The Risen Christ, Part 1 – John 20:1-10
Main Idea: The absence of Jesus’ body in the tomb in which He was laid is what proves His resurrection.
I. The Opened Tomb | John 20:1-2
Despite its happy ending, John 20 begins in despair. Jesus died and was buried on Friday afternoon. After the Jewish “holy Sabbath,” the women who had remained as part of Jesus’ followers went to His tomb to anoint His body with spices as was the Jewish custom. Unlike Luke and Mark, however, John singles out one woman among the group, “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” (v.1). When all the male disciples except for John had gone into hiding in light of Jesus’ arrest, a group of women remained close to Him. When Mary arrived at Jesus’ grave, she was astonished to see that “the stone had been taken away from the tomb” (v.1). She noted the absence of the body: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him” (v.2). Mary’s exclamation shows that Jesus’ followers did not arrange a fake resurrection since they did not even foresee the possibility, despite Christ’s prior teaching that this would happen. The initial reaction of Jesus’ disciples to the empty tomb was one of shock and bewilderment. The last thing Mary expected to find when she went to the tomb that Sunday morning was evidence of Jesus’ resurrection.
Mary Magdalene is mentioned by name in all four Gospels, mostly in connection with the events of Jesus’ crucifixion. Some church traditions dating back to the early centuries of the church have identified Mary Magdalene with the anonymous woman described in Luke 7:37-50. Though there is no indication that she was that woman, the principle stated in Luke 7:37-50 of a sinner to whom much has been forgiven fits the case of Mary Magdalene’s gratitude and devotion to Christ her Lord. Others suggest that Mary Magdalene was the woman caught in the act of adultery described in John 8:1-11 and saved from stoning by Christ, who forgave and redeemed her. Though there is no basis for such association, the principle of forgiveness remains the same. All we know is that Jesus had freed her from the unimaginable spiritual bondage of being possessed by seven demons (Mark 16:9). We know that Mary Magdalene had a dark and demonic past, and Christ had freed and forgiven her. The principle found in Mary’s example is one of a sinner who realized the magnitude of her sin in light of the power of her Savior. Instead of hiding from the Jews, Mary went to her Savior’s tomb while it was still dark because she prioritized honoring Christ in her life. Mary was confused; the resurrection was still not in her mind, but instead of hiding, she showed the other disciples the urgency of finding the Lord’s body. There is no time to waste when it comes to living for Christ.
To Ponder:
1. Have you ever praised or valued anything/anyone above Christ?
2. Are there circumstances in your life that can cause you to lose sight of Christ’s love for you?
3. Are there any major “time wasters” in your life that can be replaced with time devoted to growing in Christlikeness?
II. The Entered Tomb | John 20:3-7
When Mary came running with the news that Jesus’ body was missing, “Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb” (v.3). John adds the detail that the two disciples raced to the tomb, most likely out of alarm over Mary’s report. Nowhere in all four gospels does it state that the stone that sealed the tomb was rolled away so that Jesus could come out. In commenting on this passage, John MacArthur says: “The stone was rolled away not for Jesus to come out but for the disciples to go in.” Arriving first, John stooped to look: “he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in” (v.5). Simon Peter, always impetuous, arrived and went into the grave, “he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself” (v.6-7). What John and Peter saw in the empty tomb was nothing less than evidence of a resurrection. What happened here was different from the raising of Lazarus recorded in John 11. When Lazarus came out of his tomb, he emerged with “his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth” (John 11:44). For this reason, Jesus had to order those nearby to unbind him. Jesus’ resurrection was different in kind; this was not a resuscitation but a resurrection into glory. Jesus did not wake up from death in His previous form of body but in a glorified body fit for heaven and eternity.
The empty tomb indicates two primary things: (1) the grave had been conquered, and the victory of death was achieved. (2) Peter and John could go into the tomb and see the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection. The absence of Jesus’ body in the tomb in which He was laid is what proves His resurrection.
To Ponder:
1. How has your life changed through belief in the resurrection of Christ?
2. If Christ had not raised from the dead, would your life be any different? If yes, how so?
3. How can I (as a believer) point people to the risen Christ?
III. The Heralded Tomb | John 20:8-10
John relates that the disciples did not immediately conclude that Jesus had risen from the dead. They believed in a future resurrection on the last day (John 11:24) and that they had seen Jesus’ power to raise the dead, but the Gospels make it clear that after Jesus had died, none expected to see Him alive again. Their minds were changed by the evidence available to them and available to us through the witness of the Gospel. John describes the progression of faith in this situation utilizing three different Greek words for “to see:” blepo, theoreo, and horao. The first (blepo) means “to look and see.” This word appears in John 20:5, which states that when John first looked into the tomb, “he saw the linen cloths lying there.” The second word, theoreo, means “to see and wonder regarding something’s meaning.” This word appears in verse 6 to describe what happened with Peter: “The Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there.” We can imagine Peter gazing at this scene, his mind whirling as he sought to make sense of the yet subjective evidence in front of him. If Jesus had been revived in a normal way, the linen strips would be found disassembled and heaped beside the slab where His body had lain. If Jesus’ body had been stolen and removed by robbers, it is impossible to imagine why the graveclothes would be left, much less found in this position.
The third word for “seeing” used by John (horao) means “to see with comprehension and understanding. Horao is used in verse 8 when John says: “Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed” (v.8). Looking at the cloths lying so neatly and so remarkably undisturbed where Jesus’ body had laid, John reached the only reasonable conclusion: Jesus’ body must have been raised in glory so that it passed through the cloths, leaving the evidence for the resurrection behind. Unlike Peter, who gazed at the scene wondering, John looked with faith, believing in the resurrection of Jesus in response to the evidence before him. Most church historians believe that John wrote his Gospel between the years 80-10 A.D. Fifty years after seeing and believing in the resurrection based on the evidence of the empty tomb, John includes his own commentary regarding what happened within parenthesis in verse 9, “For as they yet did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead.” We learn from this that though not complete, John’s understanding and belief in the Gospel were enough and real. For a true and fuller understanding of Christ and His Gospel, believers must turn to the Scriptures and learn from them daily. The goal of studying the Bible is not memorization but to learn how to think biblically! Whatever witness was used to bring us to believe in the Gospel, our faith must then be built up on the solid rock of God’s Word. Many have come to recognize the truth of the Gospel by noticing the change in the life of a friend or a family member. These are legitimate witnesses to Christ, just as the way that Jesus’ resurrection changed the lives of the first disciples is proof of His Gospel. But living and enduring faith must always come from the truth and life that is in God’s Word, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ” (Rom.10:17).
Peter and John had the enormous privilege of standing in the grave from which Jesus had risen. Yet, even after noting his coming faith, John reminds us of our essential need to understand Scripture if our seeing is to be counted as believing. If two of Jesus’ apostles needed to ground and feed their faith on Scripture, we also must inform our faith with the Word of God. A person can read the Bible all day long and memorize multiple passages from Scripture but still miss some of its most obvious points. The point of studying Scripture is not memorization (although important and beneficial) but understanding. Only those who understand the Bible can herald the truths stated in the Bible.
To Ponder:
1. Thinking biblically requires knowledge and understanding of Scripture. Give an example how a person can think biblically?
2. What are some ways your study of John has improved your efforts to think and live biblically?