Lenten Daily Devotional - Day 34 - Saturday, 3/23/13

Devotional Scripture:  John 20:1-10

Devotional Thought:

"Then the disciples went back to their homes." - John 20:10

What?

Wait just a minute!

Are you kidding me?  Are you KIDDING me?

Is this the sort of thing that happened all the time in that part of 1st Century Israel?

Why this "matter-of-fact" response to the resurrection of Jesus?

They went back to their homes?  They went back home???

To better understand . . . we have to carefully re-read verse 9, which in some Bible texts appears in parentheses, what we call a "parenthetical insertion" by some editor who knows we might need some help as we read this . . .

"(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)"

Ohhhhhhhhhh . . . OK.

I guess.

I think I do come away understanding one thing from all this . . . the disciples never expected the resurrection of Jesus.

Re-read the verses

They went into the tomb . . . they saw the linen clothes that had wrapped his body.

They saw the place where he had been laid.

And then they went home.

They never expected the resurrection. 

I can't blame them either.  I have maintained my own belief that most of the disciples were teens or young adults . . . and in that day and time they would have already come to know one of the most concrete lessons in life:

Death is death. 

It's over.

End of story. 

Realize it.

Accept it.

School with the Rabbi is finished.

There was really only one response to it all . . .

Go home.

I have one question, knowing what I know, that I would love to go back in time to ask the disciples:

"What were you thinking?" 

In fact . . . that's a tremendously important question!!!   You see, we know the end of the story.  Those disciples didn't . . . but they would in just a short time.

Their world view (how they see things in black and white) is getting ready to be thrown for a 180.

Hang on!

As you make final work on clearing away and straighting your path to Easter . . . what are YOU thinking?

Do YOU know and believe the end-of-the-story?

Is it over for you?  Are you going home? 

Or are you going to walk the final few steps to Easter?

God's grace still amazes me . . . ><>