She had woken me early and I had been scared,
fearing it might be others come to arrest me.
I’d had little sleep for days but the urgency
in her eyes was compelling.

“Dear sister”, I enquired, “how come ye here at such an hour?”

For what she said I was unprepared

“Peter, they have taken him, the tomb is empty!
James’s mother and I, along with Salome,
went to anoint the broken body and to weep
as we had been afraid to do openly at Golgotha.
We had waited, keeping the Sabbath holy
and mourning in private. Then, at dawn,
we anxiously approached the Garden.
How were we three to move a stone
so large that Petronius and his four soldiers
had struggled so hard to install?”

But the stone, she said, had been rolled away
and inside sat a young man clad in white.
“Don’t seek Him here” the youth had told her
“He has risen. Go tell the Disciples
they will see Him In Galilee as He foretold
when last they broke bread together”

******

How could this be? I’d seen Him die.
I’d watched as Joseph took him down
and carefully removed the thorns.
I’d seen Him laid within the cave
and watched the stone close up the door
and then the seven seals applied.
I saw Him die, I knew Him dead.

My heart was troubled. Who would have taken Him?
Not Caiaphas - he’d know the fury that would ensue
and the vengeance that would be unleashed.
And Pilate? Why should he care?
His conscience he had cleared
by the ritual washing of his hands.

No, this would be blamed on us, His followers
already accused of plotting to torch their Temple.
And now the Jews will claim that we
have stolen the body to feign a resurrection.

******

I sat pondering these things…
Why set a guard to prevent a theft
that they feared would be used
to deny the death
and then take the body themselves?
It made no sense…unless…
unless…

Slowly the veil of doubt
was lifted and finally
I understood His words

There had been no theft
nor yet a death
but rather a birth.
The world that I’d known
had perished on that cross
and here I stood at the dawn
of a new beginning.
The events I had witnessed
these last three days
had been the birth pains
of the new covenant.
He had been raised by God
and is alive!
I praised the Lord and I wept.