Monday, May 7, 2012
John 20:8 Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed.
IN HIM WAS LIFE: WHO ONCE WAS DEAD
Early on the first day of the week, John went for a run. This is perhaps not such a strange sight in our day but probably a little less normal in first century Palestine. It was at the end of this run, perhaps while still catching his breath, that this man "saw and believed." This may seem a rather short description for an event that would forever change everything about this man. Yet John can be succinct here because the full impact of that single moment is woven throughout his Gospel.
What John really saw that morning, what he finally understood, he tells us at the beginning of his Gospel, "In Him was life."
We talk about "getting a life." We talk about "really living." We use words and phrases like this because we know how dead our life really is. We can feel the meaninglessness pressing down and crushing our souls. We think there are others who look more vibrant, who appear to have meaning. And so we say of them they are "really living." John saw the only one who truly "has a life." And his entire Gospel is a description of that life which flowed forth from this once dead man.
