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They knew Jesus better than most everyone else. John had been one of the first to follow Him. Peter had been the only one to walk on the water with Him. And when most everyone else had abandoned Him, Mary Magdalene stood at the foot of His cross and on the third day led several other women to anoint His broken body. Their love for Him had never been shaken … and yet, the faith of even these had waivered.
Mary Magdalene arrived at the place John and Peter were staying. She was not announcing the resurrection of Jesus. She believed Him to be dead. “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him!”(1) she announced with great despair.
She was the one from whom Jesus cast out seven demons.(2) Some teachers and scholars also believe she was the woman who knelt at the feet of Jesus and anointed His feet with perfume and her tears, wiping them with her hair.(3) She was someone that we all need to aspire to be – someone who was saved by Jesus, and never got over it! She was eternally grateful to her Lord for His compassion and deliverance. Perhaps it was that deep-seated gratitude that had now possibly led her to even question why the Father had not delivered His Only Son from the cross.
The apostle John often referred to himself as “the one whom Jesus loved.” He would later write, “We love Him, because He first loved us.”(4) After Jesus died on the cross, John sought out Peter. He did not go to Bethany to join the other disciples; he sought his friend whom he knew was distraught by grief and remorse over his denial of Jesus. The writer of Proverbs says, “There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”(5) John didn’t write-off his friend because of his failure, rather he “stuck” with Peter because his love for his friend demanded it. He was heeding Jesus’s words in the upper room to “love each other.”(6) But by John’s own admission, even his faith in Jesus had faltered.(7) Jesus’s body had been laid in a tomb.
Peter had been the only one to raise a sword to defend Jesus the night of His arrest. But Jesus had told him to put away his sword.(8) Up until that moment, Jesus had prevailed in every situation. He had never been defeated by any argument or any circumstance. Demons had crumbled before him. The religious leaders had always backed away in defeat. Even storms had been stilled at His command. And yet, Jesus was now being tied up, arrested, and taken to stand trial, ending in His crucifixion. Peter’s belief had been shaken to its very core.
This band of three made their way back to the garden tomb. Mary was convinced the religious leaders had taken Jesus’s body and hidden it. That thought added to her grief. So, she let John and Peter run on ahead back to the tomb. She wasn’t in any hurry to see an empty tomb. Her thoughts were now even more consumed by her grief.
Peter and John weren’t truly expecting the resurrection of Jesus any more than Mary Magdalene was. They probably thought that she had made a mistake in what she saw. Perhaps, she had gone to the wrong tomb. They weren’t running to the tomb expecting to find Jesus alive. They were expecting to uncover Mary’s error and find His body.
John was the faster runner. He arrived at the tomb before Peter. Don’t forget, John was the younger of the two. But John stopped at the doorway looking in. Peter was never one to assess a situation before taking action, so he charged past John and entered the tomb. They both saw the linen wrappings neatly rolled up.
But the two men reacted quite differently. John tells us that “he saw and believed.”(9) Though John couldn’t yet prove that Jesus was risen, He believed it with all his heart. He believed that Jesus had risen according to the Scriptures, and he believed once and for all that Jesus truly was God in the flesh. He had a fresh encounter with the Living Lord Jesus by faith in that empty tomb. He didn’t need to see to believe; rather, he knew that believing was seeing!
Peter, however, was not convinced. He walked away unsure. He returned to where he had been staying … uncertain and confused. He wanted for Jesus to be alive, but if He was alive how could Peter possibly face Him after having denied Him. Peter wouldn’t know the answer to that quandary until sometime later in the day.
About that time, Mary Magdalene arrived back at the tomb. She remained outside weeping. Then “as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb” for the first time. She saw two angels who asked her why she was weeping. “They (the religious leaders) have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him,” she replied. She then turned and saw Jesus standing there. But due to her grief, she did not recognize Him. Thinking He was the gardener she again sought an answer from Him as to where His body was laid. At that moment, Jesus spoke her name and she knew!
It wasn’t her physical encounter with the sight of Jesus that awakened Mary to His presence, it was His voice. The same voice that had spoken and set her free from the demons that held her captive now set her free from the doubt and grief that blinded her. It is worthy to note that though Mary was the first person to whom Jesus appeared that day, she wasn’t the first to believe in His resurrection, neither was she convinced by sight … she was convinced by His spoken word.
We do not know any of the details surrounding Jesus’s appearance to Peter. We only know that it occurred sometime later that day. Luke and Paul bear witness to the occurrence of that face-to-face meeting,(10) but the content of the encounter was kept private. It was a very personal encounter of healing that took place between Peter and his Lord. Jesus would later correct Peter in the presence of the other apostles along the Sea of Galilee, but Jesus knew that before correction could take place, healing needed to occur. And that healing needed to occur before they were together with the other disciples.
Jesus knows that in our lives as well. He knows when He needs to correct us. And He also knows when He needs to heal us. He knows the “what”, the “how” and the “when”. And He will take the same care with us in our encounter with Him as He did with Peter. It’s called grace. It’s called mercy. It’s called love. And we would do well to show that grace, mercy and love to one another.
In some respects, as followers of Jesus, we are in the same place as John, Mary and Peter. We have heard the reports that the tomb is empty! And the truth is that if the work had stopped at the cross, we as His followers would be the most pitiable – and the most sorrowful. Because we would be following a dead savior. And a dead savior isn’t really a savior at all. He would have set us up to fail. He would have set a standard that we by no means could reach, and He would have failed to make a way whereby we can be saved. As we go through the pain, suffering and death of this life, we would be doing so without hope.
But the tomb IS empty. Jesus arose from the dead! And He desires that we each have our own personal encounter with Him. More than likely, our encounters will look different – but the encounter will always lead to the same reality. We have the reports of the many witnesses as recorded in Scripture. Like John, our eyes have been opened to that reality by faith. And “the day” isn’t over – soon that faith will become sight! Like Mary, we have hope because we have heard His voice speaking to us through His Word. Like Peter, we have assurance because we have felt His loving embrace drawing us close.
As Resurrection Sunday approaches, go back to the empty tomb and experience a fresh encounter with Jesus!
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As i shared last week, i have written a short novel about Mary Magdalene. It’s a first-person eyewitness account of what she experienced and witnessed. The book is entitled A Witness Called Mary. It’s the ninth book in my series, The Called. i invite you to consider her story – the part you may already know – and the portion that could have been. The book released last week through Amazon in paperback, large print and for Kindle or Kindle app. Click HERE for more information on how you can obtain a copy.
Also, portions of this post have been taken from my book Taking Up The Cross, chapters 56-57.
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(1) John 20:1-10 (NLT)
Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him!” Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there,while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home.
(2) Luke 8:2
(3) Luke 7:38
(4) 1 John 4:19 (KJV)
(5) Proverbs 18:24 (ESV)
(6) John 13:34 (NLT)
(7) John 20:8-9
(8) John 18:10-11
(9) John 20:8 (NLT)
(10) Luke 24:34 and 1 Corinthians 15:5
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