Good

It's Good Friday. This day is all about remembering and experiencing the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. That's exactly what we'll do, in a very powerful way, tonight in our worship at SOTH: 7PM in the Sanctuary.

But, today's reading looks ahead to Sunday. Remember that the crucifixion and the resurrection absolutely hang together. The first has no significant without the second. The second is not possible without the first.

That's enough from me...today, the scripture just needs to speak. And, I'll add a little more this Sunday. Come make worship with your SOTH family the essential part of Easter morning this year, we'll see you there!

John 20:1-18 (NIV)

¹Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

²So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

³So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

⁵He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.

⁸Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

⁹(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

¹⁰Then the disciples went back to their homes, ¹¹but Mary stood outside the tomb crying.

As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹²and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

¹³They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"

"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him."

¹⁴At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

¹⁵"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."

¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Mary."

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).