Road Trippin With Rachael

Although we refer to it as Good Friday, it was a dark, dark day. But Sunday was coming. And now Sunday is here!

Sunday Morning

The disciples are now in the middle of what is probably the most stressful situation of their life. Jesus is dead and buried, and the Hebrew people and Romans are looking at Jesus’ followers to see what their next move is going to be. Who is to say that the Sanhedrin won’t come for them?

Now that it was Sunday, there were things that needed to be done. Friday had been a rush job while they prepared Jesus’ body – after all, they couldn’t very well be messing with a body during Passover. As Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb she finds that the stone is rolled away and Jesus is not there!  Reasonably, Mary panics, runs back to the place where the disciples are and tells them that someone has taken the body. 

Understandably, this causes some panic. Peter and another disciple run to the tomb, look in (Peter enters before the other) and they see that the burial shroud is lying empty and the cloth that covered the head is folded up. John 20:8 says that they believed, followed by verse 9 saying “they did not yet understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead” (John 20:9 CSB). I’m sure there was both awe and shock. Awe that the body was gone in three days; shock that there was possibly someone who would take a body. These disciples return to the house where they were staying.

But not Mary. Mary remained at the tomb. It was to Mary that two angels appeared where Jesus had been, wanting to know why she was crying. Mary was probably in a state of shock, since that seems to be the theme for anyone who encounters an angel – Mary the mother of Jesus is the only person recorded as not being terrified. This Mary just causally answers them, then turns around and sees this man standing there who wants to know why she is crying. Instead of answering, and explaining the reason for her tears – a reaction that many people have – she wants to know where this man took her teacher. Jesus’ tomb was in a garden, and Mary legitimately thought she was holding a conversation with the gardener, and wondering why the body would be moved.

Then he calls her by name – and she recognizes him. Isn’t this a beautiful picture of what it is like to come to Christ? He calls your name and you are able to see the things that were previously hidden from you. Tears of sorrow turn into tears of joy as Mary sees that her Savior is alive and standing before her! This news could not be kept to herself and Jesus sends her back to the disciples to have her tell them what it was that she had seen, and that he is going to be ascending to God the Father. And that was what she did; Mary was the missionary to the disciples. 

Like I said, the disciples were in a very stressful situation. They were locked inside a house together, and then Jesus just appears saying Shalom. I would have considered this the shock of my life. Jesus knows us in a way that no one else ever will, and that includes ourselves, so he shows them his hands where the nails went in. He shows them his side, where the spear pierced him as proof of his death. He speaks peace over them, and tells them that they are going to be receiving the Holy Spirit. 

But there was someone missing. Somehow and for some reason, Thomas was not with the group. I like to think of him as this spy going about the city, trying to hear what is happening and if they need to leave Jerusalem or if they need to sit tight for a while. He might also have just gone to the market. Given the sitution, Thomas wanted proof of what they were telling him when he returned and they are saying that Jesus was raised. 

Once again Jesus shows up in a locked room, tells them Shalom, then invites Thomas to stick his finger into the holes that are proof of his being nailed to the cross and being pierced.  Thomas believes and declares Christ as his Lord and his God. Jesus tells Thomas that he saw and believed, but blessed are those who haven’t seen but believe. The sentiment is repeated in Romans 10:14 – “How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearin about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?” We believe because we have heard the good news – we don’t have the advantage of seeing Jesus in the flesh to believe. 

For that reason John has written this Gospel. His thesis – “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31)

Discussion Questions

What made you believe in the Gospel message? Was it something that you saw, or what is what you heard? Was it a combination of many things?