Lord, teach me so much by the way You lived. Help me to be like You and Mary Magdalene and to love others well.
Luke 24:12, But Peter rose and ran to the tomb. Stooping down, he saw the linen clothes lying by themselves. He departed, wondering in himself what had happened.
When Mary Magdalene and the other women found the tomb empty and were told that Jesus had risen, they hurried to tell the apostles. While some didn’t believe, Peter immediately rose and ran to the tomb. He bent over, looked in, and saw them – the strips of linen that had once bound the body of Jesus were lying by themselves. Jesus had emerged from the grave and left His grave clothes behind. He no longer needed them!
Nothing about Jesus’ life, death, or resurrection was an accident. He could have very easily risen in the grave clothes. He could have allowed Himself to be seen wrapped in linen. But Christ wanted to make it clear that no part of the grave still had a hold on Him. The linen strips lying there were vivid reminders that He had, in fact, been dead. And in leaving them behind, Jesus was making it clear that He was, and is, truly alive.
We all face dark times, when we feel confused or fearful. We endure the loss of things we’ve grown to love. We think, What is happening? What is God doing? Yet in God’s infinite wisdom and goodness sometimes He removes things from our lives that we thought we needed. In those moments, take another look. The old wrappings point to the soaring freedom of an eternal future in Christ. There is a message of life in the linens left behind.
