"A Good Report" - Too

"And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:" (Hebrews 11:39 KJV)

  "Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, "They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached to tomb first. He stopped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn't go in." (John 20:1-5 NLT)

 Whatever you might think about the difficult challenges you must face, nothing compares to the difficult challenge Jesus went through, suffering and taking on the pain that He must have felt, on the dreadful day! As I have shared before, several times: The challenge He overcame was His power, as He had the ability to make it all stop, any time that He wanted! 

 We don't even know what that feels like, seeing that we are mere mortals who must depend for miracles, if we were going to stop something like Jesus had to go through. Yet, He took every bit of it, without even trying to stop any portion of the punishment. Every portion of His punishment was meant to represent all of our challenges and pain; everything that we suffer through; even our labor that was part of the curse, it too was dealt with, with that crown of thorns. 

 Not that it matters a whole lot, but there is something different that John did, which I believe was done for Peter's sake, and that was letting Peter go into the tomb first. It was John who made a way for Peter to come into the courtyard where Jesus was being judged. Basically, I believe it was probably because he had contacts with those who bought fish from him and his brother. 

 There was always a little competition them both, but in this case, John was letting Peter go in first...

"A third time he asked him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, "Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you." Jesus said, "Then feed my sheep. "I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don't want to go." Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, "Follow me." Peter turned around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved - the one who had leaned over to Jesus during supper and asked, "Lord, who will betray you?" Peter asked Jesus, "What about him, Lord?" Jesus replied, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me."" (John 21:17-22 NLT)