Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 

John 20:1-3

In this passage, John starts to zoom in on Mary Magdalene, even though the other gospels make it clear that there was more than just one woman at the tomb at the start of the first day of the week. But there’s a reason John does this, that becomes clear later in the chapter.

You can imagine Mary Magdalene’s emotional trauma. She expected to find Jesus at the tomb but now it looks like there have been grave robbers. How horrific. No wonder she takes off running.

I’m sure by this stage, Mary feels like she’s at her wit’s end. She’s followed Jesus and seen that he was arrested and taken through a sham trial. Now he’s been murdered and she’s watched on as a loyal supporter. She comes, understandably, to pay her respects to her revered leader only to discover he’s missing.

She smells foul play and whilst the word ‘they’ doesn’t appear to refer to anyone in the passage, one can only assume that she thinks that the Jewish leaders have decided that apparently things weren’t bad enough already, they needed to make things worse.

I remember in a presentation I gave at Bible College a couple of years ago, I questioned whether anyone had ever done a psychometric assessment of the Sanhedrin. I was referring to their behaviour in the book of Acts. But that behaviour is just a continuation of the dark and manipulative bullying they engage in, in the gospels.

Jesus’ death and resurrection appears to have had no impact on their mode of operation. You’d think it would but some people aren’t open to hearing the truth.

Fortunately Mary and Peter and the ‘other disciple’ were open to knowing the truth, so they ran to the tomb. And ran straight away.

That’s something that strikes me about the main players in this scene. They don’t dilly-dally. They get straight on with responding and taking action. In this passage, the action is predominantly running but that’s obviously just so they can get themselves into position to investigate what has happened.

It makes me question my response to Jesus’ resurrection. Sure, this is the first realisation that something unexpected has happened. And Mary and the other women haven’t quite got their facts straight yet – but can you blame them?

Still, confused as they are, they continue to respond with love and emotion as befitting their Lord, that they had been with and supported throughout his ministry.

And I have to ask myself – am I the same?

How quick am I to respond to Jesus when he delivers the unexpected? How quick am I to continue obeying even when I’m confused? How much do I still follow when I’m not sure whether there is still anyone to follow?

Would it be that we imitated Mary and the disciples in this passage, in our swiftness to respond to God.

Yours with a psychometric testing kit,

Alison