Gospel Light Christian Church Thru-The-Bible Series (6.2)

The Gospel Of John

John 20:1-18 - Read this Bible passage once through before referring to the notes below.

The Empty Tomb

v.1 The last two chapters of John's Gospel describe the Lord's appearances after His resurrection. His death and resurrection are the two cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith. Much more emphasis has generally given to His death than to His resurrection. The apostles, on the other hand, in their preaching and epistles dealt much regarding Jesus' resurrection.  If the resurrected Jesus did not appear to His disciples, then our hope of forgiveness and eternal life would be uncertain. He had repeatedly prophesied of His resurrection (eg. MAT 12:39-40, JOH 2:19-21) as proof that He was the Messiah, and if He did not rise then His claim of being the Messiah should be rejected.

The first day of the week is the first day following the Jewish Sabbath (which is Saturday). In other words, the first day of the week is Sunday (also called the Lord's Day).

John only mentions the presence of Mary Magdalene, though she was in the company of the other women (MAR 16:1), because she was the most prominent of the group. Many people mistakenly believe that she had been an immoral person. The only thing we know about her past is that Jesus cast out seven devils from her (MAR 16:9, LUK 8:2). She was the last at the cross, first to come to the tomb, the first to discover that the stone was rolled away, the first to conclude that Jesus' body was missing, and the first to do something about it. These brave women came early, when it was yet dark, overcoming their fears by their love for their Lord. By coming to the tomb; they risked persecution from the Jews and harassment from the Roman soldiers. They willingly risked much, because they loved much. They loved much because they realised how much they had been loved. Mary Magdalene herself was delivered of seven devils, and was thereafter very grateful. The reason why we do so little for the Lord is because we have such a low estimation of what He has done for us. When Mary saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre's opening, she did not peep into the sepulchre. She must have assumed that someone had come to steal the Lord's body. The stone was not removed to let Jesus out but to let the disciples look inside.

v.2 Mary left the other women at the tomb and immediately runs to tell Peter and John (ie, the other disciple, whom Jesus loved) and alert them to the "loss of Jesus' body" so that they could help to recover it. Peter and John were the only two disciples who had remained near Jesus during His Passion, the others were scattered (MAT 26:31, MAR 14:27), and probably hiding in different parts of Jerusalem. Mary speaks as if she had actually looked into the tomb and discovered the loss of Jesus' body. A person who is overly anxious tends to come to many hasty conclusions. If Mary had only looked into the tomb she would have seen that Lord's burial clothes were neatly placed (v.6.7), and therefore, it was unlikely that His body was stolen but rather something strange and supernatural had taken place. Mary had obviously not seen the vision of angels which the other women saw (LUK 24:4) because she had run off before the angels' appearance. Mary hastily concluded that Jesus' enemies, the Jewish religious leaders (whom she calls "they"), had stolen His body. In her anxiety over the loss of the body, she did not stop to ponder why the Jewish leaders would want to steal Jesus' body. It would make far more sense for them to be sure that His body remained in the sepulchre. Anxiety robs men of their ability to think clearly.

v.3 Peter and John immediately reacted to this news. It was to their shame that they had to be spurred by Mary's news before they went to the tomb. They were probably afraid to go for fear of persecution by the Jews or the Romans.

v.5[1] Though John reached the tomb before Peter, he went not in. Since the entrance of the tomb was low, he had to stoop down to look in. It was probably dark inside the tomb and he could only see the white linen clothes lying in a pile. [2]

v.6  Peter was by nature bolder than John and immediately went into the sepulchre.

v.7 The napkin was the piece of cloth that was used to cover Jesus' head. This napkin was carefully wrapped together in a place by itself, ie, separate from the other linen clothes that were used to wrap the body. If Jesus' body had been stolen, the thieves would not have spent time unwrapping it. The myrrh that was used in preserving Jesus' body became like sticky tar and caused the linen clothes to stick to His body. Therefore, it was extremely difficult to unwrap the cloth. Furthermore, even if thieves for some reason unwrapped the body, they would have left the cloth in an untidy pile.

v.8 Cautious John finally plucks up enough courage to enter the tomb and saw the empty tomb plus the carefully folded cloths. This strange sight brings him to realisation that all that Jesus had previously said about His resurrection had actually taken place, and he believed the reality of the resurrection.

v.9 Up to this point of time, though John had heard about the resurrection, his limited faith just could not believe that such a thing could happen, so Jesus' teachings about the resurrection simply remained in his subconscious mind. In this sense, they knew not the scripture's teachings about the resurrection.

Most spiritual experiences (eg. peace and joy of salvation, assurance of salvation, God's sufficient grace, the supernatural enabling of the Holy Spirit for service, the outpouring of the Spirit in revival) cannot really be fully known, whether through teaching or reading, until we have personally experienced them.

Jesus must rise again from the dead because it is foretold in the Bible, and because our salvation depends on it.

v.10 The disciples hurriedly returned to their lodging (ie, their own home) for fear of persecution.[3]

v.11 Mary's behaviour contrasts with that of the disciples, therefore, the writer begins the sentence with "but." Mary stays on because she loved Jesus more than the disciples. Mary continues weeping because of the disappearance of Jesus' body. Her grief over this had displaced whatever fear of persecution that she might have. She is so distressed that thus far she has not even looked into the sepulchre to confirm her conclusions.

v.12 These two angels, one at the head, and the other at the feet, had probably guarded Jesus' body (PSA 91:11, PSA 34:7) - and could easily have prevented any intrusion. They had probably been present when Peter and John entered the sepulchre, but had not manifested themselves. The honour of seeing these angels is given to faithful Mary. Though Mary is ignorant of many truths and wrongly thought that Jesus' body was stolen, nonetheless God honoured her love. In matters of God, the heart is more important than the head.  We should remember this in relating to believers, whose shortcomings are mixed with a sincere and strong love for Jesus.

v.13 Mary is so distressed by the loss of Jesus' body that she is too numbed to be afraid of the angels. Though the angels know why Mary is crying, they ask her, "Why weepest thou?' The question was meant to awake Mary to her foolishness of weeping over a matter that Jesus had repeatedly told her would happen, namely, that He would rise from the dead. Instead of weeping, she should have rejoiced to find the tomb empty! Her mind is so fixed on the problem, so that her replies on three occasions are almost identical (v.2,13,15). How often we weep over events that are meant for our good, and rejoice over those that will ultimately hurt us!

v.14 Why she turned herself back we are not told. Maybe the angels had reacted in some way to the presence of their Lord, Jesus Christ, and this made her realise that someone was standing behind her. She did not know that it was Jesus probably because it was still rather dark, she was too distressed, her eyes were blurred by tears, she was too shy to really look at the person, Jesus looked different, and probably also because God had in some way dulled her sense of recognition. How often, like Mary, we weep in distress without realising that Jesus is standing by us waiting to help us!

v.15 Jesus also asks her "Why weepest thou?" to wake her up from her foolishness. Just as Mary had concluded that Jesus' body was missing when she saw the stone rolled away (v. 1,2), she concludes that this one who was present must be the gardener (ie, caretaker of the garden), since no one else would be in the garden so early in the morning. She is so fixated on her problem that she asks "the gardener"' if he had taken away the body! Why would he do such a ridiculous thing?!

v.16 After asking this question, she turned her teary face away from "the gardener." Jesus, realising that she had sorrowed too much, reveals Himself immediately to her by calling her "Mary." When she heard this familiar call, she turned herself again. The word "rabboni" conveys greater respect than ''rabbi."  Observe the tender and patience love of our Saviour, who looks beyond all our ignorance, faithlessness, and foolishness, right into our hearts to respond to us wherever He finds love in that broken and humbled heart of ours.

v.17 All of a sudden, Mary's grief is turned to joy. There seems to be no reason why Mary should not touch him, and indeed Matthew tells us that when the women first saw the risen Lord, “they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him” (MAT 28:9).  The Greek tense offers us a better understanding. “Touch me not,” in the original construction, means “Stop clinging to me,” rather than “Do not begin to touch me.”  The reason why Jesus restrained Mary from clinging to Him was because she had a tendency to be overly emotional.  Jesus tells Mary that instead of being carried away with uncontrolled joy, she should instead go and do something more useful, ie, go and tell the other disciples that Jesus had resurrected from the dead and was on His way to ascend to the Father shortly. Also, Jesus tells her that instead of trying to cling on and communicate to Jesus physically, she should cling on and communicate spiritually with Him when He is ascended, and is on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Jesus calls His disciples "brethren'' though they had forsaken Him. He does not say that He will ascend to "our Father" but rather to my Father, and your Father, because Jesus was God's Son in essence, but we are God's sons by adoption.

v.18 Mary willingly accepts the gentle rebuke and goes to tell the disciples. Mary, who loved Jesus dearly, is honoured by God to be the first person to see the resurrected Jesus, and also to be appointed the "apostle to the apostles."


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Footnotes

[1] v.4 People conclude that John was younger than Peter because he outran him. This speculation regarding John's age is supported by the fact that John outlived all the other apostles.

[2] He was probably held back from entering the tomb by a combination of factors, namely; fear of entering a tomb, reverence for the Lord's burial place, and respect for Peter who was probably older than him.

[3] John left rejoicing because he believed that Jesus had risen from the dead, but Peter probably left puzzled by what he had seen.