Alive - by Dave Smith

The fact that Mary set out ‘while it was still dark’ is not simply a
reference to the fact that it was early in the morning, but that Mary
was in a dark place – of utter grief, despair and aloneness. 10 Yet by
the time she arrived at the tomb, not only had the literal darkness of
the night disappeared with the rising of the early morning sun (see
Mark 16:2), but, to her surprise, the large heavy stone across the
entrance to the tomb had been rolled away, and the light had begun
to shine into the darkness where Jesus’ dead body should have been.
Although not initially evident to Mary, or to us as readers, the picture
is that somehow light is triumphing over darkness, and that life has
won over death – in such a way that it can transform our lives now.
This gives us confidence that one day we can, like Jesus, experience
life beyond the grave!
It took Mary a while to grasp what had happened. Rather than
thinking that Jesus was alive, she ran to the male disciples, telling
them that the authorities had taken Jesus’ body away. This led to
another ‘pursuit of love’ as Peter and ‘the disciple Jesus loved’
responded immediately, by running to the tomb, perhaps significantly
with the disciple that ‘Jesus loved’ winning the race. It’s as if we are
being told that love wins the day! Then both men went into the tomb.
This whole incident adds to our understanding concerning the
importance of the ‘empty tomb’ (fact three in the ‘minimal facts of the
resurrection’ in the introduction) as a vital piece of evidence for the
resurrection of Jesus.
Convincing proofs concerning the
empty tomb
The witness of Mary In a male-dominated culture, where the