They didn’t don their Converse shoes, but some high speed sandals led Peter and John to the tomb that Easter morning. The one who had been deemed the “rock,” according to his master and the one whom the master loved, pumped up the power and ran an unsurpassable race to find out what happened to the stolen body of Jesus. I cannot imagine that this was their first thought – that someone had carried the dead body off. Jesus made no bones about what was about to happen to Him, before the horrible events unfolded in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said He would rise from the dead. Yet when you think of the reality of the situation, this undoubtedly would’ve been my first inclination too. None of this past three years made sense from a human standpoint. Yet Jesus in His divine patience knew that eventually His followers would get the message. We humans are like that. Sometimes it takes a while to sink in.

It didn’t matter who got to the tomb first. It wasn’t a competition anyway. Jesus didn’t show favoritism to anyone. When He conquered death, He did so for every single human life that was, is and will be. He didn’t differentiate between races, background, past sins. He died for all people. He took the weight of our iniquities and carried them to the cross. Then buried them in a sealed tomb and on the third day, rose in victory over the devil.

Now it’s our mission to put on our own racing shoes and shout the good news to everyone. We could sit back and wallow in the aferflow of family gatherings, beautiful weather, chocolate bunnies and egg bake, but this news saved the world from eternal death. Shout it on the mountains. Go to every hill and dale. Let everyone know that we no longer need to fear death. Our sins have been forgiven – once and for all.