Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, April 20, 2025
by Pr. Sara Gorman, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Sometimes we have to see with our eyes to truly believe, while others we have to believe without seeing.
It’s no surprise that throughout the Bible, women are left on the sidelines of what is happening. In the times when the scriptures were written, women didn’t have any authority, nor were they believed in every circumstance. They were seen more as property than people. So, if the women saw something, it wasn’t likely to be believed until a man could confirm whatever it was. Unfortunately, this is how women are still treated in different places and churches.
The women are the first to get to the tomb because they are planning to prepare the Jesus’ body according to Jewish custom. But, when they get there, there is no body to prepare. So, they go off to tell the news, and no one believes them. It doesn’t make sense, because everyone had seen Jesus die on the cross. They saw the blood pouring out of his side, they saw his lifeless body hanging there, and they had to move his body to the tomb themselves. There’s no doubt he is dead. So where could he have gone? There’s no way a dead man could have gotten out of the tomb and walked off.
So Peter runs to check for himself, and sure enough Jesus’s body is not there. While he heard the words moments prior, they didn’t sink in until he could see with his own eyes.
It’s the old adage: “Seeing is believing.” We, ourselves, are unable to go to the tomb and see that Jesus’s body is not there. (And let’s be honest: if it was there, we certainly wouldn’t want to smell it!) But somehow, we still have to have believe. We believe that Jesus, sent into this world to save us from our sins, is risen. Believing something this life-altering is hard to fathom at times. But that’s part of what having faith is. That’s part of what being part of a faith community is about. We have to believe without seeing.
