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. “As I was saying, we went and found an empty tomb where just two nights before we had laid Jesus. Did you hear what I said, Lizzie? It was empty! Nothing there. Nothing.”
Elizabeth stared at her friend. “Are you sure it was the right tomb?”
“Am I sure? What kind of question is that? Give me a little credit, will you? It’s not like I was the only one there. We went together, and Mary and I had been there just two nights before. 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 angels were at the empty tomb too, shining like lightning! They told us not to be afraid-Jesus was risen, just like he had said. I suppose you think the angels showed up at the wrong tomb too, huh?
“And 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! And what’s more, how many tombs in Jerusalem do you think had the remnants 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 just have pointed to the right one and said, ‘Ha! Proved you wrong! Here’s the body!’?”
Elizabeth threw up her hands. “I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to suggest anything so stupid.”
Unfortunately, Elizabeth isn’t the only one to make such a suggestion. Kirsopp Lake theorized that the women who reported the missing body of Jesus actually went to the wrong tomb. But, as Mary so strongly protested to Elizabeth in our “might have-been-said” conversation above, a fifteen-minute stroll from the palace of the high priest or the Roman fortress in Jerusalem down to the right tomb could have quickly shut up for all time any rumors of a resurrection.
But that didn’t happen, of course. That’s because it was Jesus’ tomb the women had found. And they found it empty.
REFLECT: What do you think about the theory that the disciples couldn’t find the tomb where Jesus was buried?
PRAY: Jesus stepped out of that tomb so he could step into your life with resurrection Life and power. Give him thanks today for his life in you.
