Reflection on John 20
Written by: Leanne Smith
Seeing is Believing
An editor once told me, “The mind remembers what it can picture.”
John says it was still dark on Sunday morning as Mary approached the tomb. I wonder if she had slept at all. On Friday she witnessed the murder of the man who had given her a second lease on life. Numb and grieving, she makes her way back to the last place they laid Him, until she stops short at the sight of the stone rolled away.
Pivoting, she hurries to Peter and John with the news.
John outruns Peter back to the tomb then stops to marvel at its opening. We feel the pause as John seeks to absorb what the linen strips and headcloth are telling him. Then we feel the stirring of the wind that is Peter, always Peter, as he rushes headlong in, past John.
Then John steps in.
And the truth soaks in.
And the text records, “He saw and believed.”
Thanks to John and his vivid details, we can see and believe, too.