Jesus, The Risen 1k – a short run/walk

You’ve heard of, and probably participated in, a 5k run, or a 10k… well, this one is much shorter than any of those… but first, happy Easter! This whole idea of running a 1k is to remember and symbolize the same distance Jesus’s disciples Peter and John ran the day they heard Jesus was no longer in the tomb. A quick backstory is that for the few days after Jesus was crucified and buried, his disciples and other followers pretty much went into hiding. Knowing what the Jews just did to Jesus, they were afraid they’d be next.  I guess this was the first case of the witness protection program.

So it’s pretty fascinating that when these followers of Jesus were told his body was no longer in the tomb, Peter and John took off running. So much for being in hiding.

My best guess is they ran about 1.2 kilometers, or roughly 0.75 miles. More on that is in this post. So I challenge you (and me) to do the same this Easter weekend and imagine the adrenaline those folks must’ve felt as they ran to discover the tomb was missing one key thing… a body. Crazy and amazing stuff!

It’s the “Jesus, The Risen 1k”…

-Out of the Wilderness

 

 

How far Peter ran to the tomb of Jesus

I’ve been fascinated by the details surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus as it relates to Peter, particularly after Jesus was arrested, all the way up to the empty tomb. The rooster story happens (where Jesus predicted Peter would deny him 3 times, then a rooster would crow), and Peter weeps about it. Jesus is led to the place where he hung on the cross, he dies and is buried in a tomb. A few days later when some women go to visit this tomb, they discover it’s empty. Upon hearing this news soon after, Peter takes off to the tomb (but always remember, Mary and Mary did it first). The story as it’s told in Luke says Peter ran to the tomb. I may have another entire post on how he was beat by another disciple, who made a point of saying he outran Peter. 🙂

grafspoed_grt
famous painting “Peter and John Running to the Sepulchre” by Eugene Burnand, ca. 1898

How far did Peter run, though? Well, I thought it would be easy to find out so I just Googled “How far did Peter run to Jesus’s tomb”… nada, zilch, zippo. I couldn’t find any info. Long story short, I figured I could possibly make a guess based on where Jesus’s tomb is believed to have existed, and where Peter first heard the wild claims that Jesus’s body wasn’t there.

Like this post so far? Please consider making a small donation to help me continue posting every day at 1pm, thank you in advance!

Jesus was buried in a tomb carved out of rock. Most people believe it’s where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre exists today. Easy enough to get an address or location for that. But it would be more difficult to find out where Peter was that early morning when the news broke. None of the four gospels give any sort of landmark or description of wherever they were that morning, so I first looked up where Peter lived. It was in Capernaum. Ok, we have 2 points to measure! Only problem is Capernaum is 123 miles away from the ancient tomb of Jesus. Certainly Peter didn’t run that far!

Further research brought me to the place where the Last Supper happened. From what I read, it seems that this room was used by believers even after the Last Supper, crucifixion, and resurrection. This location is now called Cenacle, which is defined as the room where Jesus and his disciples had the Last Supper.

So from my little bit of research, I’m going with this…

Peter ran from the Last Supper room to the tomb, about .75 miles (about 1.2 km).

I’ve even made a habit of running this same distance, I call it “Jesus, The Risen 1k” every Easter. Join me won’t you, as a way to remember the radical news that Jesus is no longer in the tomb!

Take a look at the attached maps for these locations, and as always thanks for stopping by! For another interesting read based on some research I did, check out “A Bible verse exposing the glass half empty personality”.

-Out of the Wilderness

Still in the dating world

Not too long ago, I had a date and while I fancy myself good company, I do always hope that the company I keep is good, as well. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that! Well, lately my few and far between dates seemed to have been cursed.

You see, I have a personality trait that 1) thinks too much and 2) loves to anticipate. So with most dates, I think about them a lot beforehand and if I’m already clicking with the woman, I anticipate a lot about the first date, or second or third, whatever the case may be.

So this particular relationship was headed for the first date, anticipation building. We’d seemed to connect, at least through various messages, and there also appeared to be chemistry. It’s such a coin flip when it comes to “real life / face to face meeting,” though. And this coin flip landed on whatever side means:

The date itself was fine. With the right person, it would have been a great first date. The anticipation from earlier, though, wasn’t fulfilled, so I arrived back home deflated, annoyed, frustrated. Trying to glean something positive from it, I counted the date as practice; a chance for me to hone my dating skills so that one day when a great match comes along, not only will I be good company, but also her anticipation will be met with a great reality.

-Out of the Wilderness

What changed with the roosters?

I wanted to write up an extremely insightful post about the deep spiritual message about Peter in the last few days of Jesus’s life on earth. Something about the time between when the rooster crowed and when he ran to the tomb to see if what he’d heard was true, that Jesus wasn’t there.

You see, Peter was a disciple, a devout follower of Jesus, and was willing to die for Him, as recorded in Luke 22:33. So I am trying to put myself in Peter’s position, with such a confidence in my relationship with Jesus.

Then you get to the part where a rooster crows and everything changes. Fast forward to a few days later and women who had gone to visit Jesus’s dead body in the tomb report that HIs body is no longer there. Those women tell the disciples and who was it running to the tomb? Peter.

So my questions for you are these:

  1. What happened in Peter’s mind and heart between the rooster crowing and the empty tomb?
  2. How can this part of Jesus’s life and story, relating to Peter and his own personal journey, be applied to our lives today, in 2018?

I’d truly love to get a conversation going in the comments and I will definitely be anxiously awaiting your take!

-Out of the Wilderness

Music that lasts forever and ever, amen

Quick note: All the links in this post are to other posts I’ve written, take a look!

This past weekend I went to an Elvis festival in Nashville. For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved his music. Being among all those Elvis fans reminded me of my nieces. The oldest is 16 and the youngest is 5 or 6. But when they were younger and Elvis came on the radio, most of them wanted us to change the station fast! For whatever reason they didn’t like Elvis music. Well, come to find out they didn’t like any music that wasn’t Justin Bieber or whatever played on Radio Disney.

I never really thought about it much but their constant disdain for what is widely considered good music (Elvis is just one example), I began to appreciate the music I was “forced” to listen to when I was growing up. This isn’t a condemnation of how my nieces and nephew are being raised at all (I would never tell someone how to parent! Actually, I take that back, I wouldn’t tell my siblings how to parent!), but while my parents were kind and would leave the radio on a certain song we liked only sometimes, most of the time we listened to music they liked.

As I grew into an adult, I became more and more thankful for the music I had already heard before. Because of this, I really, really want the kids in our family to be exposed to that kind of music. Elvis, the Beach Boys, U2, Led Zepelin, Billy Joel, this singer (who was my first crush), Bob Marley, Alan Jackson, wait wait… I can’t do this. The post would be 5 days long. To be fair, there are a lot of current bands that are making good music, too… that list would also be 5 days long but bands like The Head and The Heart (I wrote about their show in Nashville here), OneRepublic, Zac Brown Band, Josh Ritter, Jack White, Lumineers, and again, I won’t keep going.

I keep thinking about the youngsters my family, “They have no idea what they’re missing. There is SO. MUCH. MORE.”

Well, last week something huge happened. Something monumental. I was hanging out with a few of the kids and I’d almost successfully drowned out the music that was playing when a Randy Travis song came on. My ears perked up and I asked, “Who picked this song?” My oldest niece (the 16 yr old) said she did because she likes it.

There is a God in Heaven.

-Out of the Wilderness