The Empty Tomb

It's still dark. A few women walk quietly through the cool morning air, carrying jars of spices. Nobody says much. They are going to a grave.

On Friday, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified outside Jerusalem. His friends scattered. As the sun went down on Friday, a man named Joseph of Arimathea laid his body in a new tomb cut into the rock, and a large stone was rolled across the entrance. Some of the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee watched where he was laid. Then came the Sabbath, the day of rest. They waited. Now, at first light on Sunday, they are going back to care for his body. On the way they worry. Who will roll the stone away for us?

They don't need to. When they arrive, the stone has already been rolled back. The tomb is open. And Jesus' body is not there. The Gospels each tell this moment in their own way. Matthew describes an angel, bright as lightning, sitting on the stone. Luke speaks of two men in dazzling clothes. But the heart of the message is the same. “Don't be afraid,” says the angel in Matthew. “He is not here. He is risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples.” And in Luke: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

The women run. Afraid and full of joy, all at once. They find the disciples and tell them everything. And the disciples don't believe them. It sounds like nonsense. But Peter gets up and runs to the tomb. John's Gospel says another disciple ran with him and got there first. They look inside. The linen cloths are lying there. The cloth that had been around Jesus' head is folded up, in a place by itself. No body. They go home, wondering what it all means.

Mary Magdalene stays behind in the garden, outside the tomb, crying. Through her tears she looks in, and sees two angels in white where the body had been. “Woman, why are you crying?” “They've taken my Lord away,” she says, “and I don't know where they've put him.” She turns around. Someone is standing there. She thinks he's the gardener. “Sir, if you've carried him off, tell me where, and I'll get him.” And he says one word. “Mary.” She knows that voice. She turns. “Rabboni!” Teacher. It's Jesus. Alive. He sends her to his followers with a message, and she runs to them. “I have seen the Lord!”

Matthew tells how Jesus also met the women as they hurried away. “Greetings,” he says. They fall at his feet and worship him. “Don't be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee. They will see me there.” And they do. On a mountain in Galilee, the disciples see him for themselves. Jesus tells them to go and make disciples of all nations. And he gives them a promise: “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Here's something that stands out. In all four Gospels, the first people to find the empty tomb are women. In that world, a woman's word counted for little in court. The Jewish historian Josephus, writing later in the first century, records that women were not accepted as witnesses. If someone were inventing a story to persuade people, this is not how they would tell it. The Gospels name the women anyway.

The empty tomb. You'll find it in Matthew 28, Luke 24 and John 20. Mary went looking for a body, and instead she heard her own name. So here's the question to sit with. If Jesus is alive, what difference does that make to your life today?