A light shines in the darkness

In contrast to the Synoptic Gospels’ accounts of the resurrection, which begin at dawn, John’s account describes Mary of Magdala going to the tomb in the dark. As this narrative moves toward its triumphant conclusion, this dark setting contrasts with the Christology set out at the opening of this Gospel. “What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn 1:4-5).  When Mary arrives at the tomb in the dark and sees the stone rolled back, she comes to an inaccurate conclusion. Hurrying back to Peter, she says, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him” (Jn 20:2). In Mary’s assessment, someone has added insult to injury. Her premature appraisal displays a normal human reaction to what is difficult to understand. We, too, may encounter darkness in our struggle to understand the resurrection. How do we grasp this triumph over death, where Jesus who was dead rises to life?   How can we gain the light of understanding that replaces the darkness of Mary’s early assessment and, perhaps, our own? 

Throughout John’s Gospel, all attention has been fixed upon Jesus as the incarnation of the Word of God. As the resurrection story begins, however, the focus shifts to the faith development of the earliest believers and their community. Today’s Gospel narrates the first encounters with this salvific event and these followers’ struggle to understand. Upon Mary’s report, Peter and another disciple, often thought to be “the Beloved Disciple,” hurry to the tomb. The unnamed disciple, the first to arrive at the tomb, saw the burial clothes set aside but did not go in. When Peter arrived, he stepped inside, saw the folded burial clothes and noticed that the face cloth had been separated from the others. Such evidence likely led them to conclude that the body was not stolen because someone hurrying off with a corpse would not have taken such care. Moreover, the contrast with Lazarus, who had to be unbound when Jesus called him out of the tomb, may have suggested a different set of circumstances. Like ours, the disciples’ belief still was developing. While the Gospel tells us that when the Beloved Disciple did enter the empty tomb, he believed, but we don’t know what he believed. The account ends with a summary that these disciples “did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead” (Jn 10:9).   

At first, we might conclude that, after all, these three were not religious experts, high priests, or theologians. Of course, they could not have understood. Mary, Peter and the disciple were just regular followers of Jesus with rather mundane backgrounds. In fact, it initially may seem surprising that they would eventually be some of the first to grasp resurrection by their encounters with Jesus. Further, Mary is identified in Luke’s Gospel as the one “from whom seven demons had gone out” (8:2). With such a background and as a woman in that society, her eventual testimony that Jesus had risen would bear low credibility, if any at all. Peter, who often misunderstood Jesus’ teaching, was the one who denied knowing him three times during a conversation before his crucifixion and death. When the other disciple, though he may have been “beloved,  arrived at the tomb, he does not enter immediately, perhaps hesitating until Peter arrived to go in with him. Yet, as the accounts in Luke and Matthew report, these three individuals were among the first to encounter the risen Lord. That the light of understanding his resurrection eventually privileges all three of these disciples is especially noteworthy. It reminds us that, similar to all the people Jesus interacted with during his lifetime, access to him did not depend upon one’s moral background or virtuous makeup. Jesus always disregards our shortcomings and even our failures when we seek relationship with him or gain understanding of his resurrection. In the reading from Acts, we hear Peter, who now has evidently encountered the risen Lord. He witnesses that the resurrected Jesus has been made known to all of those present at that assembly and to all who believe in him. In addition, the community of faith we call church, founded on a risen Christ, has lasted for twenty centuries. This faith is based upon thousands of testimonies by believing witnesses upon whom light has dawned regarding the risen Lord.  

So how are we to understand the resurrection? Much as they did for these three disciples, individual encounters with Jesus occur gradually over time as we seek him in our lives. In addition, this gradual growth in understanding, fostered by our prayer life, reveals a dynamic reciprocity of relationship with the risen Jesus, one that enables us to grasp and witness his resurrection. Passionate divine love has shown itself as the sole instigator of this dynamism. Thus, resurrection’s great gift manifests as our on-going and deepening access to that same divine risen presence here and now that the disciples experienced long ago. So, let us pray to believe with renewed faith in the resurrection and in the light of the risen Christ. Let us pray that Christ’s life and light will open our hearts to encounter him this Easter and throughout this holy season. Amen, Alleluia!