04/05/2026
We invite you to join us as we walk through the Gospel of John and consider our own places in that story. Today (Easter Sunday, April 5th), we complete our Lenten journey by reading John 20:1-18:
“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her.”
Ponder: When Jesus’ dear friend Mary Magdalene went to the tomb on that Sunday morning, she was obviously searching for something. (Perhaps consolation or comfort? Perhaps validation or connection? Perhaps a bit of closure?) To the gospel-writer John’s telling, the real shock of Easter comes not in the disciples’ discovery of the empty tomb, but in Mary’s grand reversal. The first time she goes to the tomb, she goes looking for something to make sense of what has happened – and leaves with more confusion and discomfort than ever. The second time she goes to the tomb (back again with Peter and ‘the other disciple’), she is mired in even more confusion and grief than ever ... until something very particular happens — Jesus speaks her name. Hearing her name spoken by Jesus is when the 'news' of Easter actually becomes 'good news' for her. As you go about your day today, listen for the voice of the Risen One speaking your name amid the broken circumstances of daily life.
