The Best Race Ever

What was the best race you ever ran?

When I was in my early twenties and the best running shape of my life, I was looking forward to setting a 5K Personal Record at a course near my hometown. My parents were coming to watch, I knew many people in the field, and the conditions looked to be perfect. I also knew the course record, and if everything went perfectly I just might beat it.

The morning was gorgeous and I was ready for a fast race. We got there early, picked up my goody bag, and I went to the portable potties before I started my warm-up. As I stepped out, my husband looked at me sternly and told me the words I feared more than anything: 

"Bonnie McReynolds is here."

Now, Bonnie was perhaps the fastest woman to have ever lived in middle Tennessee. She has a 5K PR of 17:06 and finished 11th in the 1996 Olympic Marathon Trials in 2:36. [Yes, I typed those numbers correctly.] She did workouts on the Vanderbilt University track with a group of really fast men. 

And on that innocent Saturday in October, she chose to come to a little 5K in my hometown. It was her last tune-up race before the Chicago Marathon, where she ran 2:45.

There went my hope at impressing the crowd. There went the victory. 

But I was actually super excited to be in the same race as Bonnie. There was no competition; I wouldn't even see her once the gun went off! I felt honored to be 2nd to her in a 5K. (Don't tell anyone I was over 2 minutes behind her!) It didn't hurt at all to lose a race when I was in the presence of greatness.

So I have a little bit of camaraderie for John on the first Easter:

"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.)

This is one of the best running stories in the Bible. John ("the one Jesus loved") and Peter got word from Mary Magdalene that Jesus' body had been moved. And they raced to the tomb. CAN YOU IMAGINE? The intensity. The passion. The confusion. The complete and utter desperation of two men whose lives had been shattered by the death of their Savior and friend.

Peter had sworn that he would never deny Jesus but had done that very thing three times on the night He was arrested. ("Even if everyone runs away, I will certainly not," Mark 14:29). John had been the only disciple to stand at the foot of the cross and had been given the honor of caring for Mary, Jesus' mother, from Christ Himself.

Peter is thought to be the oldest disciple, the leader, the spokesman. John is thought to be the youngest; brash, bold, and energetic. Peter would die a martyr. John would die an old man after he had viewed heaven and written it down for us.

But in John 20, all they could think about was getting to that finish line: Jesus' tomb. 

It's hilarious that John says it two times (verses 4 & 6) that he beat Peter. In fact, he goes from identifying himself as "the one Jesus loved" to "the...disciple who had reached the tomb first." He wanted everyone to know that he won the race.

But he was scared to go in by himself (verse 8). Young and fast but too afraid :)

Peter went in first, seeing all the cloths and wrappings. John went in only after Peter did, but scripture tells us that John "saw and believed," (verse 8).

Peter lost the race, but he was the first to see the empty tomb.
John lost the race, but he found faith.

For those of us who call ourselves runners, we would be wise to do the same. 
Running is important, but not if we miss the truth of Easter. Not if we miss that there is an empty tomb. Not if we miss the resurrection of Jesus.

Enjoy your running. Love your racing. But know what  you're really running for: 

"Hold firmly to the message of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn't run or labor for nothing," (Philippians 2:16).

Leslie Hudson