Read John 20:1-18 .
The most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16. “ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” The rewards are for those who believe.
In today’s story, Mary wasn’t believed by many. Only by two: Peter and the beloved disciple – whom we understand to be John. Or maybe it wasn’t exactly believing at first. But they had a little faith. Enough faith to look into what Mary said. They wanted to see for themselves. Peter and John both ran to the tomb. Something stopped John from being the first to look inside, even though he was first to arrive. But when he did look in, he believed. How these three disciples helped each other! Mary gave the news. Peter boldly entered in. John reflected and reasoned, and thanks to him we have this story today.
But these eighteen verses don’t complete the story. This story started “while it was still dark”, and at verse 18, only one disciple has seen Jesus. God works with what faith we have – the little flame that needs to be fanned. Mary saw Jesus, but she didn’t recognise him. She only knew it was Jesus when he called her by name. Jesus found her in that dark place, and knew why she was there. And then Mary truly believed, and she did the job of an apostle, running to tell the others, “I have seen the Lord!”.
It’s not always easy to believe. The other disciples got to see Jesus personally, except for Thomas. That’s a story we usually save for next week. But we know that Jesus worked with Thomas, too. For Thomas, seeing was believing. For the other disciples, too! For us, we are blessed if we take that step of faith and believe, just on the word of Mary. There are blessings for those who can do that. Jesus said so (Jn 20:29), and John wrote his book for the same reason. The gospel was all so we can believe – and that, by believing, we may have true life – life in the name of Jesus (Jn 20:31).
Christ is risen! Hallelujah!
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