Wednesday, April 24, 2019

“They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.” (John 20:4, New Living Translation)

                Getting ahead is always a challenge.

                But getting ahead seems somehow important. Some want to get ahead in their professions and  climb corporate ladders and scurry up the pay scale and perhaps retire early with some sort of  sizable pensions. Others want to get ahead on more simple things - in their finances, in their day to day schedules, in their relationships, in their lives.

Many of us would be satisfied if we could just catch up with the pace of life and the many busy demands which are laid out before us. We speed up and then fall back. We wish we could get ahead and maybe catch a breather – find some sense of accomplishment, a noble finish, some satisfaction of achievement, a boast that we have done it and done it our way.

                For whatever reasons, on Easter Sunday as I sat in church and listened to the Gospel being read, Peter’s and John’s race to the tomb caught my ear.  John outran and got to the tomb first, ahead of Peter. Yet he only looked in and did not actually go into the tomb.

                Curious! Why be in such a hurry to get there if he wasn’t going to finish the process and really go into the tomb? Was he afraid of what he would find, that the women had been mistaken and the body was still there? Or maybe he was afraid of what he wouldn’t find. Dead men don’t rise from the grave; but what if it was empty? Empty tombs don’t necessarily add up to a resurrection, but they are a step in the right direction when all the rest of the evidence is taken into consideration.

                But let us not get ahead of ourselves. Resurrection is a big thing to comprehend.  A lot us of sit on the edge of an empty tomb and never do more than take a quick peek in, curious but not believing, interested but not convinced, hopeful but not persuaded.

                Peter, in his typical brash boldness, barges in and takes a look around and sees all sorts of curious evidence that some mysterious event has taken place, more than just a grave robbery. It was then that John also went in to the tomb and we are told “he saw and believed” (v.8) although the very next bit of text says that they were still struggling with the whole idea that Jesus must rise from the dead.

Perhaps John believed only that the tomb was certainly empty or he was slowing warming up to the idea of a possible resurrection afterall. It puzzles me that they simply went back to their homes as if they were still trying to get their heads around what was happening. (Mind you, that’s all I did after the Easter service on Sunday – went back home, rather than shouting from the roof tops that this incredible miracle has taken place.)

                But slowness of comprehension seems to be a major thread running (!) through the post-Resurrection experience of discipleship.  Nobody was getting ahead of themselves. They go back home. They go back to their jobs. They go back to Emmaus.  They are confused, doubtful, skeptical, unsure, frightened, still grieving, failing to even recognize him; “startled and terrified, and thought they were seeing a ghost,” (Luke24:37). In Matthew’s Gospel when Jesus appears before the disciples we are told of the different reactions: some worshiped him and even yet, some still doubted (Matthew 28:17).

                Look, if you are running toward the tomb this week you are at least headed in the right direction. If you need to take your time as you contemplate the evidence, go ahead.   But understand this – God is offering you and me a wondrous opportunity to find new life, new hope, fresh possibilities, bold redemption, and be drawn into the sacred drama of Resurrection Possibility and Reality.  Jesus’ New Presence is a radical expression of life against death, of hope over despair, of shalom over chaos, of  fresh expectations over resignation.

                Don’t get left behind!

Dale