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| Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. |
| —John 20:1-8 |
“I was just so surprised!” Have you every heard someone say that: “I was just so surprised”? People usually say words like that when something happens that catches them totally unprepared.
The Bible story recorded in the Scripture passage at the beginning of this blog post explains that very early on a Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb where the friends of Jesus had buried him late Friday afternoon. She went expecting to have a few quiet moments at the graveside of Jesus. Imagine her surprise when she discovered that the big stone that the Roman government had rolled in front of the entrance to the tomb had moved aside and the tomb was empty! Right away, she ran off to find Peter and John and tell them that someone had moved Jesus’ body.
Upon hearing her news, Peter and John ran to the tomb to see for themselves. They, too, were quite surprised, but in a different way than Mary. You see, Jesus had told them several times that He was going to die and then rise from the dead three days later. As much as Peter and John might have liked to believe what Jesus said, they just couldn’t quite accept the fact that what He said was what was going to happen. So, their surprise was as much about accepting the truth of Jesus’ previously spoken words, as it was surprise that the tomb was empty.
The lesson for all of us is we can believe that whatever Jesus says is absolutely the truth. The Bible gives us many words that Jesus said while He was here on earth. Every word Jesus said is absolutely true. That means that when we read something Jesus said, we can count on the fact that Jesus tells us the absolute truth.
The tomb is empty! It is empty because Jesus said it would be empty. It is empty because after dying for us on the cross and bearing the penalty for our sins, Jesus rose from the grave. He rose just exactly like He said He would.
“The Lord is risen! He is risen, indeed!” Those are not merely the words that we recite to each other on Easter Sunday morning. Those words represent the absolute truth that the God of all creation has sent His precious Son, Jesus, to be the sacrifice for our sins—a sacrifice that we could not possibly make for ourselves. As a result, the curse of Adam’s sin has been broken forever. And, all the more, God has chosen us before the foundation of the earth to belong to Himself. He has chosen us!
Not only has God chosen us, He has redeemed us with the blood of His one and only Son. And, if that is not enough, God has sent His Holy Spirit to dwell within the very core of our being. The Spirit takes the four modalities of our human existence—heart, soul, mind, and strength—and supercharges them for service to God and service to our fellow human beings.
When we read something in God’s written Word, the Bible, we can count on the reality that those words are absolutely, irrefutably true. We can follow those words and do what God commands with absolute certainty. Isn’t that a wonderful way to live? Indeed, it is!
