I'M COMING BACK

I’M COMING BACK

A cock crowed somewhere in the early dawn.  In his dreams the fisherman heard it and groaned. Pain poured into his mind as distorted faces appeared before his eyes. Faces filled with curiosity, mockery and sarcasm.

Once again the question shrilled in his ear:  “Surely you are not another of his disciples?” The automatic answer throbbed in his temples: “I am not. I am not. I am not.

Again the cock crowed and another question forced itself upon him. Will this be the way I wake up every morning?

A deep sadness wrapped itself around him. In a cowardly attempt to deny reality Peter covered his head with his blanket and cried bitterly.

Suddenly loud knocking and shouts filled the house. With an effort, the man under the blanket came back to the present and recognized the woman’s voice. Mary Magdalene! Peter leant forward, tilted his head and listened.

“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him.”

Taken aback the man stumbled to his feet, crossed the room and threw himself out of the door.  The disciple John appeared from nowhere and without a word the two of them set off along the road to the tomb. Adrenalin raced through their bodies and they began to run.

Confusion filled Peter’s mind; so many questions and not one answer. He slackened his pace and John moved ahead reaching the tomb first.  He looked in but did not enter.

Peter arrived and went straight into the tomb. At first he saw nothing, but as his eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness he made out the stone walls and . . .   Peter stood transfixed. His gaze rested on the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been round Jesus’ head. He stared at it, all folded up by itself, separate from the strips of linen.

John came in but Peter hardly noticed him. He made his way outside blinking in the early morning sunshine.  Could it be true? Or did he imagine it? As he hurried home his heart thumped in rhythm to the question: could it be true? The cloth folded up by itself. He knew the sign. Every Jewish man knew the sign used between a master and his servant.  

When a servant set the dinner table for his master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it. Then discreetly just out of sight, he would wait until the master had finished eating. He would not dare touch the table until the master had finished.  If the master had done eating he would get up from the table, wipe his fingers and his mouth, clean his beard and then wadding up the napkin would toss it on to the table. The wadded napkin meant, “I’m done”.

But if the master got up from the table, folded his napkin and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table because . . .  Peter blinked back the tears as the truth shone into his heart. The folded napkin meant “I’m coming back!”

And he remembered his Master’s words:  

The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise again.