John 20:1-8 (New Living Translation)
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1 Early 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. 2 She 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!” 3 Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. 4 They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. 8 Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed—
Lectio (taking a bite):coming, finding, running, stooping, seeing, believing..lots of action here. Quick movements. Bursts of action.
I’m always a bit amused by the cloth involved here- the linens just lying there, but the head wrapping set apart and folded. Who’s doing the folding? And why is the “not going in” then the “going in” important for John to point out? Is this because he is a craftsman with the story- because he is no mere reporter?
Meditatio (chewing on the story): This piece leaves me out of breath with all the quick moving around. I think that is a mark of John’s skill. John is moving us, physically and emotionally with these words. From Mary’s confusion and excitement to Peter’s newfound bravado and curiosity, John is throwing his readers back and forth in this scene. It’s messy and invigorating, confusing and revealing, noisy and quiet. A pile of linen strips, and a neatly folded burial cloth.
Oratio (savoring the essence): It’s confusing and reassuring. It’s all of those things mentioned above and it makes no sense while it is, at the same time, calming. Word made flesh made word and where does Word stop and flesh begin and that it the point here. It’s not about Jesus now Christ only; it is also about Mary now Christ, and Peter now Christ, and John now Christ, and the reader………..(I realize that all I’ve just written is outside the boundaries of logic and narrow Western definitions. But look at the story we’re dealing with! It is an explosion of contradictions and ideas that are so far outside bounds of normalcy that my Aha! thoughts pale like folded linens against these colors with no names and the off-the-scale music of this music of the spheres!)
Contemplatio (digesting the word and allowing it to nurture the body): The stories of Jesus are not written in the black and white of either/or. They were spoken- first- in the language of human exhultation, then written down in the poetry of profundity. Yes, John would say, this is exactly how it happened; this is exactly how I remember it! And I can/must try to read it with John’s eyes from inside of John’s heart.
* “Peter and John running to the tomb of Christ”, by Eugene Burnand (1850 – 1921)
