Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

³⁴ Peter began to speak: “I really understand now that to God every person is the same. ³⁵ In every country God accepts anyone who worships him and does what is right. ³⁶ You know the message that God has sent to the people of Israel is the Good News that peace has come through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Lord of all people! ³⁷ You know what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after John^[a] preached to the people about baptism. ³⁸ You know about Jesus from Nazareth, that God gave him the Holy Spirit and power. You know how Jesus went everywhere doing good and healing those who were ruled by the devil, because God was with him. ³⁹ We saw what Jesus did in Judea and in Jerusalem, but the Jews in Jerusalem killed him by hanging him on a cross. ⁴⁰ Yet, on the third day, God raised Jesus to life and caused him to be seen, ⁴¹ not by all the people, but only by the witnesses God had already chosen. And we are those witnesses who ate and drank with him after he was raised from the dead. ⁴² He told us to preach to the people and to tell them that he is the one whom God chose to be the judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets say it is true that all who believe in Jesus will be forgiven of their sins through Jesus’ name.”

A New Time Is Coming

Thanksgiving for Victory

¹⁹ If our hope in Christ is for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone else in the world.

²⁰ But Christ has truly been raised from the dead—the first one and proof that those who sleep in death will also be raised. ²¹ Death has come because of what one man did, but the rising from death also comes because of one man. ²² In Adam all of us die. In the same way, in Christ all of us will be made alive again. ²³ But everyone will be raised to life in the right order. Christ was first to be raised. When Christ comes again, those who belong to him will be raised to life, ²⁴ and then the end will come. At that time Christ will destroy all rulers, authorities, and powers, and he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father. ²⁵ Christ must rule until he puts all enemies under his control. ²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed will be death.

³⁴ Peter began to speak: “I really understand now that to God every person is the same. ³⁵ In every country God accepts anyone who worships him and does what is right. ³⁶ You know the message that God has sent to the people of Israel is the Good News that peace has come through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Lord of all people! ³⁷ You know what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after John^[a] preached to the people about baptism. ³⁸ You know about Jesus from Nazareth, that God gave him the Holy Spirit and power. You know how Jesus went everywhere doing good and healing those who were ruled by the devil, because God was with him. ³⁹ We saw what Jesus did in Judea and in Jerusalem, but the Jews in Jerusalem killed him by hanging him on a cross. ⁴⁰ Yet, on the third day, God raised Jesus to life and caused him to be seen, ⁴¹ not by all the people, but only by the witnesses God had already chosen. And we are those witnesses who ate and drank with him after he was raised from the dead. ⁴² He told us to preach to the people and to tell them that he is the one whom God chose to be the judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets say it is true that all who believe in Jesus will be forgiven of their sins through Jesus’ name.”

Jesus’ Tomb Is Empty

20 Early on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb while it was still dark. When she saw that the large stone had been moved away from the tomb, ² she ran to Simon Peter and the follower whom Jesus loved. Mary said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him.”

³ So Peter and the other follower started for the tomb. ⁴ They were both running, but the other follower ran faster than Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent down and looked in and saw the strips of linen cloth lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶ Then following him, Simon Peter arrived and went into the tomb and saw the strips of linen lying there. ⁷ He also saw the cloth that had been around Jesus’ head, which was folded up and laid in a different place from the strips of linen. ⁸ Then the other follower, who had reached the tomb first, also went in. He saw and believed. ⁹ (They did not yet understand from the Scriptures that Jesus must rise from the dead.)

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

¹⁰ Then the followers went back home. ¹¹ But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. As she was crying, she bent down and looked inside the tomb. ¹² She saw two angels dressed in white, sitting where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and one at the feet.

¹³ They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

She answered, “They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have put him.” ¹⁴ When Mary said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus.

¹⁵ Jesus asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Whom are you looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said to him, “Did you take him away, sir? Tell me where you put him, and I will get him.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

Mary turned toward Jesus and said in the Hebrew language,^[a] “Rabboni.” (This means “Teacher.”)

¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold on to me, because I have not yet gone up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going back to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went and said to the followers, “I saw the Lord!” And she told them what Jesus had said to her.

Jesus Rises from the Dead

24 Very early on the first day of the week, at dawn, the women came to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared. ² They found the stone rolled away from the entrance of the tomb, ³ but when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ While they were wondering about this, two men in shining clothes suddenly stood beside them. ⁵ The women were very afraid and bowed their heads to the ground. The men said to them, “Why are you looking for a living person in this place for the dead? ⁶ He is not here; he has risen from the dead. Do you remember what he told you in Galilee? ⁷ He said the Son of Man must be handed over to sinful people, be crucified, and rise from the dead on the third day.” ⁸ Then the women remembered what Jesus had said.

⁹ The women left the tomb and told all these things to the eleven apostles and the other followers. ¹⁰ It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and some other women who told the apostles everything that had happened at the tomb. ¹¹ But they did not believe the women, because it sounded like nonsense. ¹² But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Bending down and looking in, he saw only the cloth that Jesus’ body had been wrapped in. Peter went away to his home, wondering about what had happened.