What if you had walked in on the ‘smoking gun’ of the resurrection? What if you smelled the scent of the freshest air you had ever breathed in the tomb of dead Man who was no longer there? What if you saw the impact marks of the Light that rolled back the stone on that morning of mornings. What if? How would you live your life from that moment on? Ever wondered? Read the writings of the Apostle John, and listen to a man utterly, completely, astoundingly convinced that his Beloved had both died and conquered the grave!
~ Makala Barnabas Doulos
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple (John), 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.” So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple (John) outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had 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.
~ John, having a very good day, in Chapter 20 of his gospel
Oh beloved, can you imagine?
You have just seen your best Friend tortured, beaten, hated, crucified and punished by and for the very weight of all sin in the world.
You were in the city as the sky darkened during mid day.
You were there when graves burst open and many holy people were raised from the dead.
You felt the distortion of space and time as G_d died.
You listened as the enormous veil in the temple tore itself asunder. And remember, this was no simple curtain, this was the final physical separation between mankind and the near Presence of the One who was, and is, and is to come. The tearing of this partition must have sounded more like the rending of a mountain, or the roaring of an ocean storm.
You were there when all the commotion went quiet.
You were with the disciples as the doubts and fears and concerns and panic began to rise from the gut and into the throats of those who had cast their lots in with the only One they thought was going to save them from the brutish “Pax Romana” storming across their land.
And you were there as you prayed – and heard absolutely nothing from the heavens gone silent for three days.
And then, suddenly in the voice of another dear friend, you hear a thread of hope! “He is no longer in the grave!”
What?
What were all those things He was saying about destroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days?
What was that passage in Psalm 16 again?
Why did He keep telling me He had set His face towards Jerusalem?
Oh my G_d!
And John runs to the tomb faster than than even his rambunctious buddy Peter. But, as he arrives, he realizes He is coming up on holy ground. Running is no longer necessary, because the hope is already beginning to burst forth from his soul and his spirit.
Oh my Lord and my G_d! What if it is true?!
So, Peter hammers past him into the holiest empty place on earth, and John comes to a stop to catch his breath. For He is about to dive into something that he just knows – really knows – is going to last forever.
And John looks into the tomb. And everything is different. It is all real. It is all true. He did it. HE Did It. HE DID IT!
He says, “Death is dead. And i, John, am alive forever.”
Oh what a day for this apostle. And oh what a day for us beloved! This John lived and slept by and smelled and heard and felt and sensed and walked with the One who is the Truth and The Way and The Life. He watched the entire story of The Christ’s payment for our sins unfold. And then he was there as there as the payment “cleared” the bank of heaven and the Payer swallowed up the debt in an infinite victory on our behalf.
This knowledge, coupled with the indwelling of the same Payer’s Spirit some fifty days later propelled this beloved apostle across multiple decades of leadership of the Church, and into the writings that have been the bedrock of the bedrock of our faith. They deal with the most simple and profound issues: Love and belief in the One at the center of the whole story.
This John then, even cast away, starving and cold and very old (for these things were no longer relevant to a man who had learned to Live on the Bread of Life, and that He need never be lonely, for his spirit was knit near to the One who had launched him into this journey) – wrote us the end of the story as revealed directly to Him by the same One who was not there on the day John first believed.
Can we see it? There may be days where it feels hard to believe all the astoundingly true things written in Scripture. And on those days, maybe it is best for us to lean into the witness of both The Spirit within us, and the witness of those who witnessed this whole thing first hand. For the ones who saw the story unfold, were never the same again.
And maybe, if we listen close enough, neither will we.
Amen!