“On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.” (Jn 20,1) A door that is open that should have been shut! The door to every tomb is expected to have a “One Way” sign posted upon it. People go in but they never come out! The tomb is the home of the dead. In Luke’s gospel, an angel queries the ointment bearing women, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Lk 24,5) The world would have us believe that there is nothing beyond that door except for death. Mary investigates the scene no further. She turns immediately away from the empty tomb and runs back to Peter.

Mary’s heart was full of sorrow, darkness and grief at the absence of the Lord. She stood at the foot of the cross and witnessed the death of the Lord. She saw his lifeless body placed into the tomb. For her, the tomb of Jesus was the end, the terminus of her discipleship. Jurgen Moltmann expressed the dark night of the cross in this passage: “Hegel defined the cross: “God is dead” – and he no doubt rightly saw that here we are faced with the night of the real, ultimate and inexplicable absence of God…Here is the triumph of death, the enemy, the non-church, the lawless state, the blasphemer, the soldiers. Here Satan triumphs over God. Our faith begins at the point where atheists suppose that it must be at an end. Our faith begins with the bleakness and power which is the night of the cross, abandonment, temptation, and doubt about everything that exists! Our faith must be born where it is abandoned by all tangible reality; it must be born of nothingness, it must taste this nothingness and be given it to taste in a way no philosophy of nihilism can imagine.” For the entire group of the disciples, the tomb was a closed door. The disciples were gathered together in the dark night of the absence of their Lord and Master. They were lost and had no idea where to go from the cross and the tomb. But now, the closed door is opened. That open door beckons them to “come and see” as Jesus had from the beginning of their calling.

Peter and the beloved disciple set out for the tomb running. It is morning, the first day of the week, a time for hoping. How far can their hope carry them? The journey from the Upper Room to the Empty Tomb is a time to consider the possibilities. What is it that they may dare to hope? What will they find beyond that open door of the tomb? Love arrives at the open door first and looks in but does not yet dare to cross the threshold. Can it be that love is stronger than death? Peter arrives at the open door and immediately crosses the threshold to see what he can see. He sees the evidence of the clothing of death that has been left behind. This is not the place of the dead but an open door to a new beginning. Death has been left behind. Jesus has shaken off the bonds of death and has freely returned home to the Father. The beloved disciple also crosses the threshold and sees that Jesus is not there in the place of death and he believes that love has indeed triumphed over death.

The disciples do not “yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” (Jn 20,9) The disciples see the emptiness of the tomb and they do not yet fully understand what it means, but faith does not require perfect understanding. They do see that the tomb is not the end of their life in Christ and they understand that there is “more” to come. Faith points us to something more to life. “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” (Heb 11,1) Faith is an open door, a threshold to be crossed, that leads us to new possibilities and realities in life, beyond our greatest hopes. Faith is not born in what is seen but in what is not seen. It takes us beyond what is seen and points the way for love, in wonder and amazement, to surge ahead. From the emptiness and nothingness of the tomb, faith is born and points the way to new life. God is not dead, he lives beyond the open door and he still calls to us, “Come and see!” Jesus goes before us and beckons us to follow him in faith. “You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” (Jn 14,1ff)