!"
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, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I do not know where they have put Him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize it was Jesus.
 "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him."
Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward Him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
Jesus said, "Do not hold onto Me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to My God and your God.'"
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!"  And she told them that He had said these things to her.
The competition between Peter and John to get to the tomb first is interesting. Even after all they been through, they manage to attach some importance to who will be first. More importantly though, it is the women that discover the empty tomb first and it is a woman that is first charged with spreading the news that the Lord has risen. 

Out of death the hope of life eternal was born. Jesus, the Son of God, rose from the dead after a cruel execution, destroying the twin enemies of humanity, sin and death. It is now possible, thanks to this ingenious plan, for all of us to have hope of eternal life.