Good morning. Have a glorious Easter Sunday! Let’s look for a moment at what John said about Easter morning. Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. From the movie, the Passion of the Christ, I believe that it was a full moon, which was also part of what made it to be Passover. After all they did not have streetlights or flashlights. Notice that it does not say that she looked into the tomb (she probably couldn’t have seen anything at that time of the morning anyway). So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved (almost certainly John) , and said to them, “they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.“ She did not look inside, so she must have just assumed that His body was taken away. Other Gospels say that there was more than just Mary at the tomb that morning.  While John does not say that, the fact that Mary used the word “we” indicates that there was probably more than one. Peter and John run to the tomb. John, the younger one, gets there first, but does not go inside. He does stoop and look in. The same phrase is used in a few verses about Mary. Every time we see the tomb today, the entrance is the height of a person; but that was probably not the case. After all, it was hewn out of rock, and the tomb was probably only going to be used once, or perhaps a few times, if it were made for more than one person; so the entrance was probably not very high. John does not enter, but Peter (the bull in the china shop) rushes in... so the disciples went away again to their own homes. That’s an interesting phrase – I thought they were staying in the upper room. John never uses the phrase upper room. Mary arrives and also stoops and looks into the tomb. Now she sees the two angels. The other Gospels have the women seeing the angels at the very beginning of the day. Shortly, Jesus asks her why she is weeping and for whom is she seeking? She does not recognize that it is Jesus. Whether it is because her eyes are “blinded“ or because Jesus is standing in line with the rising Sun, we don’t know. Jesus tells her to go tell My brethren that I ascend to My Father and to your Father, and My God and your God. Have you ever wondered where Jesus was before He appeared to Mary? Think back to what happened at the Cross. His mother was standing there watching Him die. If you had been dead for three days and just rose again, where would you go? If I were the one, I would immediately go and tell my mother. We will leave it there. Good Friday came and went; but Easter Sunday is here forever!

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