Peter is joined by John and, with Mary, they were go to the tomb. John ran on ahead. The tomb was built into the ground with a low door so that the disciple had to bend down, and then look down into it.
He sees lying there, not strewn around, strips of linen, shroud-like sheets, the linen grave-cloths.
Peter was behind him, went into the tomb and saw what John had seen.
The burial cloth - The sudarium (Latin) is a small towel for personal use, used to wipe the face. The sudarium was not lying with the linen sheets but was folded up beside the linen. (note the details)
John saw and believed because of what Jesus had said. They still did not understand the prophecies from the scriptures. Mary stayed crying outside. It was bad enough that he had died and in such a manner. But now his body had gone. Later on Mary announced to the disciples. "I have seen the Lord!"
This story is so well known, so powerful, that we forget its dilemmas.
For many today it is a pleasant story and nothing else.
For others it is a story constructed retrospectively to explain the
death of Christ.
For others still it portrays as accurately as possible eyewitness accounts of some very strange events including angels and a man who is risen from the dead and very soon after disappears.
There remains the problem of the body....if he just died where was the body? In close knit communities bodies just don't disappear.
And there is the problem of history....the story has been powerful enough to inspire belief for nearly two thousand years.
To accept that life is a mystery, to believe in God in any way is to entertain resurrection. Life is an open situation like the empty tomb, with potential, charged with possibility. Not linear. This is what the
Christian life is like. It is full of the possibility of resurrection...
The empty tomb gives us no neat answers. The women and the disciples soon after were confronted with the disturbing reality of a risen Jesus before them with a gaping hole in his side, a ghost that ate fish. Can you imagine how they must have felt! No wonder Thomas wants to put his head in his hands and said "I don't believe it."
We do not have their experience. We have their story and our own experiences. We can walk a tight rope between talking jibberish and acknowledging what is true for us concerning the resurrection.
We know enough to just keep us going...enough to believe the story.
