Easter Sunday

Gospel Reading: John 20: 1-10

1 It was very early on the first day of the week, and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb

2 and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. 'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,' she said, 'and we don't know where they have put him.'

3 So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb.

4 They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first;

5 he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in.

6 Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground,

7 and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.

8 Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed.

9 Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

Gospel Meditation

John's account of the resurrection is in two stages:

verses 1-2 are about Mary of Magdala's experience;

verses 3-10 tell us about the experience of the two disciples.

In verses 1 and 2 you might like to focus on the symbolism of it being 'still dark' and yet a 'first day' of a new time.

The large stone symbolises all the forces, human and other, that keep God's grace in the bondage of the tomb.

Your experience will help you interpret how Mary responded. Did she run in confusion? Or in fear?

The story of Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved can be read from various points of view. You can take them together as experiencing the resurrection, focusing on the details, especially the cloths lying on the ground, useless now since Jesus was alive, but also on the fact that until they saw the empty tomb they did not believe the teaching of the scriptures.

St John makes a point of contrasting the two apostles. If you would like to meditate on this aspect of the story, see Peter as a symbol of the church leader, while 'the other disciple' is the one who, while having no position of authority, is specially loved by Jesus and, perhaps as a result, is first in faith. Lord, we thank you for moments of grace. We had been in a situation of death a relationship that meant a lot to us seemed dead; an addiction held us in its grip; our country was locked in civil strife.

Then the day came that would turn out to be the first of a new era. We were mourning as usual, like Mary of Magdala making a routine visit to the tomb of Jesus, but saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb.

Naturally, we looked for some simple explanation: 'They have taken the Lord our of the tomb and we don't know where they have put him,' but it wasn't anything like that, it was what the scriptures teach us, that your work must always rise again.

Prayer

'They can kill a bishop, but they cannot kill the church which is the people.
'Archbishop Romero, some days before he was martyred

Lord, we thank you for people of faith.

They believe the teaching of the scriptures that your work may lie in the tomb for some days but it must rise again.

'When the underprivileged unite and struggle for justice, is that not a sign of the presence and action of God in our time?'
Musumi Kanyaro, Committee of Women in Church and Society, Lutheran World Federation

Lord, as we look around the world today we see what Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved saw as they entered his tomb.

Cloths are lying on the ground that we can recognise for what they are attitudes of passivity that look like fine linen but in fact kept your chosen ones in the tomb.

Whereas you have once more fulfilled what you taught us in all the scriptures and we had not really believed until this moment: that you will always raise up your chosen ones when the world imprisons them in a tomb.

Lord, we pray today for those who were baptised last night: today they have enthusiasm, for them you are alive and present; but there will certainly come a time when they will experience you absent, when prayer will be like Mary of Magdala going in the gloom of early morning to visit the tomb of Jesus.

In fact, they will be like people who mourn for a spouse or a child without even having the comfort of the dead body to look at.

This is the way they will have to pass because until they have had experiences like this they will not really believe the teaching of the scriptures that your grace cannot be overpowered by evil and that your presence within us must always, like Jesus, rise again from the tomb.

Lord, we like to feel that we have you within our grasp: that our prayers are always answered; that we are living in a way that is pleasing to you; that the times, gestures and words of our prayers are just right.

Teach us that we must be prepared to lose that security and experience being abandoned, until we live in trust only and see all those things that we considered important like the cloths in the empty tomb of Jesus fine linen cloths, but they were keeping him in the tomb.

Now we see them on the ground and also the cloth that had been over his head not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.