A Thought for Today 22-07-2009

John 20:1-2, 11-18

John 20:1-10 // Matt 28:1-10 // Mark 16:1-8 // Luke 24:1-12John 20:11-18; cp. Matt 28:8-10; Mark 16:9-11

¹Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. ²She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

¹¹Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. ¹²She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. ¹³“Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her. “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” ¹⁴She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. ¹⁵“Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?” She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.” ¹⁶“Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “^gRabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). ¹⁷“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” ¹⁸Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.

I accept the resurrection of Easter Sunday not as an invention of the community of disciples, but as a historical event. If the resurrection of Jesus from the dead on that Easter Sunday were a public event which had been made known...not only to the 530 Jewish witnesses but to the entire population, all Jews would have become followers of Jesus
(Pinchas Lapide, Orthodox Jewish scholar)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKXjyg-BFYc