The Resurrection

189:5.1As the two apos­tles raced for Gol­go­tha and the tomb of Joseph, Pe­ter’s thoughts al­ter­nated be­tween fear and hope; he feared to meet the Mas­ter, but his hope was aroused by the story that Je­sus had sent spe­cial word to him. He was half per­suaded that Je­sus was re­ally alive; he re­called the prom­ise to rise on the third day. Strange to re­late, this prom­ise had not oc­curred to him since the cru­ci­fix­ion un­til this mo­ment as he hur­ried north through Je­ru­sa­lem. As John has­tened out of the city, a strange ec­stasy of joy and hope welled up in his soul. He was half con­vinced that the women re­ally had seen the risen Mas­ter.

189:5.2John, be­ing younger than Pe­ter, out­ran him and ar­rived first at the tomb. John tar­ried at the door, view­ing the tomb, and it was just as Mary had de­scribed it. Very soon Si­mon Pe­ter rushed up and, en­ter­ing, saw the same empty tomb with the grave cloths so pe­cu­liarly ar­ranged. And when Pe­ter had come out, John also went in and saw it all for him­self, and then they sat down on the stone to pon­der the mean­ing of what they had seen and heard. And while they sat there, they turned over in their minds all that had been told them about Je­sus, but they could not clearly per­ceive what had hap­pened.

189:5.3Pe­ter at first sug­gested that the grave had been ri­fled, that en­e­mies had stolen the body, per­haps bribed the guards. But John rea­soned that the grave would hardly have been left so or­derly if the body had been stolen, and he also raised the ques­tion as to how the ban­dages hap­pened to be left be­hind, and so ap­par­ently in­tact. And again they both went back into the tomb more closely to ex­am­ine the grave cloths. As they came out of the tomb the sec­ond time, they found Mary Mag­da­lene re­turned and weep­ing be­fore the en­trance. Mary had gone to the apos­tles be­liev­ing that Je­sus had risen from the grave, but when they all re­fused to be­lieve her re­port, she be­came down­cast and de­spair­ing. She longed to go back near the tomb, where she thought she had heard the fa­mil­iar voice of Je­sus.

189:5.4As Mary lin­gered af­ter Pe­ter and John had gone, the Mas­ter again ap­peared to her, say­ing: “Be not doubt­ing; have the cour­age to be­lieve what you have seen and heard. Go back to my apos­tles and again tell them that I have risen, that I will ap­pear to them, and that pres­ently I will go be­fore them into Gal­i­lee as I prom­ised.”

189:5.5Mary hur­ried back to the Mark home and told the apos­tles she had again talked with Je­sus, but they would not be­lieve her. But when Pe­ter and John re­turned, they ceased to ridicule and be­came filled with fear and ap­pre­hen­sion.