Year 8, Day 268: John 20

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I find people’s reactions to the resurrection very interesting.  Some are predictable. Others are emotionally driven.  Some are rather ordinary.  What’s neat is that nobody is the same.

Mary comes to the tomb first.  Look at her reaction.  She runs away and goes and gets help.  Specifically, she turns to Peter.  She doesn’t understand, so she turns to someone else to help try and make sense of the situation.

Peter, and the disciple that Jesus loved – who I think is Lazarus, runs to the tomb.  Peter arrives second, but he goes into the tomb first.  The two disciples see the linen clothes and assess the situation.  They don’t understand.  At the same time, everything seems to be in order.  They head off to their homes, content in their seeing but not perceiving.

Mary now turns to the garden and starts to cry.  She ran for help, but the help she got wasn’t much help at all.  She stands, weeping.  She spots more people near where she is crying and begins to ask.  In all of her emotion, Mary is at least still trying to seek the truth.  Jesus meets her and tells her to go back to the disciples – who, mind you, are still headed back home – and give them further instruction.

Jesus then appears to a gathering of His disciples.  We are told in other gospels that they were afraid, fearing that they were seeing a ghost.  In John’s gospel, we are simply told that Jesus shows them the wounds of the crucifixion.  They are pacified and accept the reality of the resurrection.  It all seems so humdrum and normal with the disciples.  Of course, they probably have already heard from Mary that she saw Jesus.

Unfortunately, Thomas is not with them.  Thomas’ reaction is interesting.  He stubbornly declares that unless he gets the same experience he will not believe.  I personally think that this has more to do with his stubbornness – or perhaps jealousy – than his actual faith.  After all, if the people you are closest to tell about a common experience, you tend to believe them.  But Thomas wants the experience for himself.  Rather than celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, he digs in his heels and puts on a great pout.  Naturally, though, Jesus meets him where he is and gives him the experience that he wants.

Look at these reactions.  We have people who take the events in stride.  We have emotional people.  We have pouters and disbelievers.  Humanity’s reaction to the resurrection is as varied as there are people to hear about it.  What I love, though, is that Jesus meets people where they are.

To Mary, He meets her amidst her tears.  To Peter and the other disciple, He sends Mary into their normalcy.  To Thomas, He gives him what he wants.  The death and resurrection changes our relationship with God.  While it also changes us, it does it far more incrementally and gradually.  Jesus meets us where we are before beginning the process of effecting change within.

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