Jesus’ body is not there

Jesus has been quickly buried nearby in a rock tomb on the Friday evening, before the Sabbath stopped all people’s work. Very early on the Sunday morning, Mary went to the tomb. She discovered with despair that the big stone in front of it had been moved. She ran back to tell John (often called ‘the special friend of Jesus’) and Peter, who was staying with him, that grave robbers seemed to have stolen the body.

Race to the tomb

Peter and John raced to the tomb. John, who was younger, got there first and looked in but did not enter it. When Peter arrived, he boldly went into the tomb. An amazing sight greeted them both. The strips of cloth that had been around the body of Jesus were still in place, along with the face cover folded up separately – but the body was gone. No grave robbers would steal a body and leave all the grave clothes untouched.

Faith begins to grow

It was like the cocoon when a butterfly has come out of it for a new sort of life. Faith begins to grow, at least for John, that an unbelievable thing had happened. Even death had not been able to keep the divine Saviour dead and buried. Of course, the ancient holy books had predicted something similar, but Peter and John did not know how to understand them.

Yet now, in front of their eyes, there was powerful evidence that Jesus had truly risen from the dead.