Easter Saturday
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Today’s Gospel from St. John states that on the first day of week Mary Magdalene came early to the sepulchre and saw that the stone had been rolled away from it. She ran and told Simon Peter and the beloved disciple, and said to them: “They have taken the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.” Peter therefore went with the beloved disciple to the sepulchre. They both ran together but beloved disciple outran Peter and came first to the sepulchre. He stooped down and saw the linen cloths lying, but did not enter the tomb. Peter then arrived and went into the sepulchre. He saw the linen cloths lying and the napkin that had been placed about the head, not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up into one place. The other disciple, who had arrived first, then went into the sepulchre and he saw and believed.
All the Gospels record the story of how the women came to the tomb where Jesus had been laid and found it empty. St. John’s Gospel, as is so often the case, gives more detail than the others. It not only states how Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb on the first day of the week and found it had apparently been broken into and the body removed. It also records that she had ran and told Jesus’ two closest followers, Simon Peter and John, the beloved disciple (on whose testimony this Gospel rests). They then raced to the tomb, but John arrived first. Though he stooped down and saw the linen cloths lying he did not enter. It was characteristically Peter, the more impulsive personality, who, though he arrived later, was the first to enter the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying and the napkin that had been placed about the head, not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up into one place. It was only then that John, the beloved disciple, also entered the tomb.
This account gives us the clearest sense in all the Gospels of the uncertainty and excitement of the first Easter morning. The type of detail that the other disciple outran Peter, but did not enter the tomb first shows that it must rest on that disciple’s own testimony. It is not the sort of information that would be recorded as relevant except to the person, St. John himself, who was telling the story from his own memory of exactly what had happened.
It is important to emphasise that the empty tomb by itself demonstrates nothing. The body of Jesus might have been removed by friendly or unfriendly hands. St. John records that Mary Magdalene at first thought that it had been taken away by the gardener, whereas St. Matthew records a Jewish rumour that the disciples had stolen the body. It was the subsequent appearances of Jesus to his disciples that showed the truth of his bodily resurrection.
At the same time the story of the empty tomb should not be dismissed as irrelevant to the truth of our faith, as is often done today. Women were not regarded as reliable witnesses at the time and there would be no reason to record that it was the female rather than the male followers of Jesus who had first found the tomb empty unless that was what had actually happened. At first the discovery produced only perplexity and the not unreasonable suspicion that Jesus’ body had been removed. It was the later appearances of Jesus to his disciples that led to the conclusion that he had indeed been raised from the dead. It was not simply a ghostly visitation but the real appearance of the risen and glorified Jesus.
Hence, both the fact that the tomb was found empty and the later resurrection appearances are essential to our faith. Neither is sufficient in itself. The empty tomb without the later resurrection appearances would have simply led to the conclusion that the body of Jesus had been removed. On the other hand, the appearances by themselves without the tomb being found empty would have suggested a ghostly visitation of someone who had recently died, rather than the actual appearances of the risen Saviour. It is the story of the empty tomb followed by the resurrection appearances that demonstrates the truth of our faith.
This faith rests on the testimony of those first disciples like St. Peter and St. John who were eyewitnesses of what had happened. St. Peter would later follow his Lord in martyrdom for this faith, while St. John would survive and later settle in Ephesus, where he published in his Gospel what he had seen that had led him to believe.
St. Peter wrote an epistle to the Christians of Asia Minor from Rome shortly before his own martyrdom. He encouraged them to lay aside all deceit and guile as newborn babes so that they would grow unto salvation. “Unto whom coming as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men but chosen and made honourable by God: be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” The stone that the builders rejected had been made the head of the corner. “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: who in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God; who had not obtained mercy, but now obtained mercy.”
The resurrection was not simply a historical event that happened to Jesus. It was also the inauguration of a new society that inherited the privileges of the chosen people of God, but was now open to all who repented of their sins, believed and were baptised. At the time the crucifixion of Jesus had caused scandal, but his resurrection from the dead showed that the stone which the builders rejected had indeed become the head of the corner. Jesus had told his opponents who had challenged his demonstration in the temple that he would raise it in three days. But he spake, as St. John records, of the temple of his body, of himself and all who by faith and baptism were incorporated into him.
Let us pray that we will remain stedfast in continuing to uphold the same faith as those first disciples, St. Peter and St. John, in our own time and place.
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