Last night we were doing a Bible study with our Middle School kids. The focus was on the resurrection of Jesus, and we were reading the account in John 20 when Mary Magdelene finds the empty tomb. I had one of our leaders read the story out loud, so that the kids could focus their energy on putting themselves in the shoes of the disciples.

After the passage had been read, I asked the kids what was unique about the state of the tomb when Mary and the disciples started exploring it. I was trying to get at the description of the linens.

3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

So I ask the question and a boy raises his hand. I call on him. He answers (in all seriousness), "Jesus' head was separated from his body."

Well that would have some interesting theological implications. The young man apparently got John's account mixed up with Wes Craven's Nightmare in Jerusalem: The Legend of Ichabod Christ.

Renew and Restore