Monday, April 6, 2026

Opening Scripture

While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee.” Luke 24:4-6

Opening Prayer

Gracious Father, as we consider our Lord’s victory over sin and death, our hearts are filled with joy and gratitude. Through the death and resurrection of your Son, you have delivered us from eternal darkness into eternal light. Renew our faith. Refresh our spirits. Help us live the Easter message of love, hope, and redemption this day as a witness to your transforming power. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Daily Bible Reading

John 20

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. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” 

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Reflection  

Today’s passage serves as the climax, not just of this gospel, but of human history. There is so much to share about this event that it’s impossible for one account to tell everything. We’re reminded that the four gospel writers had unique perspectives, styles, and audiences. As with the rest of their reporting, each one focuses on particular aspects of that first Easter morning.

Matthew tells us that, when Joseph and Nicodemus buried Jesus, Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” were sitting nearby watching. As such, they knew right where to go at daybreak on Sunday. Matthew identifies this other Mary as “the mother of James and Joses” (Matthew 27:56). Presumably, they had seen the large stone placed in front of the cave entrance, so what did they hope to find?

Mark adds that Salome was with the two Marys and that the group “brought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.” Luke simply says, “the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.” They planned for Jesus’ body to be there, though perhaps not how to access it. This all happened “very early,” meaning they likely set out in the dark and arrived at the garden as it began to get light.

While John mentioned several women who were at the crucifixion (including another Mary, the wife of Clopas), he focused on Mary, the mother of Jesus, since the Lord had entrusted her to his care. On Sunday morning, John focuses on Mary Magadelene, who Luke tells us “had seven demons cast out.”

Matthew adds that, before all of this, on the Sabbath, the religious leaders went to Pilate to ask that Jesus’ tomb be made secure. Interestingly, the chief priests remembered Jesus had said He would rise again after three days, but His disciples didn’t. Pilate agreed to put a royal seal on the tomb and post an armed guard to make it “as secure as you know how.” The Jewish leaders had finally managed to kill Jesus, and they couldn’t risk his disciples stealing the body and claiming a resurrection. As if they could stop it.

Matthew tells us there was a violent earthquake as an angel came down from Heaven. He rolled away the stone and sat on it, in all his radiant glory. “The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.” The angel removed the stone, not so Jesus could get out, but so that others could look in.

John tells us that Mary Magdalene found the stone rolled away and hurried to tell the disciples. We know John was just a regular guy because he had to mention that he outran Peter to the tomb. Everything is a competition! Peter arrived second, but (not surprisingly) was the first to go inside. When John followed him in, they found the burial cloths lying in place and Jesus’ body gone. “He saw and believed.”

Throughout this gospel, John has given us his personal experience of events – facts and feelings – including initial confusion and eventual clarity about the true meaning of things (typically grasped much later). That’s what happened here. Surely it was all overwhelming and confusing at the time.

Mary Magdalene and others followed Peter and John to the tomb, but when everyone else went home, she stayed behind. What came next was a powerful and personal encounter with Jesus. Though initially grieving and disoriented, Mary quickly realized to whom she was talking. His sheep know the sound of His voice.

Jesus explained to Mary that, even though He was alive and present again, the nature of His relationship with His followers would be different from now on. His death, resurrection, and imminent ascension were instigating a whole new reality. Mary hurried back to the disciples a second time to tell them that she had seen and spoken with Jesus.

That night, the group was hiding behind locked doors, trying to make sense of everything. If the religious leaders could kill Jesus, wouldn’t they now come for His followers, too? Jesus had told them to expect as much. Amid their fear and uncertainty, Jesus suddenly appeared. Without being let in. Was it really Him?

Jesus’ resurrected body could pass through walls, yet bore the scars from His crucifixion. Lest there be any confusion, Luke records Jesus saying, “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” Then, He ate a piece of broiled fish for good measure.

The disciples were overjoyed! Jesus speaks “peace” over them again, then recommissions them as His apostles. He “breathed on them the Holy Spirit” in anticipation of Pentecost, fifty days later. Their mission was to proclaim that the forgiveness of sin is now available by faith in Jesus’ atoning sacrifice. That apostolic preaching is prominently featured in the Book of Acts.

Thomas the Twin was absent from that Sunday night service. The group’s testimony seemed too good to be true, so he made a statement that earned him the nickname “Doubting Thomas.” Unless he touched Jesus’ scars, he couldn’t believe. The following Sunday night, the group was hiding behind locked doors again, and this time, Thomas was with them.

Jesus appeared once more and graciously invited Thomas to make good on his pledge. Overwhelmed by Jesus’ presence, Thomas could only confess, “My Lord and my God!” There was no need to touch the scars. Jesus then commends all who would later trust in Him through their testimony and the work of the Spirit (us!).

Today’s closing statement would have been an excellent ending to John’s Gospel, but there was another important matter that Jesus needed to address. We’ll look at that tomorrow.

Flourishing Habit

Meaning and Purpose

Easter changes everything! Jesus’ death and resurrection didn’t just alter the course of human history. It infused our life on Earth with incredible meaning and purpose, and it radically transformed our understanding of eternity.

Followers of Jesus no longer see death as an ending to be feared. It’s become a transition to be celebrated. Easter embodies the divine triumph of life over death! It enables us to live with confidence and purpose in accordance with God’s plan.

Our Pastor often refers to “inaugurated eschatology” – the now and not yet of God’s kingdom being established “on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus’ resurrection personifies the “new creation” of God’s redemption breaking into the world.

In How God Became King, N.T. Wright offers these thoughts. “The four gospels are well aware that this central contention about the kingdom’s arrival – that is, the claim that God was already king of the world and had become so in a dramatic new way through the work, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus – was highly paradoxical in their own context, as indeed it has remained so to our day… The kingdom was not, they insisted, arriving in the way people had imagined.

The resurrection scenes in John 20-21 are not about a heavenly existence, detached from this world, but precisely about new creation, the new Genesis arrived at last… The work of redemption is complete; now, with Jesus having been ‘glorified,’ having completed his work of rescuing his people, the Spirit can be given, and his followers can begin their own work. This is how… God’s kingdom will come on earth as in heaven.

Jesus’ followers were thereby commissioned and then empowered by the Spirit to announce to the world that there was a different way to be human.”

How are you living out your commission – empowered by the Spirit – to announce to the world that there is a new way to be human?

Remember: Nothing changes until something changes!