John 20:1-10--The Resurrection

John 20:1-10
English Standard Version

The Resurrection
20 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes.

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We have been anticipating this Day since almost the beginning of the book of John as Jesus and John have both been clear that Jesus came to die so that the nation of Israel and the whole world might be saved from the power of sin and have eternal life.  As we read the compressed version of Jesus' life and we have it all in writing where we can look back and forth and compare things, we might wonder how everyone missed it, but we also miss the obvious things.

Let's return to the scene where the women who saw where the body was taken and buried were going back early on Sunday morning, after the Sabbath had ended but while it was still dark, to have a proper time to grieve and mourn (remember the crowd we saw gathered around the tomb of Lazarus in John 11?).  The woman did not know that the tomb had been sealed by Pilate or that the guard had been posted, but they did know that there was a large rock in front of the tomb that they were going to have to find some way to deal with when they got there.

The only woman that John mentions is Mary Magdalene, though we know she was not the only woman to see Jesus that morning.  If we want to piece everything together from the other gospels, we could do that, but let's focus on this account today as John is trying to keep a narrow focus here to support his main point that Jesus is the Son of God.  Mary Magdalene sees the tomb open and empty and runs to tell Simon Peter and John what she has seen--assuming that the body has been moved or stolen.

Peter and John run to the tomb with John beating Peter there and John standing outside looking in and taking everything in and Peter running past John to get inside and experience everything up-close.  It is Peter that saw the grave clothes laying there and the face cloth laying separate from the grave clothes and neatly folded by itself.  John also sees the same evidence and we are told that he saw and believed.  Remember our main purpose of the book--that we might believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that in Him we might have eternal life.

John is clear that they did not yet understand the Scriptures that Jesus must rise from the dead.  That's no surprise because you and I would be hard-pressed to find any verses from the Old Testament that prophecy that Jesus is going to rise from the dead.  It's there in the midst of other accounts that God gave us representing the work of Christ in figures like Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah and Jonah in the belly of the fish, but they would have to recall the words of Jesus Himself that "the sign of Jonah" was that just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man would be in the belly of the earth for three days and three nights.

It says that all the disciples returned back to their homes, though it seems like "home" here refers to the Upper Room where they had been staying while in Jerusalem that time, for we find them gathered there together in other gospel accounts in the passages that we will be talking about in another couple of days.  Mary Magdalene is going to be the first to have Jesus appear to her after His resurrection when we come back to John 20 next time.