Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running…
That’s from the book of John, chapter 20.
For the last few years, I’ve made a point to run/walk what I think is the same distance they travelled that morning. More on the distance and how I came up with 0.75 miles can be read here. I’ve been calling it the Jesus, The Risen 1k but after a great idea from a friend, it’s now also called The Empty Tomb Trot 🙂
Today I was torn because I wanted to run as a symbol of this blessed morning, but also, it’s 56° and raining sooooo yeah. Before I started the run, one of my dogs, Asia, hinted she wanted to come along.
She didn’t know how wet it was going to be. Look at the screen shot below to see how far we made it before she was like, “Nope. Not happening.” Yeah, .05 of a mile. She basically went to the mailbox and back!
In her defense, I can be little bossy while we’re running, so maybe she just wasn’t in the mood. Either way, I was doing this one alone. While I ran, I thought about the experience from the perspective of Mary and the disciples. Running through town, dodging food carts, grabbing their clothing so they wouldn’t trip over it. In the rush of the moment, did they think to even put on their sandals? Was one of them thinking, gosh I shouldn’t have eaten such a big breakfast? How far off were they when the large stone covering the tomb entrance was in view? They must’ve had a million things going through their minds until they got to the tomb… and then…. Yes, it’s empty. But how? Where is His body? What in the world is happening?
Running this distance in my neighborhood helped to give me a more vivid picture of that morning for them. The sound of feet pattering on the ground. Adrenaline. The town just waking up and people out for their morning errands. In just a few short minutes everything they ever heard Jesus say becoming more clear… and His words, His life, His death, His resurrection, changing the course of history forever.
What a beautiful morning.
-Out of the Wilderness
