Today's Devotion

Tuesday, June 23, 2026 - John 20:1-18

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

“Now,” begins St. John’s account of the resurrection of Jesus. “Now on the first day of the week…” That long and terrible sabbath has finally drawn to an end. For that was the sabbath when God rested, but took his rest in death. Man’s ancient rebellion against God, led by the devil, finally seems to have won. All of the miracles of Jesus: the multitudes he fed with mere scraps, the lepers restored to health, the blind, deaf, and crippled made whole, even the dead raised – were all swept away as those who sought the life of Jesus claimed his corpse as a trophy. His preaching and teaching that brought the kingdom of God into their midst, bringing life and salvation – even as at creation, the forbidden tree stood in their midst, bringing death and damnation – has at last been silenced. For now it is Jesus who has been condemned and who lies in the tomb, cold and lifeless.

Or so thought Mary Magdalene as she made her way to the terrible tomb “early, while it was still dark.” She came to anoint a dead body, but something was not right: “the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” So she ran. Mary ran to the apostles Peter and John (whose nickname was “the one whom Jesus loved”). And they too ran. They ran to where they thought they would find the body of Jesus. But instead of a corpse, they found grave-clothes neatly folded, as if Jesus had already awoken early this first day of the week, to go back to work. And that is exactly what has happened.

By rising from the dead, setting aside the “linen cloths” and folding up the “face cloth,” Jesus teaches us to sing with the hymnist: “to live that I may dread the grave as little as my bed,” teaching us to “die that so I may rise glorious at the awefull day” (LSB 883:3). For indeed, this day is not awful, but awefull. It is a day of awe and wonder. For though they do not yet understand what has happened, since they “did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead,” they simply “went back to their homes” in perplexity.

But now, Mary Magdalene remains at the tomb to mourn. And she encounters two angels. The word “angel” literally means “messenger.” And these messengers had been created “in the beginning” for this very purpose, for this very moment, now, to be the bearers of this Good News. For now, this is a new beginning: the first day of a new week of creation. Mary is the first to see the risen Jesus. But since the tomb is in a garden, she presumes that he is the gardener. And so He is. But He is also the Teacher. And when the Teacher greets her by name in this New and Greater Garden, Mary responds by calling Jesus “Rabboni.” For even now, He is going about His work of teaching.

Mary’s assigned work on this first day of the New Week, now that the Sabbath was over, is to “announce to the disciples” that she has “seen the Lord.” Her private testimony to the disciples is the same Good News that the risen Jesus will soon ordain and commission the disciples – who will now be apostles – to proclaim to the world.

It all begins now: as the sun rises on the First Day.

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.