HE SAW AND BELIEVED!

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him.'” John 20:1-3a NIV.

John’s story sounds so true-to-life, doesn’t it?

Mary Magdalene is so distraught about the death of her Master that she can’t sleep. She gets up before daybreak and hurries noiselessly through the dark streets of the city until she comes to the tomb. What is she going to do there? She probably doesn’t know. She just wants to be there one more time, to be near her beloved Master.

In the light of the full moon, as she nears the tomb she notices that something is amiss. Instead of the huge round stone sealing the entrance, it has been rolled away, leaving a gaping hole. She stops for a moment to assess the situation and then turns and runs, as fast as her legs can carry her, back to the city. Her first thought? ‘I must tell Peter! He’ll know what to do.’

With rasping breaths she gasps out her story. ‘He’s gone! They’ve taken Him away. I don’t know where He is.’ That’s all. The stone has been moved. Something’s wrong.  Without even going inside the tomb to check whether He is still there, the only conclusion she can come to is that His body has been stolen.

“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 he did not go it.

“Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple who 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 the others where they were staying.”  John 20:3b-10 NIV.

Peter and John wrap their cloaks around them and rush off to see what the woman is talking about. By this time it is beginning to get light. John, the younger man, outruns Peter and reaches the tomb first. The stone has been rolled away, just as Mary had said. He stops at the entrance, hesitant to go in. He bends down and peers into the gloom. As his eyes become accustomed to the dark, he sees something strange. The grave clothes are still lying there, intact but empty. The body has gone.

Peter arrives, panting and, true to character, goes straight into the tomb. He also sees empty grave clothes but sees something else even more puzzling. The cloth over Jesus’ face is lying, not with the grave clothes but by itself, almost as though the body had melted out of it, leaving it in place where the head had been.

John joins Peter in the tomb and stares at the strange sight. Slowly the truth begins to dawn on him. This is no act of grave robbers. No one can remove a body without disturbing the grave clothes. Why would they take the corpse and leave the burial cloths behind? He hears the echo of Jesus’ words in his mind, “…Rise again on the third day! …Rise again on the third day,” and at last it all begins to make sense.

Finally everything Jesus had told them fell into place and John believes. What a life-transforming experience! “He saw and believed!” The evidence is beyond dispute. He is an eyewitness to the most earth-shattering event in history. A dead man comes back to life as He had predicted. That can mean only one thing — everything else He had said was true.

Many people have made outrageous claims about themselves and their beliefs and, on the strength of those claims have started religious systems which others had devotedly followed. One thing is missing, though — the evidence. Jesus alone produced the proof that He is who He said He is, and that faith in Him is the only way to the Father.