It was Sunday morning. The pastor was planning to preach on the Resurrection of the Lord. And he wanted his sermon to make an impression on the congregation. So he proceeded to shave in front of them. He lathered up, ran his razor over his face, first one side, then the other, then the chin, and finished up by washing his face with the water from a basin he had brought with him. (Doubtless, this was not a Reformed church!) Afterward, he said to a stunned gathering, “Today you have seen something you didn’t expect to see, and no doubt, when you leave, you will feel compelled to tell others about it. Some will believe you, and some won’t.”
That’s the way it is with the Resurrection, isn’t it? I think that’s the point the pastor wanted to make. Some believe, and some don’t. In fact, most don’t. And that’s the way it’s always been. But in our day skepticism is even more acute. The motto that seems to be gaining acceptance here of late is “Follow the Science.” And many moderns, thinking themselves to be sophisticated and scientifically informed, simply refuse to believe pretty much anything that has to do with what Christians call revelation, but certainly not that a man can be raised from the dead. The world in which we live assigns to death the Last Word, the Final Say.
But not God. God claims that life has the Last Word. Jesus Himself tells us in the most famous Bible verse of all that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have”—what?—“eternal life” (John 3:16, emphasis added).
And here in John, chapter 20, we have the basis for that claim. We have an empty tomb and a risen Lord. Jesus has submitted Himself to death. He has died, completely, fully, and to all appearances, finally. But as the old gospel song puts it, “Death could not hold its prey.” And in Jesus’ resurrection, God gave to life the Last Word.
At least, that’s the case that Scripture would make. And it has been the witness of the church for some twenty-plus centuries. Can we intelligently embrace this claim? Can we believe it? John wrote his Gospel to persuade us to do just that. In fact, he tells us in this same chapter: “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31, emphasis added). Will we believe? Should we? John says “yes,” and he gives us three reasons that we should. First, that mere sight—or, simply relying on our five senses—is not sufficient in and of itself to determine what to believe. Second, that mere reason—as great a gift of the Creator as it is—is not sufficient either, not by itself. And third, that only faith is sufficient, with our senses and our reason in a supporting role perhaps. But in the end it is to faith that we are called.
I Because Mere Sight Is Insufficient (John 20:1-2)
Let’s begin with sight. Generally speaking, our five senses are a reliable means of information. We can depend on them to tell us the truth. Most of the time, what we hear is real. What we see is there. But sometimes we misinterpret what we see.
That’s what Mary did, isn’t it? Look again at verse 1: “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.” Notice the word “saw” in that verse. She saw something. And what she saw was exactly what she thought she saw. The stone covering the entrance to the tomb had been removed. But notice what she concluded from what she saw. “She ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple…and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have laid him” (v. 2).
What Mary saw, you see, she did not understand. She thought of the opening to Jesus’ tomb as an entrance. She never thought of it as an exit. In her mind, some thugs had come and robbed the tomb. Her theory was that they had come and moved the body of Jesus. She couldn’t conceive of the possibility that Jesus had actually walked out of the tomb by Himself.
So, when it comes to revealed truth, mere sight is not enough. It is insufficient. As are our other senses. So many people in our day reject the Resurrection because it cannot be proven scientifically. And, while they are wrong in rejecting it, they right in thinking that it cannot be proven scientifically. Scientific proof requires carefully controlled and repeatable experimentation. And the Resurrection, being an historical event, cannot be repeated. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event.
But consider this. Even in our own modern era, scientific verification is not the only acceptable kind of proof. Just visit a court of law, and you will see. Life and death outcomes are based on another form of credible evidence known as eyewitness testimony. As we will see, more than a few people actually witnessed the presence of our living Lord.
But, of course, even that kind of proof is not accepted by everyone. It is, as Father Abraham once said: “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets”—that is if they do not understand the Scriptures—“neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead” (Luke 16:31).
II Because Mere Reason Is Insufficient (John 20:3-7)
So, mere sight will not be enough. Nor will mere human reason. Human beings are distinguished in part by our rational capacity, our ability to reason. It is a gift from our Creator. Truly, as King David says, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:14). But as great as our reasoning powers are, they are not enough to lead us to believe in the Resurrection.
Look at how Peter and John reacted to Mary’s alarming announcement. They ran as fast as they could to the tomb. They wanted to investigate the situation. Now, it is generally agreed that John, that “other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved,” was the youngest of the apostles. So he “outran Peter and reached the tomb first” (John 20:4). But if John was the youngest of the disciples, Peter was surely the most impetuous, and, when he finally got to the tomb—unlike John, who was perhaps a bit more cautious—he ran right in. And we read that “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” (vv. 6, 7).
Now, you can almost hear the wheels turning in Peter’s head. He’s looking at the scene, and he’s taking in what he sees. And he’s thinking. He’s using his power of reasoning. The grave cloths in which a body would have been bound to preserve it are laid out neatly—not thrown aside carelessly. And the face cloth was “folded up in a place by itself.” This does not have the signs of a robbery.
You will notice that this is the third time that the text uses a verb meaning “saw.” The verb used here, in verse 6, is different from the verb translated “saw” in Mary’s case. The verb here, telling us what Peter “saw,” is a term used to describe careful perusal of details. And that’s what Peter is doing, isn’t it? He’s noticing things. But look! He’s putting two-and-two together. He’s working on figuring it all out. He doesn’t know what make of it al because it doesn’t fit with anything he has ever in his whole life considered reasonable.
I’m not saying that Peter was an unbeliever at this time. We have biblical data to indicate that he was in fact a man of faith. But let’s not forget what Scripture says about those who do not believe. In Ephesians 4:17 and 18 we read that they “walk…in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding” and characterized by “ignorance.”
Darkened reason has been at work over the last two hundred years rationalizing away the Resurrection of Jesus and using a variety of explanations to do so. Hardly anyone, even the most skeptical, will argue against the empty tomb. But they will say that the disciples themselves stole the body and told everyone else that Jesus had risen from the dead. That, of course, doesn’t take into account the Resurrection appearance of Jesus. Or, they will say that he only appeared to have died on the cross and that, when he had rested in the tomb a bit, he was able to get up and walk out. That’s hardly likely, given the abuse to which our Lord was subjected. Or they will say that Mary and Peter and John accidentally went to the wrong tomb. And they take other stabs at the evidence, unable to admit to such a supernatural event as the actual Resurrection of Jesus.
Why? Because human reason, by itself—like the five senses—is insufficient to take in and embrace such as grand reality as the Resurrection of our Lord.
III Because True Faith Is Sufficient (John 20:8-10)
What, then, is sufficient? Only true faith. Let me show you that in verse 8. We read there that, when Peter had gone into the tomb, “the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw”—now, there’s that word again, the word “saw.” But this time the Greek term is different. It is eido, which doubles in Greek for knowing. We sometimes use the word “saw” in English to mean the same thing. When the nickel drops, and the fog lifts, and we understand, we will say, “Now I see!” We mean, “Now I understand. Now I know.”
And that’s what happened with young John. He “went in, and he saw and believed.” Now what took place in that moment that enabled him to come to faith? It’s disclosed for us in the next verse, verse 9: “for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”
It is the witness of revelation, you see—the revealed truth of God—that leads to faith. Reason may enter into it. We may confidently assert that ours is a reasonable faith, that there is evidence for what we believe. Maybe even sight, on occasion, is an aid to faith. But certainly hearing is. Scripture says—does it not?—that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). So, “the word of Christ” is essential. But we will “understand” it, to use John’s word here in verse 9, only when the Holy Spirit illumines our minds to grasp it.
So, the Spirit opens up to us such prophecies as the one we find in Psalm 16, where David says, “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption” (v. 10). As we know, Peter uses that very text in his Pentecost sermon, and he says that, when David wrote it, “he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ” (Acts 2:31).
If we are to abandon the claim of the sophisticates of our modern era that death has the Last Word, and if we are to embrace God’s claim that, no, life has the Last Word, then we cannot rely on ourselves. We can’t go just on what we see. We can’t rely on our unaided reason. We must look to the Word of God and hear it in the light that only the Spirit of God can give. And then we will know. We will understand. We will be able finally to say, “Now I see.” And life—not death, but life—will have the Final Say, the Last Word.
