John 20:3-11a (NIV)
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying.
Mary Magdalene had brought the news that Jesus’ body had been taken away, and after only a moment, both Peter and John had rushed off to the garden tomb outside the city wall to see for themselves. They were both running, but John, in a small point of pride, points out that he outran Peter and got to the tomb first.
To touch or enter a tomb or come into contact with a dead body would make a person ceremonially unclean for seven days. To become clean, they also had to undergo two ceremonial washings with the water of purification on days three and seven (Numbers 19:11-13). So, when John came to the tomb, he stood outside the door and just stooped down to look in, carful to not touch the rock face. Peter, on the other hand, arrived a few seconds after John and strode right into the tomb, determined to check things out for himself. And, with a shrug, John followed him in.
There was the slab with the grave clothes lying empty. In addition, the cloth that Joseph and Nicodemus had passed under Jesus’ chin and tied over His head to keep His mouth closed was folded up and laid on the slab apart from the rest of the pieces of linen. John indicates that the two disciples saw the empty cloths and believed. But all that they believed at that time was that the body was no longer in the tomb. John carefully notes that they did not yet grasp that Jesus had risen from the dead.
As they left the tomb to walk back to town to tell the others, they passed Mary Magdalene, who had followed them back there. There was nothing they could say by way of explanation. They simply nodded their heads solemnly to confirm the absence of the body, shrugged their shoulders helplessly, and walked past her, leaving her weeping at the empty tomb.
Father, knowing “the rest of the story,” it is tragic that Peter and John left so soon. If they had stayed just a few moments longer, they would have seen the risen Jesus Himself when he came back to the tomb and talked to Mary. But they had news that they believed couldn’t wait, so they left. How often do we behave similarly and, in our lack of patience, miss out on what You are doing where we had been just moments before! Give us patience, Lord, so that we don’t move away from where You are working before You are done, so that we can see the whole scope of what Your hand has accomplished. Amen.
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