Today is Easter Sunday, one of the Holiest Days in Christianity as we celebrate the victory and triumph of our Lord Jesus Christ over sin and evil. The Evangelist John tells us the story of the empty tomb in John 20:1-9.
“On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”
3 So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. 4 They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; 5 he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. 6 When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, 7 and the cloth that covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. 8 Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. 9 For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”
From this Gospel story, you can immediately conclude that when Mary of Magdala found the stone that covered the tomb of Jesus unturned, they got scared… scared that what he told them before his passion and death on the cross that he would rise from the death. Most of them were witnesses to the miracles that the Lord showed them, like the raising of Lazarus and the little girl. By these miracles alone, plus the many others that he performed for the crowds, they knew that their Lord and Master was the Son of God… the Messiah who would be sent to redeem the world.
Yet all those beliefs inside the disciples suddenly went crashing down and forgotten when he was betrayed, arrested and tried and then horribly and brutally crucified on the cross between two thieves. They must have asked themselves, how could their Master redeem the world when he was being executed on the cross? That is because they lacked faith in Jesus.
Then the disciples too suddenly disappeared, except for John the beloved and his Mother Mary who stood at the foot of the cross until Jesus expired at 3:00 pm and the earth shook and the temple veil was rent in two. Yet when the Lord gave up his ghost, it was a Centurion, a pagan or a gentile who watched over his crucifixion and death who was the first to be converted into Christianity, making a confession before Jesus on the cross, “Truly, this man was the Son of God!”
Even unto his death, our Lord Jesus did miracles. Legend has it that the name of the Centurion was Longinus, who pierced the side of Jesus as an act of mercy, a coup de grace and when blood and water rushed on his side, it passed through the spear of Longinus and sprinkled his blind eye and was cured. Though Bible doesn’t mention his name, but this story is recorded in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, formerly the Acts of Pontius Pilate.
Early Christians regarded the Centurion Longinus as a Saint and in fact one of the four niches in the Basilica di San Pietro (St. Peter’s Basilica) in Rome is a sculpture of Saint Longinus with his Holy Lance done by the famous Gian Lorenzo Benini. The Holy Lance is another interesting story.
Catholics know this story very well… that the tomb of Jesus was guarded by Roman soldiers because the Jews feared the he just might fulfill his promise… that he would rise on the third day and that’s exactly what happened. When the Roman soldiers reported the disappearance of Jesus, the Jews bribed them to say that his disciples stole his body. Again, legend has it that the Roman Centurion (again, it must be the same Longinus) being an honorable man refused the bribed and left the military service and embraced Christianity and like most early Christians, he died a martyr’s death.
This brings us to the question… whether Catholics of today still believe the story of the empty tomb? One very famous movie that was shown a couple of years ago was taken from the blockbuster book and later turned into a movie entitled “The Da Vinci Code” written by Dan Brown. This was very controversial within the Catholic Church as many Catholics who are ignorant of their faith and the Bible believe this to be true… that our Lord Jesus Christ did not die on the cross and lived with Mary of Magdala and sired children, whose identities were kept a secret by the Knights Templars even down to this day.
I would like to believe that Dan Brown copied this story from another book, entitled “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” written by authors Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln, though they lost a court case on this. For all we know, this was Satan’s doing. For Christians, the empty tomb signifies the Truth that Jesus Christ truly rose from the dead! Happy Easter!
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