1 Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. 4 They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. 8 Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— 9 for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. 10 Then they went home. 11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. 15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?” She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”16 “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). 17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”18 Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
This is the narrative of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This was such a radical event in human history that it turned the world upside down. What makes it so radical? Because it can completely change the way we view life and death today. If we are honest, I believe all of us think about death from time to time and some here may think that this life is all there is and that death is the end of the road. Some think there must be something more than this life, an afterlife but that we can’t be sure. But the physical, literal resurrection of Jesus is a testimony that the power of death has been conquered, that the promise of eternal life in heaven is a reality, and is available for anyone who places their faith in Him.
We can see a lot of things happening in this resurrection passage in John 20 but there are some things that John wants us to consider:
The Empty Tomb
The Empty Grave Clothes
The Risen Savior
Let’s look at the:
The Empty Tomb
When Jesus died at sunset on Friday, He was:
? quickly taken down from the cross
? Hastily anointed with burial spices
? wrapped in a linen garment and
? placed in the tomb owned by a rich Jew named Joseph of Arimathea.
This historical event is quite consistent with how the Jews treated their own in such circumstances. The four Gospels recorded that on Sunday morning, the 3rd day after Jesus’ crucifixion, Mary Magdalene along with other women were the first ones to come to the tomb because they were planning on properly preparing Jesus' body for burial. For some reason the gospel of John focuses on Mary Magdalene, who as some of you may know had a pretty dark past. But that had all changed when she met Jesus who had set her free from her old life.
Just before the women arrived at dawn they were talking about who was going to help them roll away the 2-3,000 lb stone from Jesus’ tomb (Mark 16:3). There had been an earthquake (Matt 28:2) and those that were guarding the tomb woke up, saw the angel at the tomb and ran for their lives.
So when the women arrive, what do they see? That the guards were gone and that the stone had been moved away from the tomb. Can you imagine how everyone’s minds are spinning, trying to take in the totally unexpected circumstances? Mary’s first thought is that someone must have stolen the body and so leaves the other women and runs to tell Peter and John what they saw. What we know from the other gospels is that while Mary is running to find Peter and John, the other women went into the tomb and met the angel who says to them, “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen! He isn’t here! Look, this is where they laid the body.” These women were afraid and in shock and didn’t know what to make of all of it.
What is interesting is that even the early enemies of Christianity admit that the tomb was empty. Early critics of Christianity claimed that Jesus’ disciples stole the body of Christ (Matthew 28:12-13). Today about 75% of NT scholars whether Christian or nonChristian agree with the historical narrative that Jesus was crucified, died, was buried in a borrowed tomb and now that tomb is empty. (including Justin Martyr, Tertullian & other early church fathers, as well as Josephus, Tacitus, and other Jewish & secular scholars.
Why is this important? It’s because when the disciples began to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus and that He was the Messiah—the easiest way to shut them down and prove that Jesus was not who He said He was would have been to simply exhume the body. But there was no body to be exhumed. The tomb that was heavily guarded, was no longer being guarded and was now empty. Jesus wasn’t there. The evidence of the empty tomb is important but it is not the basis for our faith. Which brings me to the next point:
2. The Empty Grave Clothes
Once Mary told Peter and John that someone had taken the body, they all headed back to the tomb. John got there first but only peeked in and saw the grave clothes in their place, maybe he was just taking it in and trying to figure out what had happened. While he is standing there Peter runs past him into the tomb and also sees the grave clothes lying in a specific position and the face cloth which is normally wrapped around the head and under the chin laying neatly in its place. When Peter saw this - the word saw here means to contemplate, observe, scrutinize the situation, he realized the grave clothes are lying in such an orderly way that it would appear that the body just vanished out of the grave wrappings. The other disciple came in and saw, understood, and perceived the significance of what they were looking at. As John saw the presence and disposition of the burial clothes it’s probable that he concluded:
No grave robbery had taken place (in a robbery the grave-clothes would not have been left behind, for reasons of speed);
The corpse had not been removed by friends (who would not have removed the grave-clothes, for reasons of dignity or cultic purity)
Jesus' enemies had not taken the body (because that would have only fueled the Christian cause)
As we read this text we can see John was letting the reader know that after seeing the evidence of the empty tomb and the grave clothes he came to believe (Schnackenburg 3:312) either that Jesus had risen or in the risen Jesus.” He doesn’t completely understand everything he sees but he still believes. We have the empty tomb, we have the empty grave clothes, and there are many other evidences we could speak about but just these two should cause to ask some questions. “Where are the guards? Who rolled away the stone? Why is the tomb empty and why are there grave clothes and no body? To John - all of this points to:
3. A Risen Savior
Peter and John saw the empty tomb, saw the grave clothes and went home. The account doesn’t tell us how they all were processing what they witnessed but Mary was left alone crying and emotionally distraught at the tomb. At this point she still hasn’t considered the possibility of Jesus being alive. So when she looks into the tomb she sees two white robed angels sitting there and they ask her, “Woman, why are you crying?” She is so focused on finding Jesus she is not even phased by their presence, their dazzling clothes, or their question. All she wanted to know is where His body is, not where He is. As she is backing out of the tomb she bumps into this person whom she mistakens as the gardener, who asks her again, “Woman, why are you crying, who are you looking for?” She was waiting for Him to lead her to a dead body but Jesus was waiting to show Himself alive and well.
The first thing that actually caught her attention was when He said her name, “Mary.” The good Shepherd knows His sheep by name and the sheep knows His voice. She turned toward Him and cried out, “Rabbi - teacher!” Then she hugged Him, rejoicing to see Him - but Jesus said don’t hold onto Me, I am not leaving yet for heaven - but go and tell the others - that I will be going to my Father and your Father. So Mary runs to tell the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!”
The first response of the disciples, no doubt, was doubt. But for the next 40 days many would see the proof of Jesus’ resurrection first hand and believe in Him as the Messiah and their lives would be radically transformed.
What does this all mean for us today? We don’t have Mary’s or the disciples’ first-hand evidence of the empty tomb, the empty grave clothes, or an eye-witness account of the risen Savior. Some people are like John when he first came to the tomb - they admit a person named Jesus existed, that there is evidence of an empty grave and other evidence that would point to a risen Savior but they haven’t yet met Jesus personally.
The question for us today is what do we see? What do we conclude after contemplating, observing, scrutinizing the historical account? What do we understand and perceive after viewing the evidence? Why did John, as an eyewitness of Jesus’s life, death and resurrection even write this book of the Bible? John said he wrote these things, “So that you may believe with a deep abiding trust that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing and trusting in Him you may have life in His name (John 20:31).
Why do we celebrate Easter? We are celebrating a Risen Savior and because of what He did, death has been conquered and we can have the assurance of eternal life, forgiveness, acceptance into God’s family and a home in heaven one day. This is what it means to be a Christian, to believe Jesus took every single sin we have and will ever commit, took our judgment, died in our place, and has given us His righteousness. A Christian has a secure relationship with God and has been placed in His family once and for all. God doesn’t simply provide this evidence to show us that His Word is true but to show us just how much He loves us and desires that we would come to Him, that we would be saved.
