Sometimes the Lord/Holy Spirit puts something on the heart and will not leave you alone until to do it.  So pardon any typos, grammar errors, because it is late but I could not go to bed before I did this.

A Not So Brief Reflection on Easter Sunday’s Gospel

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. (John 20:1-9)

What does this mean? As John writes they did not understand. Do we understand?
What did it show them? Well first to those who went to the tomb they saw the body was indeed gone. Did they understand completely. Probably not because as we read on in scripture there are a number accounts of Jesus appearing to the 12 and reinforcing his teaching. There are accounts of their minds being opened.

This empty tomb, this absence of the body of the one killed on the cross and placed “in the heart of the earth” is actual tangible, proof of the truth of what Jesus said as recorded in Matthew 12; 39-40 He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful 28 generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, 29 so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” And so indeed He was and like Jonah was vomited up on a beach after his three days and nights, “this Son of Man” fulfilled his prophesy about Himself. If that is true, then we know that there is a high probability that all the rest of the things He stated about Himself must also be true.
He demonstrated the truth of his proclamation as recorded in John 10:17-18: “This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. 8 This command I have received from my Father.” He shows He has the power over life and death. Death cannot hold Him.

It means Jesus in fact has the power to give to those who follow Him “eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:28-29) It shows that He and God the Father are one. (John 10: 30) Since God the Father has all power over life and death (2 Kings 5:7) and Jesus and the Father are one, then Jesus also as the Son of God has power over life and death thereby giving Him the ability to lay His life down and to take it up again.

By rising again, He proves that the ruler of the world (Satan) has no power over Him (John 14:30). Satan is the Father of sin and death. So, it is written that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).” This is validated by the empty tomb.
Jesus also told those who followed Him “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be (John 14:1-3).” We believe that place He prepared for is a life of eternal peace and joy. This truth as well is validated by the empty tomb.

Maybe we are like the apostles who look in and fail to fully understand what they have seen and what they have been told by Mary as recorded in other Gospels. Maybe when we first encounter Christ in some way and we study His promises recorded for us ins scripture, we too have our doubts and confusion. Apostles who came to the tomb and failed to understand fully, but as they remained faithful, as they carried out His command to go to Galilee and eventually into the whole world they started to understand the truth of what He taught.

They were given understanding after the resurrection when He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them, “Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” And He did, and so did the apostles preach His name to all the nations.

Strengthened by the truth of His words, emboldened by the Holy Spirit, these flawed, once scared very human beings carried out the commandment to carry the story of salvation, the good news to the ends of the earth.

We know the tomb is empty.  So we shout  ALLELUIA .  We see the work wrought by the foundation laid down by the Apostles and what has been accomplished by those who have come afterwards.  We say Thanks Be to God.

This commission is now ours to keep. Maybe we to lack understanding, but we are to persevere in faith. Maybe we too lack courage but we have the written records of what flawed, frightened men and women did once they became acquainted with the risen Lord. In our case such encounters are available to us through His word, through prayer, through our brothers and sisters who are more mature in faith, and through the Sacraments most especially through the Holy Eucharist.

So, to the question why did He do all of this? He could have just resurrected Himself and returned to the Father. The answer is profound a simple. HE LOVES US AND DESIRES THAT WE SPEND ETERNITY WITH HIM.

The fact He went into the tomb and even more importantly He left the tomb empty today is a very powerful statement of that love.

Let me conclude this with the words of Pope St John Paul II:
“It is clearly evident that Christ’s resurrection is the greatest Event in the history of salvation, and indeed, we can say in the history of humanity, since it gives definitive meaning to the world. The whole world revolves around the Cross, but only in the resurrection does the Cross reach its full significance of a salvific Event. The Cross and Resurrection constitute the one paschal mystery in which the history of the world is centered. Therefore, Easter is the Church’s greatest Solemnity. Every year she celebrates and renews this Event, fraught with all the prophecies of the Old Testament, beginning with the “Protoevangelium” of the Redemption, and of all the eschatological hopes and expectations projected towards the “fullness of time”, which was realized when the Kingdom of God definitively entered human history and the universal order of salvation” (John Paul II, General Audience, March 1, 1989).

God Bless You All