Chapter 8: The Empty Tomb

Three days passed. Peter carried what he had done through every hour of them. Jesus had been crucified outside the city walls on a hill called Golgotha while Peter was somewhere in Jerusalem, hiding.

On the first day of the week, before sunrise, Mary Magdalene came running with news that shattered everything. The stone had been rolled away. The tomb was open. The body was gone.

Peter ran. John ran with him, outpacing Peter and arriving first. He stopped at the entrance and looked in. Peter did not stop. He went straight inside.

The linen wrappings were lying there. The cloth that had covered Jesus' face was folded separately, placed to the side. A body that had been stolen would not have been folded. Whoever left that tomb did it deliberately.

Peter stood inside, not yet understanding what he was looking at. The shame of three nights earlier was still fresh. But something about a folded cloth in an empty tomb would not let him walk away unchanged.