Details

I was reading John's account of the resurrection this morning. A noticed a detail that I had missed before...it's a detail that even Luke didn't write about. It goes like this, "Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, seperate from the linen." John 20:6-7

Did you catch it? The detail? "The cloth was folded up by itself, seperate from the linen. The study Bible suggests that this tells us that it wasn't a grave robbery, since everything would be in disarray if it had been. But to me it's more. Take a moment to close your eyes and imagine what those first few moments when Jesus came back to life must have been like. Of course nobody really knows...and maybe I am going out on too much of limb by suggesting it, but there is a sense of comfort I get from this "imagining." The silence and darkness of the tomb. A sudden intake of breath. His eyes open, and he sits up, with a slight smile on his lips as He knows that He has beaten death and the devil. He unwraps the linens, tenderly removes the burial cloth from around his head.

The cloth that Joseph and Nicodemus had prepared Jesus' body with 3 days earlier. Probably with tears of sadness. Perhaps in silence as neither knew what to say to the other, wondering if they dared hope to remember Christ's promise or to even vocalize it. Nicodemus knew the promise. He was the man that Jesus told, "for God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever beleives in him shall not perish but have eternal life." The thoughts that must have been going through this man's head as he cared for the lifeless body of Christ!

And now Christ awakes. He too remembers his late night teaching of Nicodemus. With the same care that was taken placing the cloth on his head, Jesus removes it. He does not throw it on the ground and run off to await Mary. He takes a few precious moments, while the angels rejoice, the birds sing, the ground shakes....he stops, takes up his burial cloth and folds it neatly. And then he leaves the tomb behind. With it he leaves his message of love for Nicodemus, Peter, and you.