The Original Tomb Raider

I don’t mind the fact that people want to go to the “Holy Land”, although it creeps me a bit particularly among Baptists who return from their trip by testifying in exuberance over the fact they were baptized in the Jordan. I even heard recently of people (not Catholics mind you, but professing Protestants) putting post it “sin” notes to a make shift cross and re-enacting the truth of God’s redemption and justification of our sin. But I really need to work out what is known as “tomb veneration”. This is when pilgrims travel the world in an act of worship go to the grave of saints/heroes. People go to Italy, Spain, France or even Graceland for this kind of thing, but some Christians go to the “Holy Land” to the tomb of Jesus. It is clear in Scripture that saints of both testaments respected their dead by revering their burying place (Abraham with Sarah, Joseph, David, etc). What is conspicuously absent from the disciples is that there is no such record of tomb veneration toward Jesus. You don’t find Peter and John in a talk say around Pentecost saying, “Yea, before we talk to the Sanhedrin we need to stop by Jesus grave and put the flowers there.” You don’t even have any record where someone sanctified the ground. This would be unthinkable because of one good reason. Jesus body was quite simply absent from its tomb. So why do we still have pilgrimages to the outskirts of Jerusalem venerating his tomb? You must forgive me to question whether the angels knew what they were talking about when they reported, “He is not here; He is risen!”