Luke 24:1-12
Dear Friends,
All the resurrection stories are very challenging. They are an invitation into the Mystery of Christ Crucified and Christ Risen. The information of the story, its content, has to be embraced not only in the mind but in a heart. The empty tomb answers the hunger in our heart. It addresses the deep and befuddling questions of our life.
In today’s story, we have in Peter a man searching for salvation, for deliverance. Just a few short hours earlier, he slept while Jesus agonized about is coming Passion and Death. Then Peter’s denial “I do not know the man!” was a total rejection of all his time and commitment to Jesus.
As he ran to the tomb, no doubt, Peter’s mind and heart captured the human journey that is part of all of our experience. The hearing of Jesus’ call and then the commitment to walk with Jesus captured the initial enthusiasm. Then the increasing challenge to believe in the context of life’s growing burden and confusion led to the questioning of Jesus and finally the denial. Now, as he ran to the tomb his heart was open to a new beginning.
In today’s passage, we are given a powerful insight about discipleship, Peter’s and ours: God never gives up on us!
At the Tomb, the messengers of God, dressed in white, tell the women, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” (Lk 24:5-6)
The women carried the message, in all its wonder, challenge and confusion to the disciples. Peter takes off in this bewilderment to search the depth of the message. Soon enough, the deepest hope was soon to be fulfilled. Not only has Jesus risen, but Peter was to be accepted in all his brokenness in the loving arms of his gracious God.
Jesus has not given up on Peter and the disciples. Their failure to grasp his message, their desertion at the time of the Passion and Death, does not call forth the wrath of a vengeful God. On the contrary, we are presented with a faithful and forgiving and ever so patient God. Indeed, the reality is God did not give up on the disciples and especially Peter. Nor will God ever give up on us.
In Peter’s running to the tomb we have an invitation to enter into the Gospel message with new eyes of faith. It is a call for us to truly understand the words of Jesus to take up our cross and follow Him to Jerusalem. It is an invitation to face up to death in all its manifestations, great and small. God has spoken with the ultimate authority in our human reality. The last word is not death but life, not defeat and hopelessness, but victory that unveils a graciousness and a sense of hope in all our darkest moments. God has not given up on us!
We need to return to Galilee and encounter God’s word in Jesus with new eyes opened by the certainty of the Resurrection. It is, indeed, a long journey to learn that there is victory in defeat. It is better to serve than to be served. Now we grasp that the first shall be last and the last first and to save our life we need to lose it! Alleluia!
