Easter According To St. John

Easter According to St. John

John 20:1-18

Today we remember the most important day in human history, the day Jesus rose from the dead. This is a day of great joy to us. We put the sorrows of Jesus death behind us and celebrate that Jesus lives.

There are basically five accounts that talk about the day Jesus rose from the dead. These are the four gospels plus 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. There are some differences in the details recorded, which one would expect on such a tumultuous occasion. Today we will look primarily at the account in John’s gospel.

Like the other gospels, Mary Magdalene is mentioned coming to the tomb in the pre-dawn gloom. John does not mention the other women, but other women came with her. John also does not mention the reason they came to the tomb, to anoint the body of Jesus with spices they had purchased. Nor does he mention the discussion they had about who would help them roll away the stone. Mary Magdalene apparently saw that Jesus’ body had been removed from the tomb, and bolted from the scene to tell the men that the stone had been rolled away and the body removed, before the other women who remained behind saw the youth in bright clothing and heard his message that Jesus had risen from the dead and to tell Peter He would go before Him in Galilee. These women did not go immediately back to the men with the report, as they were completely overwhelmed. But these women left the scene before Peter and John came at the summoning of Mary. Mary reported to the men that the stone was rolled away and the body of Jesus removed, and Peter and John ran to investigate. Mary Magdalene ran out after them back to the tomb. The other returning women apparently took a different route back and did not pass them. They returned with the report of what they saw, which was not at all believed by the men who were there. This is my guess at the sequence of events.

John goes on to say that he and Peter ran to the tomb. John was a faster runner than Peter and arrived at the tomb first. John who was the disciple whom Jesus loved looked down into the tomb and saw the linen cloth they had buried Jesus in, but not the body of Jesus. He did not at this point enter the tomb. Peter, who finally caught up with John did enter the tomb and saw the linen cloth as well as one more detail, he saw the cloth which had covered the face of Jesus neatly folded in another place in the tomb. It is interesting that great emphasis is placed upon the fact that this facecloth was in a different place than the cloth. There was something special about this facecloth which we shall see shortly.

John, who had come first but then did not enter, entered after Peter and saw something Peter had not. Both had seen the same evidence. They saw the linen cloth and the facecloth, but it says that John also believed. To Peter, the empty tomb was a mystery to him as it was to Mary. What did John see that made Him believe? It seems that it had to do with the facecloth and the fact that it was placed in a different location. Some commentators note that the word for facecloth is the same as that for a dinner napkin. When the master of the feast was done eating, he would neatly fold up the dinner napkin and place it apart from the meal as an indicate that he was finished. One thinks of one of Jesus’ last words from the cross, “It is finished.” John was reminded of what Jesus had said concerning His resurrection. He knew what the folded napkin symbolized.

We today have a mystery of the shroud of Turin, whether this was the shroud which Jesus’ body had been placed in, saying that this is the linen cloth mentioned here. It probably is an elaborate forgery as the gospels seem to indicate than the linen cloth was strips of cloth used to wrap the body and not a shroud. At any rate, the greater emphasis is placed on the symbolism of the facecloth and not the linen cloth, be it a shroud or strips of cloth. John was the first believer that Jesus had risen. He was the first to understand the Scripture, that it prophesied that Jesus would be raised from the dead. It would take additional proof and a special appearance to Peter by Jesus at some point that day to convince Peter of the fact. It would be the testimony of Peter and not the women that would start the other disciples who did not come to the tomb to believe. They did not believe the testimony of the women. So much did they unbelieve that Cleopas and another disciple left to return home to Emmaus