The awesome events of the preceding week had moved rapidly to a climax in Jesus' crucifixion. His disciples had not recovered from their besetting terror, and so it was the women who ventured to approach the tomb at that first Easter dawn and first received the good news that the bonds of death had been broken.
The gospel writers vary in their description of those who met the visitors to the tomb, but the message is virtually the same. Jesus was not to be found in the tomb. He was alive, and the women were invited to see where he had lain. Then they were to go quickly to tell his disciples the good news that he was risen, and that he would go before them into Galilee. Struggling between awe and gladness, Mary Magdalene and her companions ran to tell the apostles, "and Peter," a detail included by Mark, traditionally Peter's close follower. (See Mark 16:1-7; Matt. 28: 1-8; Luke 24:1-10; John 20:1, 2.)
Nine of the remaining eleven were frankly skeptical about what they heard (see Luke 24:11), but Peter and—as the Fourth Gospel tells it—"the other disciple," thought to be John, went to see for themselves. They found no indication of disturbance or struggle. Peace and perfect order reigned, as indicated in John's sensitive description of the linen burial clothes. These two loyal disciples seem not yet to have understood what had really occurred, even after they had seen the empty tomb. John says they left the garden and went home (see John 20:3-10; Luke 24:11, 12).
