Read: John 20:1-10
At that, Peter and the other disciple went out, heading for the tomb.
John 20:3
You know that feeling when you’ve been bracing for the worst, and then a sentence changes the air in the room. Not a full resolution. Not a guarantee. But enough to make you breathe again. Hope does not always arrive as a celebration. Sometimes it arrives as a shift, a small opening, a glimmer.
After two heavy days, that is what hope often feels like. Not everything fixed yet, but enough to move.
Mary comes with news and she runs with it. She finds Peter and the disciple Jesus loved and breathlessly blurts out, “They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put Him!” They don’t know what it means… but they run. You can almost hear the thoughts racing as they hurry to the tomb. Could it be true? Could He really be risen?
They still haven’t seen the risen Lord at this point. But they do see the signs: the stone rolled away, the tomb empty, and the graveclothes left behind. John draws attention to the details, especially the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, folded and set aside. That is not what you expect from a robbery. Who steals a body and leaves the linen behind? And if someone did take the time to remove the cloths, who would fold them? Panic does not do that. Grave robbing does not tidy up. The evidence suggests something deliberate has happened. Something unusual. Something that does not fit the worst-case assumption.
John says he went in, saw, and believed, even though they did not yet fully understand what the Scriptures had been saying. That is important. Sometimes faith begins before we can explain it all. Sometimes hope rises while questions remain. And perhaps, standing there in that quiet early‑morning light, some of the things Jesus had said over the weeks and months began to ring around their heads. He had spoken about going away. He had spoken about rising. They had not grasped it before the cross. They still did not fully grasp it now. But it was starting to come together.
That is often how life feels for us too. There are many things we cannot explain. Not just scientific mysteries, but the questions that hurt. Why does one person face miscarriage and another does not? Why is one family hit by an accident? Why do some people seem to carry a heavier hand than others? Sometimes, later on, we can look back and see glimpses of how God was at work. Sometimes we cannot. The disciples did not understand everything at this point either, but Easter shows us that unanswered questions are not the same as an absent God.
Ephesians 2:12 tells us that without Christ we are without hope. The evidence of Christ risen gave Peter cause for hope, and it gives us all cause for hope today. Soon enough, Mary would see the risen Jesus, and He would reveal Himself to the rest of the disciples later that day. But hope began at that moment. Something had changed. Something most unusual was happening, and it changed everything.
Jesus didn’t just defeat death and sin on the cross; He gives us true hope, hope for our lives, our futures, and the plans He has for us. And whatever our past has been, we can move on from self-pity, sorrow, and lament into a life of hope, a hope that leads us into His promise and His purpose. More on that tomorrow.
And this hope was never meant to be contained. Mary couldn’t contain it. The disciples couldn’t contain it. It was never meant to stay within one room, one people, or one nation. Jesus accomplished something on the cross that no other person could. Sins are forgiven. That is amazing news. And all peoples are invited into His kingdom.
We live in a time when the Word of God is so accessible, though many still do not have it, and many who do still struggle to understand it fully. There are still things to be fulfilled. We do not always know how God’s plans will unfold, but we do have hope, and we do have a commission. There are still many who have never heard the name of Jesus and what He has done for them.
May this Easter be a catalyst for us in our part of reaching them. We may not go ourselves, but we can support others who do. We may disciple someone who will go. We may welcome a foreign student, share Christ faithfully, and they return home to bring the light to a place we will never see. Every part matters.
Because Jesus is alive, we have a Good News message, and it needs delivering.
