September 26, 2022

Peachtree Church is reading through the Bible together in 2022 with Quest: Exploring God’s Story Together. Devotionals are sent by email three days each week. Monday’s email includes additional background, history, and cultural information to help us better understand the texts. On Tuesday and Thursday you will receive a devotional based on one portion of the texts for this week.

Texts for this week

Mark 14:43-16:20

Luke 24

John 20:19-21, 21

Matthew 28

Psalm 130

Introduction to the Texts

Indeed, our texts this week speak intertextually of lamentation, surprise, and joy. Psalm 130 offers a lament of hope in the midst of despair: “Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.” The Gospel readings this week tell the oldest Christian story of the surprise of lamentation turned to joy at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. According to Matthew’s Gospel, the women came “to see the tomb.” But what were they expecting to find? Mark begins the story early on Sunday morning, the day after the Sabbath: the women who had witnessed Jesus’ burial were now coming to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body. The testimony of the Gospel of Luke also bears witness to these faithful women, who came to care for Jesus after his death as faithfully as they had during his life. The angel at the tomb asked these brave women, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” then declared, “He is not here, but has risen.”

The Gospel of John portrays Mary alone at the tomb. Surprised by Jesus there, she tried to cling to the man whose remains she had come to the garden to claim. But the resurrected Jesus forbade her embrace. “Oh, touch me not, little Mary, Good Lord, Good Lord,” sings the Negro Spiritual that alludes to the scene; “Touch me not, little Mary, Good Lord, I’m going home.” The Risen Lord had yet other things to do, other people to see. And so did Mary. Jesus commanded her to “go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”. (John 20:17)

Devotional

The Gospel of John has two endings. The epilogue at the end of chapter 20 is the first of the two epilogues; it speaks of “what has been written” and why: “these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30) The second epilogue, in chapter 21, speaks of who has done the writing: “This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things.” (John 21:24)

But as the New Testament scholar Beverly Roberts Gaventa has put it, “Chapter 21 is, or at least appears to be, an excess ending.” This “excess ending” puts forward its own working definition of love: those who truly love Jesus are those who love his “sheep.” To love Jesus means to love those Jesus loved, just as he loved them—to tend to them with compassion, care, and concern.

In this excess ending, Jesus makes his final post-resurrection appearance in the Gospel of John. He does not return with power, as he does at the end of the Gospel of Matthew. He does not promise to rendezvous with them in their old stomping grounds in Galilee, as he does by proxy at the end of the Gospel of Mark. Nor does he return to promise power for his followers, as he does at the end of the Gospel of Luke. Jesus returns, in the excess ending of the Gospel of John, to make breakfast.

After breakfast, Jesus speaks of love. The imperative of compassion, care, and concern turns on the question of Peter’s solidarity, not his authority. Jesus asks not that Peter lead, but that Peter love—that he tend Jesus’s sheep as Jesus has tended them; love those whom Jesus has loved as Jesus has loved them, just as Jesus has loved him.

For Reflection

What does loving others look like in the home?

What does loving others look like at work?

And what does loving others look like in the church?

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, in our lamentation, our surprise, and our joy, and in our loving one another, we encounter You, “out of the depths” of our humanity. We wait for you. Touch us with your Holy Spirit. Resurrect that which needs to be lifted up in our lives according to your Word, your Will, and your Way. For with Your covenant love and redemptive resurrection power, You alone are the One who is our hope. In Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.