Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards 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.

Mary Magdalene was one of the few who stayed beside Jesus beneath the Cross on Calvary; and she is the first of all the witnesses to Easter. A less likely witness is hard to imagine.

At this time, women were not permitted to give evidence in a court of law; yet here God chooses the woman from whom seven spirits had been driven out to announce the good news of the resurrection to the apostles, which is why she is called the apostle of the apostles. There is much about Mary Magdalene that we don’t know; but one thing we know for certain is that she was the first to see the risen Lord and to hear his voice. And that’s what Easter witness entails – seeing him and hearing his voice. At first, she doesn’t recognise him; she even thinks he’s the gardener. Nor does she recognise his voice until he speaks her name. Then her eyes and ears are opened, and she is equipped to witness.

However, the apostles want to see for themselves. They run to the tomb, with the younger John arriving first looking into but not entering the tomb. The older Peter arrives later; he does enter the empty tomb. The younger disciple then follows Peter into the tomb and believes Mary’s testimony.

In the world of Easter nothing is as we expect it to be. We have to
enter a new world where we see and hear differently. The whole
scene described in the Gospel has a great concreteness about it.
They see the linen shroud; they see the head-cloth “rolled up in
a place by itself”. It has the feel of an eyewitness account, but an
account of those who are struggling to understand what all this
means. We may feel that faith would have been easier if we, like
the first disciples, had seen the empty tomb or seen the risen Lord. But the New Testament leaves no doubt that Easter faith was always a challenge – no less for the first disciples than it is for us.