In the Gospel of John, which is abundant in theology, various highlights, and simply moving encounters, the Resurrection account is raised up as the apex of the Gospel writer’s brilliant portrayal of Jesus’ life and mission to make the Father known. (1:18) The Resurrection story takes into account all of what has been said previously in the Gospel and sums it up in three stories, three stories of encounter. John describes the encounters of Jesus with Mary Magdalene, Peter, the Beloved Disciple, and Thomas the Twin. With each person the Lord comes into relationship with, we learn, a little more clearly, the nature and purpose of Christ: “the light of men.” (1:4) Mary Magdalene is the first person spoken of in John’s resurrection account. He begins: “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark.” Many things can be gleaned simply from this first phrase. R. Allan Culpepper, in his book, The Gospel and Letters of John, points out that by having Mary come alone, instead of in a group of women, as portrayed in the synoptic writer’s accounts, John continues his gospel-long focus on one individual and their intimate encounter with Jesus. He provides examples such as Nathanael, Nicodemus, the woman at the well, Mary and Martha, and Lazarus. John provides the setting as dark, reprising the recurring theme of light and darkness throughout the Gospel. What does the author mean to convey here? Does the darkness speak of the state of the world as the redeemer sleeps the sleep of death, or does he simply wish to employ a literary tactic to reveal to us the state of Mary’s heart, weeping for her Lord? (20:13) In his commentary on the Gospel, Adrienne von Speyr reflects on this theme of darkness and writes: “That is an allusion to the penitent nature of her work. But love motivates her to this penance.”
Mary seeks her Lord because she has been redeemed by her Lord. She is an image of what the Church will do for centuries after her. She has a right to seek him, a right to know where he is: she no longer is a slave to sin; she is the bride of the almighty. “She possesses the watchfulness of the bride…it is no coincidence that she is the first to appear at the tomb”. (Speyr) In this, the Bride of Christ, the Church today, seeks out her buried Lord every Easter Vigil. She is the first to welcome her Lord at the door of his empty tomb.
When Mary first runs to the Apostles to tell them of trouble at the tomb, it is Peter and the Beloved Disciple who run there to investigate. The two disciples run but the Beloved is the first to reach the tomb. He waits for Peter and does not enter. This obviously shows a respect that the Beloved has for Peter and gives a clue as to Peter’s place within the nascent Church. It is Peter who must first enter and examine the evidence. Peter sees what the Beloved does not see. Peering in from the doorway, the Beloved only saw the linen cloths. Peter, entering in, witnesses the linen cloths lying but sees the napkin rolled up in a place by itself. This arrangement shows a “valuing and esteeming for the head which is inappropriate for the Body.” (Speyr) It is an image of the value and esteem just shown him by the Beloved as the head of the Apostles.
After deferring to Peter, the Beloved enters and John describes his experience simply by saying: “He saw and believed.” (20:8) “He is the only character in the New Testament who believes in the Resurrection merely because of the physical evidence of the tomb.” (Culpepper) This moment of belief finishes a sort of “paschal discipleship” of the Beloved. He follows the Lord to his trial from the Garden of Gethsemane, remains under the Cross with the Lord’s mother and now, after witnessing the physical evidence of the empty tomb, believes the word Christ had spoken.
After witnessing the displaced stone and retrieving Peter and the Beloved Disciple we witness the moving scene of Mary’s encounter with the risen Lord. She stands weeping at the empty tomb, not knowing where the Body of her Lord has been taken. Mary weeps because she seeks her love but cannot find him. She does not seek him alone, however. He is there helping her, though she doesn’t know it. Christ is always present to those who seek him, even though the soul seeking him may not know it or even not recognize him as Mary didn’t when she called him the Gardener. Christ always remains the Good Shepherd, though, who calls us by name, thus revealing himself and his love for us.
Mary reaches out to grasp at Jesus but Jesus cannot be held. As he explains, he is ascending to the Father. He cannot be held to Earth. As he tells the disciples, he must ascend so he can send down the counselor. His work is not yet complete until he returns to the Father with the marks of redemption. The time of everlasting companionship with him has not yet come.
Later in the evening, the Lord appears finally to all the disciples. He gives them his peace and breathes the Holy Spirit upon them. Yet one is missing. Thomas, the Twin, as John calls him, is not present with the twelve and when they proclaim to him the Good News of the Lord’s Resurrection he will not believe, thus shedding a very poor light on himself.
What Thomas requires for belief, however, is commendable. He desires interaction with his friend. He wants to see his face and embrace him, he wants an experience of Jesus, and this is a desire worthy of praise. Yet even more than a simple experience of Jesus, Thomas wants to experience his redemption in Jesus. He doesn’t want to simply see the marks, the evidence of his freedom won by Christ on the cross; he wants to delve into them, to go as a free man to the place where the man of sin had scared the Lord’s body. He wants to approach the beating heart of the Lord where the price of sin had opened a doorway. Thomas’ desires are exemplary, he desires the Lord as did Mary, but Thomas cannot be content with mere sight.
The Lord answers Thomas’ challenge and arrives again, one week later and offers Thomas his side. The author does not say whether Thomas actually placed his hand in the wounds of Christ but only supplies Thomas’ beautiful answer; an exclamation of joy: “My Lord and My God!”
John’s arrangement of these first encounters with our Lord are carefully planned out to describe the belief that the Church is called to seek in the Risen Lord.
Beginning with Mary, the woman freed from sin and become bride, John sets the stage: we are Mary; we are the Bride seeking her Lord. Peter and John are not given a vision of Christ, only evidence of his work. They believe, but they do not know the risen Christ because they do not know the Scriptures. They go “back to their homes.” (20:10)
Mary seeks Jesus as well, but when he comes she does not recognize him, he is the “gardener” one who may even have taken Christ from her. As Jesus reveals himself to her she greets him as Teacher and goes to embrace him, thus revealing still some blindness as to who Jesus is now. He is not simply “Teacher,” “The death and resurrection of Jesus had put an end to the familiar relationships of human life.” (Hahn, Mitch, Ignatius Study Bible) As John states in the Prologue, Jesus is God (1:2). Mary rejoices in her Lord but John’s project is not yet complete, he wants to proclaim Jesus as God, ending the Gospel how he began it.
Finally, Thomas seeks belief in the Lord as the other three had. To complete the process of post-resurrection revelation John gives Thomas the most complete experience of Christ. Peter and the Beloved only had the evidence of the tomb. Mary had the vision but no physical interaction. Thomas, one may conjecture, reached in and touched the Savior’s very heart. His experience is the most complete and contains all others. All three scenes are replayed by analogy to show that this is the crowning moment; this is the point at which Jesus’ majestic sovereignty is displayed. For Peter and the Beloved, it was witnessing the power of Jesus to not be bound by the grave. Jesus walks through locked doors and is not held bound to them just as the linen burial cloths and the stone could not hold him. For Mary it was the word of greeting that enabled her to see and believe. Jesus enters and greets them with the Easter Word: “Peace.” Now Christ completes the work of these acts and calls Thomas to touch him, to communicate with him in a physical way. This calls forth the most complete act of belief. Now Jesus is proclaimed as God.
As we move through the Easter Season let’s remember that we can also experience these three moments of the Risen Lord when we go to Mass. As Church we proclaim that we are not held bound by the tomb of sin, we break through during the penitential rite as a people free from sin and death. In the Liturgy of the Word we see the risen Lord but it is limited to his spoken greeting to us. Finally, in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, Christ reaches in and touches our hearts, we experience him in a physical way and exclaim with Thomas, “My Lord and My God!”
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