John 20:1-10

John 20:1-10 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  I love that we know, two thousand years after the fact, that John was faster than Peter.  The little things, sprinkled throughout Scripture, bring the text to life.  We know that the face cloth was folded up, further evidence that Jesus walked out of the tomb on his own, because grave robbers wouldn't bother to stop and fold the face cloth.
  But it's so hard to wrap my mind around -- Jesus had been in the dark tomb, where death's domain was unshakable, and at one point, he sat up, folded the cloth, calmly waited for an angel to roll the stone away, and walked out, life and light firmly ruling the moment and announcing that things would never be the same again.
  Mary, whose devotion to Jesus never wavered, even upon his death, saw the pieces but couldn't grasp the entire story.  John and Peter saw, and John believed, but still didn't completely understand.  You and I, thousands of years later, are able to see many more of the facts, grasp how God was working towards this for centuries, and the truth of it now sits before us, within us, leading us onward and pointing us towards a future with hope.
  The question is, what sort of future do you want to have?  Will you let this truth define how you interact with your time and your gifts and your money?  Will the hope of resurrection crowd out the false hopes we often cling to?  Will the Truth of Jesus Christ expose the lies that consume much of our time and energy?  Will we love and serve selflessly because we trust in the fullness of God's power?