It’s the Sunday morning after Jesus was hung on the cross and died. There had been no time to prepare the body for proper burial so He was kept in a secure tomb until after the Sabbath. The Sabbath rest was strictly observed – no work. And, so, Jesus’s body was placed in a temporary crypt belonging to Joseph of Arimathea.
Mary Magdalen arrived at the tomb early Sunday morning, planning to prepare the body for permanent burial. She sees the stone that had sealed the tomb rolled back and thinks that the body had been moved or worse, stolen. She hurries back to tell the apostles. Peter and John run to the sepulcher and find the tomb, empty. They are stunned. There is no body and the burial wrappings are neatly folded on a ledge. They return to tell the other disciples this startling news.
The disciples listen and are in great confusion, sad and angry that someone did this. It’s a desecration. Meanwhile Mary Magdalen starts to hurry back to the burial site and on the way she encounters Jesus. Then she returns to the place where the disciples were hiding with further news: “I have seen the Lord!”
Some of the disciples began to remember what Jesus had told them on the night of the Last Supper:
“Set your troubled hearts at rest. Trust God. Trust also in me. I am going to leave you but I go to prepare a place for you that where I am you also will be.” None of them understood what he was saying then, but now it’s as if they can hear his words echoing from the rocky walls of the sepulcher: “Trust Me.”
Those words are meant for us, too. “Trust me!” Trust Him to guide you when you need that the most. When bad things happen an when you are afraid and when your hope is crumbling. When your soul is cold and empty. When you look inside your heart and listen and find only stillness, then remember His words. “Trust Me.”
And, wait for the “third day.”