Bible Reading: Matthew 28:1-10

I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He has been raised from the dead, just as he said would happen. Matthew 28:5-6

“I’m telling you, Lizzie, it was the strangest thing! It was me and the other Mary and . . . let’s see … Salome and . . . give me a minute, I’ll remember—” “Will you get on with it!” Elizabeth urged.

“All right, all right,” Mary said. “We found an empty tomb where just the night before we had laid Jesus. Lizzie, it was empty! Nothing there.”

Elizabeth stared at her friend. “Are you sure it was the right tomb?”

“If we were at the wrong tomb, don’t you think one of us might have figured it out? How stupid do you think we are?

“And what about the angels? I didn’t tell you about them, did I? They were at the empty tomb too, shining like lightning! They told us not to be afraid—Jesus was risen, just like he said he would be. I suppose you think the angels showed up at the wrong tomb too, huh?”

“I didn’t mean anything by it, I just—”

“And while you are calling me stupid, you might as well call Peter and John stu­pid too. After all, I ran to tell them, and they ran straight to the empty tomb! They beat me back there! And what’s more, how many tombs in Jerusalem do you think had the leftovers of a broken seal?”

“Well, I. . . I—”

“And what about the chief priests and the guard? Don’t you think they knew which tomb was the right one? If we went to the wrong tomb, wouldn’t they have just pointed to the right one and said, ‘Ha! Proved you wrong! Here’s the body!’?”

Elizabeth said, “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to suggest anything so stupid.”

Unfortunately, Elizabeth isn’t the only one to make such a suggestion. A guy named Kirsopp Lake argued that the women actually went to the wrong tomb. But, as Mary so strongly protested to Elizabeth, all it would have taken was a fifteen-minute stroll from the palace of the high priest or the Roman fortress in Jerusalem down to the right tomb to quickly shut up for all time any rumors of a resurrection.

But that didn’t happen, of course. Because it was Jesus’ tomb the women had found. And they found it empty.

TALK: How ridiculous is the theory that the disciples couldn’t find the tomb where Jesus was buried?

PRAY: Jesus, we’re glad you are alive. Thanks that you live in us.

ACT: Why does it matter to you that Jesus stepped out of that tomb? Explain it to a friend.

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