Gospel of Peter 50-60
It’s the seventh Sunday of Easter. That’s it. The Easter Season is over. But, I don’t want it to end. I want this resurrection feeling to continue. It’s not the reason that our Wednesday morning Bible study started reading these gospels from outside of the Biblical canon, but it could be.
Seven weeks after the resurrection, it’s that Easter feeling that we want to hold onto. And so, today, we’ll turn to these words from the second century used by a Christian community in Syria. We don’t really know much about this text. Both the beginning and the end are missing but we share these words today because we’re not ready for this resurrection feeling to end. So, we wait for what God will share with us in the last ten verses of the Gospel of Peter. Let us pray for illumination as we hear these new words…
[50] Now at the dawn of the Lord’s Day Mary Magdalene, a female disciple of the Lord (who, afraid because of the Jews since they were inflamed with anger, had not done at the tomb of the Lord what women were accustomed to do for the dead beloved by them), [51] having taken with her women friends, came to the tomb where he had been placed. [52] And they were afraid lest the Jews should see them and were saying, ‘If indeed on that day on which he was crucified we could not weep and beat ourselves, yet now at his tomb we may do these things. [53] But who will roll away for us even the stone placed against the door of the tomb in order that, having entered, we may sit beside him and do the expected things? [54] For the stone was large, and we were afraid lest anyone see us. And if we are unable, let is throw against the door what we bring in memory of him; let us weep and beat ourselves until we come to our homes.’
[55] And having gone off, they found the [tomb] opened. And having come forward, they bent down there and saw there a certain young man seated in the middle of the [tomb], comely and clothed with a splendid robe, who said to them: [56] ‘Why have you come? Whom do you seek? Not that one who was crucified? He is risen and gone away. But if you do not believe, bend down and see the place where he lay, because he is not here. For he is risen and gone away to there whence he was sent.’ [57] Then the women fled frightened.
[58] Now it was the final day of the Unleavened Bread; and many went out returning to their home since the feast was over. [59] But we twelve disciples of the Lord were weeping and sorrowful; and each one, sorrowful because of what had come to pass, departed to his home. [60] But I, Simon Peter, and my brother Andrew, having taken our nets, went off to the sea. And there was with us Levi of Alphaeus whom the Lord …
It’s familiar enough. You’ve heard a version of this story before about how Mary and her friends go to prepare Jesus’ body. How shocked they are to find the tomb open so they peer into the tomb — in a manner that you’ve heard before — to discover a “certain young man” “clothed with a splendid robe.” And he asks them why they’ve come.
What a great question! Why have they come? In the Gospel of Peter, the author is really explicit. The women have come to prepare the body. It’s something that they have to do by Jewish custom in just this way. It’s why they’ve come, but it’s not a question that remains neatly within this narrative. It’s one that leaps off the page for us to wonder together: Why have you come? What are you looking for?
Seven weeks later, we’re still looking. We’re still trying to figure it out. No matter what has happened or how much time has passed, we still want to find resurrection in impossible places — tombs, governments and ghettos. It’s why we’ve come. It’s why we continue to come. We know how crushing the world can be. We’re not naïve. But, we want resurrection.
It’s why we’ve come.
Because we’ve heard how tombs remain sealed.
Because we have heard how governments fail.
Because we’ve heard that the ghetto will never get any better, but we don’t pay that much mind.
We believe that there is another way.
We are not naïve. We know that there are women like Lupe hiding in East LA confessing to her friends, “I am very afraid for myself and my children, what are we going to do?” We know that these same friends nod their heads. They have seen the shootings and beatings. They’ve watched the drug sales and muggings happen from their front porches. We can only imagine how impossible that reality feels when they open their Bibles to read about the fear the disciples felt when Jesus walked on the sea. They know that fear. This isn’t some idle tale.
It’s so real that one of the women in that Bible Study finally says, “I think that the sea is the [ghetto] at night… and the wind is the gang kids with their drugs and their guns. If we had faith, we wouldn’t be afraid of walking past them, or to ask them not to disturb us?” That’s when it happened. Resurrection in the ghetto. Because then these women organized. They had a plan. They each sat on their porch at the same time each week – and the impossible happened. The gang kids left.
That might be how it happens in East LA – but we’ve come because we want to know how it will happen in our impossible places. We want details. We want a plan. We want it all explained so that we know how and when we will act, because we have no idea how to organize for our resurrection. But, that might be why we need another story from outside the Bible we know, because this one actually attempts to explain the resurrection. It’s the most detailed account ever found – but it doesn’t happen in these 10 verses. It doesn’t happen with the women. It happens before.
It happens like this: So, it happened that when the Lord’s Day dawned (after the tomb had carefully been sealed with seven wax seals), there was a loud voice from heaven. The heavens opened and two guys “who had much radiance” came down from heaven to the tomb. Those seven wax seals didn’t stand a chance. The stone rolled away by itself so that these two radiant men strode easily into the tomb. It doesn’t say what happened in the tomb but these guys come back out with a cross following them (it may also interest you that this same floating cross will start talking soon). And then, an angel stretches his body from heaven to earth something like Gumby. And that’s it! Resurrection.
Now, this might fascinate you. You might want to dwell here to more fully understand how you can be more like the Gumby angel or what the cross says, but this is not what fascinates me most about this gospel. What intrigues me is what happens at the end: Peter, Andrew, Levi and maybe a few others take up their nets and went off to the sea. Theres nothing about fishers of people or making disciples of all nations. They just go off to sea. Why? Is it the place that they know best? Is it the impossible place they want to change? Why do they go off to the sea?
But, you know, don’t you? It’s why you’ve come. You came seeking something and whatever it is that you need to find – whether it’s hope or love or the ability to stretch your body like Gumby – you’ll know when you’ve found it. You might still be weeping. You may still feel twinges of sorrow but you’ll know if you found it because it’s the very thing that allows you to go off into that sea, but it’s more than that, isn’t it?
It’s not just that you go. This isn’t some joy ride around Casco Bay. You’re not doing this for fun. This is something that you need to do. It’s why you came in the first place. Because you know how crushing the world can be. You know when your rights have been denied. You know when your neighbor isn’t protected. You know when the streets don’t feel safe anymore. It’s why you came. Not to hear some idle tale that has no meaning in your life. You came because you needed to find some way to change the impossible — the tombs, the governments, the ghettos of your heart. You already know that no one else thinks it can happen. But you do. You believe there’s another way. It’s why you’ve come.
So, how do we do it? How do we find the courage of Peter, Andrew or Levi to go off to the sea? We know that we need to go. It’s something that we need to do but how will we find the courage?
For Maurice Sendak, the author of Where the Wild Things Are, this was the ultimate question. It’s the question he tried to answer with every story he told. He once explained it to a reporter for The New Yorker like this:
“When my brother Jack died, I wanted to do something extraordinary for him. Five years later, I had an idea. The poem I wrote was very dark. I hope to finish it. But even if I don’t finish it, or publish it, I did it. [The] question is ‘Why do you live?’” [Sendak] paused [and then continued]. “The illustrations keep bubbling out.”
It’s the reason you’ve come. It’s why we are here. We’ve come looking for something. We don’t know how or why, but the illustrations keep bubbling out. It’s why we need to go out to sea. We need to feel the salt upon our faces. We need to be restored by the crashing waves. We need to remember why we live so that we might live again.