Easter Sunday Gospel C

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. 

· She had come to finish the burial ritual of anointing the dead body of Jesus, since, because of the Sabbath, they could not do at the time of his burial.

So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him."  

· Her immediate reaction to the empty tomb was someone has broken in and stolen the body. How often we jump to an apparent logical conclusion without realizing that God may have moved in a different way?

So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. 

· The other disciple is probably John the author of the Gospel, also the “beloved” disciple.

· Why do you think the other disciple didn’t go into the tomb first? Was it because of his respect for his elder?

When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.

· A clue that something other than the theft of the body was the fact that the cover for the head was rolled up neatly and placed separately from the burial cloths.

 Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.  For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead. 

· The beloved disciple saw, believed but did not understand. What does this mean to you? Have there been times you believed in something or someone but did not fully understand what was happening?

· Did the disciple had to see before believing? Or did he believe that something miraculously happened without understanding or connecting Jesus= prophetic statement about his resurrection from the dead?

· They saw evidenced of an empty tomb but failed to remember that Jesus had told them both about his death and his resurrection on the third day.

· According to the Law it was necessary that there would be two witnesses to any event to bear weight or to give evidence. Their initial

· The theme of believing in Jesus is a major emphasis in John’s Gospel.

· There were three signs given to the disciples to lead them to know what had really happened: (a) Jesus had previously prophesied that he would die and rise again on the third day; (b) the tomb was empty; (c) The head piece was folded neatly and the burial cloth was there as if a body had been under it at one time. It wasn’t crumple up in corner. If someone had stolen the body they would have kept it wrapped in the burial cloth. They saw two of the signs but failed to recall the third.  How often we too fail to recognize the signs God gives us?

· Other reflections about the reading.