Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Peter speaks to Cornelius and to his family and friends

³⁴ Then Peter said to them, ‘Now I understand that God accepts all people in the same way. God has shown me that this is true. ³⁵ God accepts all people who worship him and who do the right things. It is not important to God which nation a person belongs to. ³⁶ This is the message that God has sent to the people of Israel. He told us the good news about Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of all people. Because of Jesus, we can now come near to God again. ³⁷ You know about the important things that have happened everywhere in Judea. These things began in Galilee after John spoke God's message to the people. He baptized those people who believed in God. ³⁸ You know that God chose Jesus to do special work for him. He gave Jesus his Holy Spirit and helped him to do powerful things. Jesus came from the town of Nazareth. He travelled to many places and he did good things. The Devil had power over some people. But Jesus caused all those people to become well again. He could do those powerful things because God was with him.

³⁹ We saw everything that Jesus did in Jerusalem and in all Judea. The leaders in Jerusalem fixed Jesus to a cross and they killed him. ⁴⁰ But then, three days after that, God caused Jesus to become alive again. God caused him to appear to us. ⁴¹ Not all the people saw him. God chose us to be Jesus' apostles and we saw him. Now we are telling people about all these things. We ate and we drank with Jesus after he became alive again. ⁴² At that time, Jesus said to us, “Go and tell people the message about me. Tell them that God has given me authority to judge all people. I will judge those who are now alive. And I will judge those who have died.” ’ ⁴³ Then Peter said, ‘All of God's prophets spoke about Jesus as God's Messiah. They said that God would forgive everyone who believes in him. He would forgive them for their sins because of what Jesus, the Messiah, would do.’

That is what the Lord says.^[a]

God is good, so thank him^[a]

¹⁹ As believers, we trust Christ to lead us into a new life after death. But if we only trust him to help us in this life, we should be very sad. Everybody should be very sorry for us, more than for anyone else.

²⁰ But it is really true that God raised Christ up after his death. He rose up to go to God in heaven. He was the first, so we know that believers who die will also rise up.

²¹ All people die because of what one man did. That was Adam.^[a] And it is because of another man that people can rise up after death to a new life. That is Christ. ²² As people, all of us belong to Adam's family. So all of us must die. But all people who belong to Christ will live again after death. ²³ It is like this: First of all, Christ died and then he became alive again. Then, when Christ returns, his people will live again too. ²⁴ After that, the end of everything will happen. Christ will win against every ruler and power and authority. He will give the kingdom to God, the Father. God will rule over everything.

²⁵ Christ himself must rule as king until he has won against all his enemies. ²⁶ The last enemy that he must destroy is death.

Peter speaks to Cornelius and to his family and friends

³⁴ Then Peter said to them, ‘Now I understand that God accepts all people in the same way. God has shown me that this is true. ³⁵ God accepts all people who worship him and who do the right things. It is not important to God which nation a person belongs to. ³⁶ This is the message that God has sent to the people of Israel. He told us the good news about Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of all people. Because of Jesus, we can now come near to God again. ³⁷ You know about the important things that have happened everywhere in Judea. These things began in Galilee after John spoke God's message to the people. He baptized those people who believed in God. ³⁸ You know that God chose Jesus to do special work for him. He gave Jesus his Holy Spirit and helped him to do powerful things. Jesus came from the town of Nazareth. He travelled to many places and he did good things. The Devil had power over some people. But Jesus caused all those people to become well again. He could do those powerful things because God was with him.

³⁹ We saw everything that Jesus did in Jerusalem and in all Judea. The leaders in Jerusalem fixed Jesus to a cross and they killed him. ⁴⁰ But then, three days after that, God caused Jesus to become alive again. God caused him to appear to us. ⁴¹ Not all the people saw him. God chose us to be Jesus' apostles and we saw him. Now we are telling people about all these things. We ate and we drank with Jesus after he became alive again. ⁴² At that time, Jesus said to us, “Go and tell people the message about me. Tell them that God has given me authority to judge all people. I will judge those who are now alive. And I will judge those who have died.” ’ ⁴³ Then Peter said, ‘All of God's prophets spoke about Jesus as God's Messiah. They said that God would forgive everyone who believes in him. He would forgive them for their sins because of what Jesus, the Messiah, would do.’

The hole in the rock is empty

20 Early on the first day of the week, Mary from Magdala went to the hole in the rock. It was still dark. She saw that someone had removed the big stone from the front of the hole. ² So she ran to where Simon Peter was. He was with the other disciple, the one that Jesus loved. She said to them, ‘Somebody has taken the Lord's body out of the hole. We do not know where they have put him!’

³ So Peter and the other disciple started to go to the place where Jesus' body had been. ⁴ Both of them were running. But the other disciple ran faster than Peter ran. So he reached the hole first. ⁵ He bent himself down and he looked inside the hole. He saw the pieces of linen cloth that were lying there. But he did not go in. ⁶ Simon Peter had run behind the other disciple. When he arrived, he went into the hole. He saw the pieces of cloth that were lying there. ⁷ Also, he saw the piece of cloth that had been around Jesus' head. This was not in the same place as the long pieces of linen cloth. Someone had put it carefully in a separate place. ⁸ The other disciple had reached the place first, and now he also went inside. He saw and he believed. ⁹ They still did not understand what the Bible already said. It said that Jesus had to become alive again after he had died.^[a]

Jesus appears to Mary from Magdala

¹⁰ Then the disciples returned to the place where they were staying. ¹¹ But Mary stood outside the hole in the rock. She was crying. While she cried, she bent herself down to look inside the hole. ¹² She saw two angels there. They were wearing white clothes. They were sitting where Jesus' dead body had been. One angel was sitting where Jesus' head had been. The other angel was sitting where his feet had been.

¹³ They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’ She replied, ‘They have taken away my Lord. I do not know where they have put him.’ ¹⁴ When she had said this, she turned round. She saw a man who was standing there. It was Jesus, but she did not recognize him. ¹⁵ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?’ Mary thought that he was the gardener. So she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away somewhere, please tell me. Tell me where you have put him. Then I will go and I will take him away.’

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned towards him and she said in the Jewish language, ‘Rabboni!’ (This means ‘Teacher’.) ¹⁷ Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to me because I have not gone up to the Father yet. But go to my brothers, the disciples. Tell them, “Now I will go up to my Father. He is also your Father. He is my God, and he is your God.” ’ ¹⁸ Mary from Magdala took this message to the disciples. She went to them and she said, ‘I have seen the Lord!’ Then she told them the things that Jesus had said to her.

24 Very early on the first day of the week, they went to the place where Joseph had put Jesus' dead body. They took with them the spices that they had prepared. ² They arrived there. They found that someone had rolled the big stone away from the hole. ³ They went inside the hole in the rock, but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus there. ⁴ They did not understand this at all. But while they were thinking about it, two men appeared. Their clothes shone brightly like lightning. These men came and stood beside them. ⁵ So the women became very afraid and they went down low with their faces on the ground.

The men said to the women, ‘This is a place to bury dead people. You should not be looking here for someone who is alive. ⁶ Jesus is not here. He has become alive again! Remember what he said to you, while he was still with you in Galilee. ⁷ He said, “It is necessary that someone should give the Son of Man into the power of bad men. They will kill him on a cross. But three days later he will become alive again.” ’

⁸ Then the women remembered the words that Jesus had said in Galilee. ⁹ They left the hole where Jesus' body had been. They went to the 11 apostles. They told them what had happened. They also told all the other people who were there. ¹⁰ It was Mary from Magdala, Joanna, James' mother Mary, and other women who were with them that told the news about Jesus to the apostles. ¹¹ But they did not believe what the women said. They thought that it was just a silly story. ¹² But Peter got up and he ran to the hole in the rock. He bent down and he looked inside. He saw only the pieces of linen cloth that they had put around Jesus' body. There was nothing else. So he went home again. He could not understand what might have happened.