Just a quick laugh

So today as I was reading through John 20, I was reminded of something that tells me that people have been the same throughout history.

“On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him!” At that, Peter and the other disciple went out, heading for the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first.”

John 20:1-4

Hcsb Bible

So we all know someone that brings up things that are not really important just to bring up a point. It could really be anything but people generally are petty at one point. So to understand how petty this was, we need to understand the context.

At this time, Peter and John(he was referring to himself that won the race) were just told that their saviors body was stolen from the grave and they were desperate to see for themselves the evidence. They eventually find out that he wasn’t stolen but rather rose from the dead. So instead of focusing on describing if Mary was out of breath or what was going through their minds, he decides to write that he won a foot race with Peter to the tomb for some reason.

I find this funny that it is a light hearted jab at his fellow apostle that reminds us that the Bible was inspired by God but written by men. This means that their personality was put into their writings. For example, John shows it here in this small mention, Luke shows his historian like personality in how detailed he is when he writes Luke and Acts and Paul the apostle has his small quirks when writing that people are able to tell which of his writings are his and which are not.

It also shows that even though he was an apostle, he was still open to be ‘petty’ if you will. Of course we shouldn’t cause division over foolish things but this seems more like a playful jab at a fellow disciple more than a point of contention.

So when reading the Bible, remember to think of who is writing, the context and what the personality of the writer may have been. It’s much easier to interpret scripture if you have a good idea of when the writer is being sarcastic or using different genres versus when they are serious and literal.

I hope during this time, I hope you can find something to laugh about during this time of stress and constant arguing.