Note: A poem, based on John 20.1-9, first posted on Easter Eve, April 20, 2019, and, here revised.
What did Peter and “the other disciple” see and believe?
Only the truth of Mary of Magdala’s report:
“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,
and we do not know where they have laid him.”
For they could not conceive
of the fulfillment
of His oft proclaimed promise that He,
(as the Word,
already, alway Being the fulfillment of His words),
would rise…
Rise above this world’s evil
that, though, ever assaulting innocence,
ever proves its impotence.
For the worst that evil will do is kill.
Beyond the offence of death,
evil can do no more.
Nay, they could not conceive that He
(death – the imagined,
their imagined, for so they believed,
inevitable end of all living –
its hold feeble, unable to keep Him dead)
would
(ah, what Holy Surprise!)
rise.
Illustration: St. Peter and St. John Run to the Sepulcher, James Tissot (1836-1902)
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 
Paul,
I really understand the disbelief that He had risen even with great faith. Especially in this day and time when we want to see proof of the supposed “facts”. I could hear someone asking “where’s the videotape”. We are such “show me” people. Such an overwhelming thought that He had actually Risen!!
❤️
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Ah, Loretta, you stir yet another thought…another path of pondering to pursue for me…
Your comment – “…in this day and time when we want to see proof of the supposed ‘facts’” – takes me, simultaneously, in two directions. First, in this moment of the coronavirus pandemic when much criticism has been leveled at the American presidential administration for a response (or non-response) fueled by questionable data (or lack of data), there is a premium, it seems to me, on our human quest in the preservation of life for accurate information. Second, I recall an olden saying (as I recall from “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes’), “Facts are the enemies of truth,” which is to say (at least, one interpretation) that what is true, real may deft facts. For example, we humans, in fact, may categorize people/ourselves by race and cultural and class distinctions, making one or the other greater or better than another. However, the truth is that each and all of us is a blessed creation – whether by God or Nature – and, thus, worthy of care and consideration and compassion. Hmmm, you’ve given me something else, as I say, to consider.
Now, back to your (and my) primary point about the resurrection of Jesus. Yes, I do believe that we humans, in some sense, are all native Missourians, for, as your write, “We are such ‘show me’ people.” Thus, even with a faith that trusts in God’s revelation, we still desire proof. I think…feel that, in this hungering for incontestable testimony of and for the reality of the resurrection, we…I overlook the essential truth that its proof rests in the resurrected living of our lives.
Love you
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