“He is not here” (Non est hic), the young man found in the tomb said to the women, who had gone there to anoint the body of Jesus, since his burial had been rushed through because of the sabbath.
“You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified.” The women were looking for the corpse of Jesus, who had been crucified. By then, Jesus was dead, and they were seeking him in the place where he had been placed hurriedly on Friday evening. But they did not find him there. The tomb was empty.
“Behold the place where they laid him.” The young man invited the women to look carefully at the niche where Jesus had been placed. They had to check that the place was really empty. Jesus was not there. So, what happened? What became of Jesus? Where was he now?
“He has been raised.” The young man finally unveiled the mystery. The tomb could be empty for different reasons. For instance, the body of Jesus could have been stolen. Many gave this explanation. But the young man revealed the true reason why the body of Jesus was no longer there: because he had risen.
It is not something unexpected. If you remember, at the end of the last supper Jesus had said to his disciples, “All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be dispersed.’ But after I have been raised up I shall go before you to Galilee.”
Now the young man tells the women to remind the apostles of that promise, “Go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.’”
The women go to the tomb, convinced that they would find Jesus there. But they are looking for Jesus in the wrong place: “He is not here.”
They think that Jesus is dead, but they are wrong: “He has been raised.”
They believe that Jesus is behind them, that he belongs to the past; they cannot imagine that, on the contrary, he is before them: “He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.”
If we want to find Jesus, if we want to see him, we should not look back and seek him in the past, among the dead. He is before us, alive.
Q
