Luke 24: 1 - 12

Easter is the most important celebration in the Christian calendar. The discovery of the empty tomb – although so simply told – is an astounding event that completes the Paschal Mystery: the passion, death AND resurrection of Jesus. Whilst Christ’s willingness to go to his death on the cross was an extraordinary statement of God’s love for humankind, it is his rising again from death that offers all Christian people hope. It is the second disciple – the one whom Jesus loved – who is the first to grasp the meaning of what has happened inside the tomb. The gospel tells us that upon entering the tomb and seeing Jesus’ burial cloths lying there, ‘he saw and he believed’. Unlike the later encounters with the risen Lord, this disciple recognised the truth and significance of what he saw in the empty tomb. He didn’t need to see the risen Lord to believe. Perhaps it is he that we today can best identify with. Not in a position to physically encounter the risen Christ, we are capable of seeing the signs of his resurrection and continuing presence in the world and choose to believe.