Tuesday 21 April - Running to Easter

DAILY BYTE

After Mary Magdalene goes to tell the other disciples that Jesus is missing, they decide they want to see this strange mystery for themselves! Many, many people rush to church on Easter, after having been absent since Christmas, in a strange urge to want to hear the story of Jesus’ resurrection with their own ears.

And so we go running again – there’s running hardly anywhere else in the gospel, but here, there’s a flurry of activity, as we and the disciples in the scripture attempt to solve this mystery. We notice that one runs ahead of the other. Perhaps some people are more eager to figure out where Jesus is than others… Or, maybe some people are just more fit…

But the track star disciple reaches the tomb first, and he seems to hesitate. He peeps his head in the door, but won’t take the full step in right away to realize the resurrection. How many of us are actually content with a Jesus who is dead?

In his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, the author, Philip Yancey says, “Surely, it would have been easier, and more natural, to honor a dead Jesus as one of the martyr-prophets whose tombs were so venerated by the Jews.” It would definitely have been more socially acceptable…

So, while we may rush to get to church on time on Easter Sunday because it feels like something we have to do, are we really fine with just reading about Jesus in books, gawking at pictures of him hanging on the cross, remaining in a Good Friday mentality for the whole rest of the year until Easter comes around again? Good Friday absolutely has its place, but we cannot be with Christ through his agony and death if we are not also with Christ when he is raised from the dead.

If we are claiming that we’re an “Easter” people, we must be unafraid to go into the darkness and death of the tomb, see that Jesus is not there, and then come back out into the joyful light to find him! It is not enough to say, “Christ is Risen!” We are called to seek out where he is, now that he is risen!

After Simon Peter and the other ‘beloved disciple’ finally go in and come out of the tomb, the gospel says, the beloved disciple believed! He is Risen! That’s great! So, what did they do? They went home. The Greek actually says, they immediately return to “themselves.”

They had this spectacular, shocking, radical, glorious news, and you would think they would at least jump up and down! You’d be sure that they would at least go tell someone – or look for him! But instead, it feels like that is the end of the story for them. They crawl back into their shells. Show’s over – Easter Service is over – what a miracle. Time to go home. Many scholars think that the beloved disciple’s statement of belief is the climax of the scripture, but I would beg to differ because the story doesn’t end there.

Have you been content this past week to return home after Easter Sunday without continuing to look for where Jesus is, now that he is risen?

GUIDING SCRIPTURE:

John 20:3-10
Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb.
The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.
Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
Then the disciples returned to their homes.

PRAY-AS-YOU-GO

Seeking God, you continuously seek after us. Help us to continue to seek after you. Amen.