Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away, so she ran off to Simon Peter and the other disciple (the one Jesus loved) and told them: “The Lord has been taken from the tomb! We don’t know where they have put him. John 20: 1-9
Despite Jesus’ repeated assertions, during his years of public ministry, that he would meet a violent death and be raised from the grave, Mary Magdalen and the two disciples, to whom she ran and told the news of her discovery of Jesus’ empty tomb, had no expectation of Jesus’ resurrection. Their conclusion was that those who had murdered their master were intent on rubbing salt into their wounds by depriving them of his body, thereby leaving them with nothing over which they might grieve. Mary had set out before sunrise to grieve at the tomb of her dear friend, only to be devastated at finding that it had seemingly been rifled. Her response was to turn on her heels and rush to share her distress with Peter and “Jesus’ beloved disciple”. The two of them returned with her to confirm her distressing discovery. With a clear lack of sensitivity, the two men then left Mary Magdalen to wander in her confusion and distress, while they made for the safety of their accommodation.
A stickler for detail, John the Evangelist provided some cryptic details. He reported that Peter had taken note of the abandoned burial cloths on the floor of the tomb and the head-cloth neatly folded in a separate place. After waiting for Peter to enter the tomb first, the other disciple then went inside, sized up the situation “and believed”. Exactly what he believed was left unstated. It is eminently clear from what John the Evangelist did not say that not one of Jesus’ disciples, male or female, had the slightest expectation of a bodily resurrection. The Gospel writer stated that clearly with this observation: “They had not yet understood the Scripture teaching that he had to rise from the dead – a teaching that Jesus himself had repeated on at least three occasions (John 3:14 ff, 8: 28ff, 12: 32ff). That observation from John, the Evangelist concludes the gospel-reading for Easter Day, the day on which God raised Jesus from the grave, vindicating all he had said and done during his earthly life, ministry and death.
We know, from our reading of all four Gospels, that Jesus repeatedly stated that he would be rejected by the religious leaders of his day, that he would be brutally tortured and executed and that God would raise him from the grave, triumphant over death. John the Evangelist stated unequivocally that Jesus’ moment of great glorification and triumph was his death on Calvary and his return to share with God the full glory he had before the world was created. The true mystery of the Cross of Jesus was his victory over death and, simultaneously, his ascension to the Father. While the risen Jesus had miraculous encounters with various individual disciples and small groups of them in the days following his resurrection, his fully human life had now run its course.
The next major milestone in the Church’s calendar is Pentecost, giving us fifty days to ponder the meaning and significance of Jesus’ Resurrection for our lives here and now, and to integrate that into the way in which we live and relate to those around us.
In the proclamation of the account of Jesus’ suffering and death which was read in our churches on Good Friday, we heard Jesus’ final words, after he had taken a sip of vinegar: “‘It is accomplished’, and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.” (John 19: 30) Jesus was doing more than announcing that his life on earth had run its course. He was stating that his mission of bringing to humanity the life, love and forgiveness of God had reached its climax and his mission was now completed. There was nothing else for him to do. For all who would follow in his footsteps, including us, those final words amounted to a legacy to us to accept and express in the way in which we all live. The next fifty days are an invitation to us to articulate and integrate just what is involved in embracing that legacy.
In today’s first reading from Acts, we hear Peter explaining just what accepting that legacy meant for him. The Peter we met early in the Gospels was full of bluster and bravado, a good cover for his hidden fears and doubts. He had later tried to shield Jesus from the violence Jesus said would be levelled at him. Peter could not entertain the possibility of a suffering Messiah. When Jesus was being arrested by the Jewish leaders, Peter intervened by drawing his sword and severing one of the ears of the High Priest’s servant. Jesus, totally committed to non-violence, reprimanded Peter and healed the injury Peter had inflicted. Subsequently, when Peter was unarmed in the Roman Praetorium courtyard, he was too frightened even to admit that he knew Jesus. Yet, after Jesus had been resurrected, he appeared to Peter, offering him peace and forgiveness for his denials and freeing him from guilt and fear. That impelled Peter to go and do likewise, to be an ambassador imitating Jesus, an ambassador of the peace, love, compassion and forgiveness of God. One very clear message of Jesus’ Resurrection and his encounters with his followers was that we, too, are freed and forgiven and urged not to let ourselves be defined by our past and present failures, frailties and mistakes.
Today’s second reading from Colossians is a reminder that, if we can only let ourselves be touched by the true meaning of Jesus’ resurrection, our lives will be transformed. Without hesitation, Paul proclaimed that we are included in the resurrection of Jesus Christ to receive new life with God: “You have been brought back to new life with Christ. So, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is…” (Colossians: 3:1) The new life to which Christ Jesus gave witness even as his earthly life was being drained out of him was forgiveness of the very ones who were murdering him. When Mary Magdalen saw the huge stone removed from the mouth of Jesus’ tomb, she had no thought of resurrection. Her imagination was connected to the world she had experienced: a place where violence, lies, betrayal, deceit, abuse, humiliation and human depravity held sway. The disappearance of Jesus’ dead body was yet another dose of all that.
As we will hear in the gospel-reading of the Tuesday of Easter, Mary Magdalen met the risen Jesus in the garden that held his tomb later of the day of his resurrection. That lifted her up to a very different level of being, just as Peter’s life would be transformed in a subsequent encounter with the risen Jesus. Just as Peter’s life would not be defined by his mistakes, so, too, would Jesus’s risen life not be defined by the scars he still carried, and the memories of the violence done to him. Moreover, the peace and forgiveness he held out to those who had murdered him meant that their lives did not have to be defined by their treacherous actions. Are we able to comprehend that peace and forgiveness must now define our lives?