Not Here

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” And they remembered His words, and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened. Luke 24:1-12


The first day of the week. Sunday morning. The Sabbath was over, and the women could get on about their spicing and perfuming of Jesus' body. They thought they could, but He was not there. The stone had been rolled away (a large, round stone, shaped like a wheel), so they entered, but found no body. Well, this is strange!

What they did find were two men, dazzling bright, and of course being frightened, they hid their faces. The angels chided them. "You should not have expected to find a body here. He is risen. Remember, He told you all about this." The women did remember, now that it was mentioned. They all must have been so shocked by His torture and death that all these things He said had left their consciousness. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and other women who had been with Jesus throughout His ministry had heard all of His teachings, just as the Twelve had. Obviously, the Twelve had forgotten it, too, or just couldn't grasp the reality of it.

The women hurried back to the other friends and followers of Jesus and reported all they had seen and heard. The apostles scoffed at them ("silly, emotional women! Who could believe such things?"). Well, a silly, emotional man, for one. Peter may not have completely believed them, but apparently he thought it was worth investigating. SOMETHING clearly was out of the ordinary at that tomb. He RAN to the tomb and looked in. There was no body in there. But there were linen wrappings there, where a body had been, and in perfect order. Anyone taking that body would have taken it wrapped, or if they took the time to unwrap it, the cloths would have been strewn around, not in the original shape as these were found.

The last we saw of Peter, he was weeping bitterly in the streets of Jerusalem. This may not be full recovery, but at least he was back to his normal response mode: emotional, impulsive, and open to evidence. And utterly astounded by what he had just seen.