Sunday, April 20, 2014

Sunrise Service Meditation

John 20:1-10 
Common English Bible (CEB)

   Early in the morning of the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 She ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him.”
  3 Peter and the other disciple left to go to the tomb. 4 They were running together, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and was the first to arrive at the tomb. 5 Bending down to take a look, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he didn’t go in. 6 Following him, Simon Peter entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there. 7 He also saw the face cloth that had been on Jesus’ head. It wasn’t with the other clothes but was folded up in its own place.
  8 Then the other disciple, the one who arrived at the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 They didn’t yet understand the scripture that Jesus must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to the place where they were staying.


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I love puzzles. I had to stop doing them, because Rachel got tired of being woken up at 3 am when I crawled into bed 4 hours after I promised I would finish once I got 'one more piece'. I have a hard time finding a good stopping point.
There's a certain moment in doing a puzzle in which you suddenly have enough pieces in place to have a clear picture of the end result. This moment often comes when you still have plenty of pieces left in the box, but enough have been placed that the jumbled chaos you began with now has a form and points clearly to what its final shape will be. Sometimes, if the puzzle is hard enough, this is enough. Other times, it is encouragement to press on to the finish.

In John's account of the resurrection, we come to a similar moment in verses 8-9. Mary has already been to the tomb and see the stone rolled away. Peter and John then rush out to the tomb, and when they arrive they come in to see the clothes on the ground and the head cloth neatly folded. John, we are told, is the first to believe in the truth of the resurrection, in the idea that Jesus Christ, who was brutally killed, has risen from the dead into new life. Verse 9, however, tells us that Peter and John still don't understand the scripture that Jesus must rise from the dead. They have seen enough to believe, but they still don't grasp the complete truth of what has occurred.

In a similar vein, you and I know enough to believe. We have the testimony of the Gospel writers, and we have the letters that comprise the remainder of the New Testament. We have the witness of the early church and 2,000 years of church history. We have the general revelation all around us and the ongoing work of Christ within us. We have enough knowledge to believe that what the Gospel says is true—that Jesus Christ is the perfect Son of our perfect God, and that he was crucified, buried and rose from the dead three days later. This we believe.

But we still don't have the puzzle completed. We have a box with all these pieces rattling around in it, filled with our questions about the resurrection and the world around us and about God himself. We are unsure of so many things, of the nature of heaven and what our resurrection bodies will look like. There is much we don't understand.

But let us not confuse complete understanding with belief. We may not know all the answers, and there are times when we have to throw our hands up and admit that we don't see the whole picture. One day we will. One day we, like the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, will look back and understand so clearly what has been happening these many years. It will all come into focus, and we'll realize what we had been missing.
But until that day, we can only believe. We have seen enough of the story to understand that God is bigger than death, that Christ has conquered the grave, and that God invites us into new life, a life that still includes death, but does not remain under its power. New life is available for all who believe, and let us rejoice this Easter morning because we see enough, Christ risen from the grave, to believe with heart, mind and soul that Christ is the one who can save us from sin and deliver us to new life in God!

Let us pray

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