All are invited to the Easter Sunday Service on Sunday, April 9 @ 10 am.

Rev. Marlene Notes:

“He saw and believed.” John 20:8

This week’s lectionary reading from John 20:1-11, is an amazing tale. Taken from John’s gospel, it is constructed as a story within a story. In the shorter reading, we first hear the outer story of Mary’s arrival at the tomb, and then the text shifts to the inner story, focusing on Peter and the Beloved Disciple at the tomb.

In the first half of the outer story, Mary of Magdala arrives at the tomb very early in the morning. We can only imagine her fright and alarm, when she sees that the tomb is open! She runs to find Peter and the Beloved Disciple to tell them the news that Jesus’ body has been taken from the tomb.

The inner story begins with the narrator  indicating that the Beloved Disciple arrives first, but waits for Peter to enter the tomb. This is an indication of the community’s acknowledgement of Peter’s authority in church leadership.

Both men see the burial clothes left behind, but it is the Beloved Disciple who “saw and believed.” The narrator adds, “for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” Believing and understanding are two separate things as understanding can take more time than belief.

It only seems fitting, that at the end of the story, after Mary encounters two angels and then a man, she mistakes for the gardener, but who is really Jesus; that Mary becomes the first true Apostle of the Resurrection. “I have seen the Lord,” she proclaims. By saying this, her faith has come full circle from believing to understanding.