Words of Life

Seeing Is Believing
with Beth Moore

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark,
Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone
had been removed from the entrance.” (John 20:1)

In the ancient Hebrew there were no names for the days Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…. Every reference to time in the course of a week was relative to the Sabbath. So the first day would be the first day after the Sabbath.

Jesus’ loved ones had very little time to prepare His body on the afternoon of the crucifixion before the Sabbath fell, when they could do no work, so Mary rose early on the first day to finish caring for Jesus’ body. If you can picture doing nothing—waiting to get back to that body, having no idea exactly what you’re going to find—that Mary’s frame of mind. She saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

So she came running to Peter and John and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb!” So Peter and John ran to the tomb, where they saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The Scripture says that they “saw and believed.”

I want you to note what Peter saw. He walks in the tomb and he sees the linen lying there. He sees the wrap that has been around the head of Christ. Now, he would have known that because of its position in the tomb, but I also want to suggest that he never forgot the look of it.

A head that has been punctured bleeds profusely. I want you to imagine the crown of thorns that Christ wore. The linens that were wrapped around his head, if I can be so candid, would have been splattered with blood.

Peter wrote in his first epistle, “For you know that it was not with perishable things, such as silver or gold, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life… but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Every eyewitness, like Peter and John, reminds us of the Lamb who has been slain and the precious blood that paid for the remission of our sins. They do it with the reverence of those who have seen it with their own eyes. Peter tells us to take it seriously. ”I saw it with my own eyes, do not take it lightly!“

That day, immediately after the resurrection, they still did not understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead. He absolutely had to! God will fulfill every single promise He made. He has to! He binds himself to it. If He makes a statement or a promise, He must follow through. But once they saw the blood and the empty tomb, they forever believed.

This, I pray, will be your celebration today. Christ has to do what he said he would do. He kept His word in His lifetime and even after death. And to this very day, He promises to keep His word in you.

This Week
Remember the blood sacrifice Christ made on the cross as a promise to you for the forgiveness of your sins.

Prayer
“Lord, help me see Your work through the work of the cross so that I may believe just as Mary, Peter and John. Thank you for fulfilling every promise through Jesus Christ.”