Feast of Saint John, Apostle and evangelist

Lectionary: 697

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.

Amid the wonder of Jesus' resurrection and the disciples' race to the empty tomb, there may be a bit of humor: "the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first."

He was also the one who "saw and believed."

We could not say of either disciple, "he understood." The one who arrived first "got it" but could not say what he had. He understood enough not to go in first.

"I'll let my superior do that!' he might have said, as I often do when I meet a situation bigger than me. "That's beyond my pay grade."

And Peter did go in first, with "the other disciple" trailing behind.

That unnamed disciple is you and me. We call him "John" but he is a literary device the Evangelist uses to place you and me within the gospel, mystified, aware, devout and privileged. We don't understand and don't pretend to understand what has happened here on Easter Sunday or Christmas Day. 

I see a bit of humor because it falls to Peter to try to explain what they found when they arrived at the tomb. They didn't find anything! Now what's that supposed to mean? The tomb was open; the body was gone; the burial cloths were rolled up in a separate place. Does that mean something?

John knew what it meant, as you and i understand. The Lord has been raised from the dead!

But what does that mean?

It means -- to use the phrase of the Irish poet Yeats -- "a terrible beauty is born." Our lives will never be the same. The world must come to terms with this in all its dimensions: religious, political, economic, social and so forth. This incident must saturate and illuminate every facet of human, animal, vegetable, and mineral life. The universe must know about it.

John knew that, though he could not explain it.

We know it, though there are so many ways in which we'd rather not.

Eventually, understanding and clarity will come. We'll never grasp the "fact" of his resurrection entirely. It is beyond comprehension. But we'll allow this Good News to change us day by day, and through us to change our world. This enlightenment will penetrate the dark places in my reluctant, suspicious heart even as it overcomes the fears, resistance, and refusals of the nations. The resurrection of Jesus, like the light of a star, is not seen instantaneously throughout the universe. It arrives in time and changes everything in God's time.

We -- the privileged, the blessed -- see and believe what we cannot yet understand.