Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 19-21.

Pilate tried to find a way to avoid ordering Jesus’ crucifixion because he did not believe him guilty of any crime deserving of crucifixion.  We can see that he became frustrated at Jesus’ refusal to make any arguments in His own defense.  Jesus’ response to Pilate is something we should bear in mind if and when we find ourselves facing government persecution for following our faith in Him: Pilate only had power over Jesus because it had been given him from above.  In the same way, the government only has powers over those who serve Jesus if God gives it to them.  I will also note that Jesus did not tell Pilate that he was not guilty for ordering the execution of One he knew to be innocent of the crimes with which He was charged.

When Mary Magdalene first saw the empty tomb, it must have been a real gut-punch for her.  She was already grieving the horrible death of someone she had loved, now she couldn’t even get closure by finishing the preparation of his body for burial.  Peter probably also felt even worse when he found the empty tomb, but for different reasons.  On one hand, perhaps someone had stolen to body for who knows what nefarious purpose.  On the other hand, perhaps Jesus had risen, after Peter had betrayed Him by denying that he knew Him.  Then came the joy!  For Mary it came quickly.  Jesus appeared to her and she realized that He had risen.  I want to take a moment to emphasize that John tells us here that a woman was the first witness to Jesus rising from the dead, and the first to believe that He had risen.  Once again, God did not first reveal Himself to those the world considered important.  If John was making this story up, why wasn’t the first to see the risen Jesus one of the male disciples?  OK, back to my main point here.  It took a lot longer for Peter to feel the joy of Jesus’ resurrection, because he had to deal with the fact that he had denied Jesus at the critical moment.  And yet the joy he must have felt when he realized that Jesus asked him three times if he loved Him for a reason.  Jesus gave Peter the opportunity to declare his love once for each of the time he denied Him.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.