The Easter Race Controversy

You start out together jogging to your destination. Along the way one of you picks up the pace. The other matches. You’re side by side until the destination comes in site. Now the pace really picks up. Your fellow runner edges ahead. Not to be outdone, you respond in kind and push in front. No words are spoken but you both know: the race is on. It’s an all out sprint to the finish.

I suspect this happened with Peter and John that first Easter morning. Notice how John, referring to himself as “the other disciple”, describes the race:

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. John 20:3-8

These kinds of races usually end in controversy, as this one did. I imagine Peter and John returning to the disciples to tell the story of the empty tomb. As usual Peter speaks first, but John soon interrupts to correct him and let everyone know he in fact “reached the tomb first”. Before any details of the empty tomb can be shared, Peter fires back that no, in fact, he was the first inside the tomb. To which John claims they weren't running into the tomb but to the tomb, and he was the first to the tomb! At this point the rest of the disciples tell them both to shut up and tell about the tomb!

Sixty years later it's still a controversy of who won the race. As John records his recollections of the first Easter morning, of the most awesome news of resurrection, he can't keep from mentioning his version of the race, twice stating he “reached the tomb first” and that Peter “came along behind him.” 

Competition does that to you. It raises the stakes, gets you caring about something more than maybe you should. Obviously the importance of who won the race pales in comparison to the reality of the empty tomb. Sixty years later and we're still talking about who won a race?!?

Yet I kind of like that John is still making the argument long after the fact. I like that he cares. I like the drive that spurs him to run hard in pursuit of Jesus, to seek to be the first to see Him. I see in John's passion an invitation to wake every morning and run to Jesus and to seek Him first throughout the day. Of all the races we can run in this life, this one is most worthy of our best - giving our all to follow Him, pressing forward, seeking Him, collapsing at His feet, and finally being raised up as He was raised, victorious over sin and death.

let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus - Hebrews 12:1-2

Targeted

The day before Palm Sunday, the day before the crowds welcome Jesus with cheers, a more sinister note is struck … 

Then the leading priests decided to kill Lazarus, too … John 12:10

Why kill Lazarus?

for it was because of him that many of the people had deserted them and believed in Jesus. John 12:11

The people were flocking to Jesus, in part because of Lazarus, the man Jesus raised from the dead. Because of Lazarus, the religious leaders were losing - losing followers, attention, control, influence, power ...

But still it’s tough to fault Lazarus. I’m guessing if Jesus calls you back from the dead you don’t have much choice in the matter. Certainly seems like an overreaction to order his assassination. But he was a problem to those who carefully guarded their traditions and authority.

We’re left with a sobering reality: to follow Jesus is to become a target of religious leaders. It’s a promise. Get out your black highlighter and note:

Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. John 15:20

Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3:12

It’s easy to assume the persecution will come from people out there - people who view the world in very different ways from those who follow Jesus. It’s easy to assume that inside the church we all share a common commitment to follow Jesus. Inside the church we look out for one another. But inside the church we have religious leaders. Inside the church, assassinations take place all the time.

For the most part murder is fairly uncommon at church, but the killing of reputations, relationships, programs, and positions happens all the time. Gossip ignites the plot, parking lot conversations build the coalition, board members are aligned and soon the mob has their man in their sights. Soon the threat to their comfort and control will be eliminated.

I suspect Lazarus had a good laugh once he found out he was a target:

“What are you going to do to me, kill me?!? That’s funny for I’ve already died. Jesus brought me back from death. What can you do to me?”

Seems like that would be a good response for any of us who find a target on our back, for ...

… we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life Romans 6:4

Through baptism we enter death. Through Christ we are raised to newness of life. Following Jesus will make you a target. No worry, entrust yourself to the One who conquers death and raises the dead.