Sermon by Father Alex McAllister SDS                   Index

Easter Sunday, Year B—2003 Homily

The Gospel for this morning tells us in the words of St John how the resurrection was discovered.

First Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb finds it empty. Although she is the first witness to the empty tomb she doesn’t realise that Christ has risen—she merely thinks that someone has stolen or moved the body.

She quickly reports to Peter and the other disciple—this other disciple, often referred to in the text as the Beloved Disciple, is commonly regarded as St John himself.

Peter and John hear this alarming news from Mary then the race begins. They start out together but the Beloved Disciple, presumably being younger and fitter, gets there first. However, although he witnesses the circumstantial evidence of the cloths lying on the ground he waits at the door of the tomb for Peter. This is presumably out of respect for Peter’s place as the first among the apostles.

Peter goes into the tomb first and sees all the details described about the positioning of the cloths as if he was a detective at a crime scene.

But then it is John, the Beloved Disciple, coming into the tomb second who saw and believed.

Although I recognise that there is a great deal of disputation as to who the author of John’s Gospel actually was, I think if we just take things at face value we will learn something. If we say John wrote the Gospel and that he is the Beloved Disciple referred to in the text, then he is the one who was first to believe.

Now I don’t think this is presented to us, as has been suggested by some scholars, out of reasons of rivalry between various factions in the Early Church perhaps led by Peter and John. The fact that John holds back and lets Peter in first surely indicates his respectfulness towards Peter and not a rivalry.

So how do we explain this? Well I think we do so by asking ourselves why John writes his Gospel. He surely does so in order that many more people might come to believe in Jesus as the Christ.

And by asserting that he was there and was the first to believe he gives his Gospel great authority. It is likely that this is what actually happened and that he really was the first to believe. After all, nobody else makes this claim and this is certainly no time for false modesty!

He is an eyewitness and a witness must tell the truth and most particularly must accurately describe his own role in the events under scrutiny. I was there, I saw and I believed.

This makes John’s Gospel a believable document; it has the weight that can only be given to first hand evidence. It claims objectivity and reliability and Christians over the centuries have found it to be a rock on which they can build their faith.

We too are witnesses. We may not have been there on that day 2,000 years ago but in various ways we have seen the power and the effects of Christ’s resurrection especially as experienced in our own lives. And most certainly we do believe.

We may not have the literary skill of St John, or the preaching ability of St Paul, or the spiritual authority of St Peter but we do have the straightforward witness of our own lives.

We have seen and we believe and as a consequence we live our lives differently. This is sufficient evidence for those around us.