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Context No. 1082 of 4322 · John

Context · Reflection

John 20:1-10: in context

1Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went early, while it was still dark, to the tomb, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2Therefore she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have laid him!” 3Therefore Peter and the other disciple went out, and they went toward the tomb. 4They both ran together. The other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. 5Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he didn’t enter in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and entered into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying, 7and the cloth that had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself. 8So then the other disciple who came first to the tomb also entered in, and he saw and believed. 9For as yet they didn’t know the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10So the disciples went away again to their own homes.

It is still dark on the first day of the week when Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb and finds the stone rolled away. She runs to tell Peter and the beloved disciple, they have taken the Lord and we do not know where they laid him. The two disciples race to the tomb; the beloved disciple, arriving first, stoops and sees the linen cloths but does not go in. Peter, coming behind, goes straight in and sees the cloths, and the head-cloth folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple enters too, and he saw and believed, though they did not yet understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise.

A small, strange detail carries a large weight: the grave-cloths lying there, and the head-cloth rolled up by itself. If the body had been stolen, as Mary first assumed, no thief would unwrap it and leave the cloths neatly behind; you do not steal a corpse and tidy up. The linen lying where the body had been, and the head-cloth deliberately folded, told a different story to the disciple who looked, a story not of theft but of resurrection, of a body that had passed out of its wrappings and left them behind like an empty cocoon. He saw the evidence, and he believed, even before he understood the scriptures that explained it. And there is honesty in the closing note, that they did not yet grasp that he had to rise; belief came first, from seeing the folded cloths, and understanding followed. It reminds us that faith often begins with a glimpse of evidence we cannot yet fully explain, a stone rolled away and cloths left folded, and grows into understanding afterward. He saw and believed; the understanding caught up later.

Am I waiting to understand everything before I believe, when the beloved disciple saw the folded cloths and believed first, and understanding followed?

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