John 20:1-9
Note: This sermon accepts the centuries old view that John was the “other” disciple. Please note that for this online version, I have followed this sermon with some additional material addressing some questions raised in the message.
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We had a great time in Texas. We loved seeing David, Kelly, and, of course, Kieran who is almost five-months old now. It was a joy holding him, feeding him, talking to him, and just watching him. As we began packing to go, I told the kids I’d like to stay and just text everyone in the church “The tomb is still empty. Think about it.”
Well, obviously, we did come back. So this morning let me tell you the tomb is still empty. Now, let’s think about it.
After the hectic Passover things were settling down to a normal pace. The first day of the week had dawned and promised to be uneventful. Of course, most people were aware that the once-popular teacher from Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth, had been crucified; gossips were whispering about charges of blasphemy and sedition. And, now that he was dead and buried his followers had made themselves scarce. Most of them hadn’t been seen since before the crucifixion.
Who could blame them for hiding? The Romans might have decided they were dangerous too. Probably not, but you could never be too sure with the Romans.
Yet, not all of Jesus’ followers were remaining behind closed doors. A handful of women, including Mary Magdalene, were determined to visit his grave and anoint his body with perfumes and spices to show their respect. John mentions only Mary but the other Gospels name the others who went on this errand.
Instead of finding the tomb sealed and guarded they found it open and empty.
Things started happening pretty quickly after this. Mary Magdalene arrived to report the empty tomb. As Peter and John prepare to investigate, the rest of the women arrive with their strange story of the two “young men” who claimed Jesus was alive. John’s account doesn’t mention this.
I think John abbreviates the women’s account because it is widely known and because he wants to move ahead to his own story.
John, perhaps because he was younger or perhaps because he can run faster, gets to the tomb first. He looks in. Peter arrives and, being the bolder of the two, actually enters the tomb and looks around. John follows. What they see plays an important part in John’s account.
The Bible says they saw, “the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.”
In accordance with Jewish burial customs strips of linen had been tightly wound around Jesus’ body. In this case, some seventy-five pounds of spices had been wrapped up with the cloth. The body would then resemble a mummy, although the wrapping did not cover the head. A separate, turban-like cloth covered the head and face.
Within the tomb of Jesus, Peter and John saw this burial cloth, looking for all the world as if it had just collapsed upon itself. It bore the general shape of a human body but none was there. The cloth looked like a deflated balloon. Add to this the fact that the head wrapping was neatly folded and set aside, away from the rest of the wrappings.
John uses several verbs to describe how he and Peter saw what was in that tomb.
Peter saw what was there in the sense that his eyes took in what was before him. The presence of the wrappings and the head cloth registered on his consciousness so he could have reported to the others what was there and reported accurately.
John saw what was there in the sense that his eyes took in what was before him. But not only did the presence of the wrappings and the head cloth register on his consciousness, their significance did as well. As John humbly puts it (referring to the “other” disciple), “He saw and believed.” The two remnants of Jesus’ burial clothes pointed to the Resurrection.
R. C. H. Lenski lays out the thought-process which the wrappings must have inspired.
No human being wrapped round and round with bands like this could possibly slip out of them without greatly disturbing them. They would have to be unwound, or cut through, or cut and stripped off. They would thus, if removed, lie strewn around in disorder or heaped in a pile, or folded up in some way. If the body had been desecrated in the tomb by hostile hands, this kind of evidence would appear. But hostile hands would have carried off the body as it was, wrappings and all, to get it away as soon as possible and to abuse it later and elsewhere. But here the linen bands were. Both their presence and their undisturbed condition spoke volumes. Here, indeed was a sight to behold. Jesus was raised from the dead!
Peter saw what John saw, John saw what Peter saw. But they saw differently. Both saw the same data—the same linen wrappings and head cloth in a condition they shouldn’t have been in if the body had been stolen.
Peter saw this and went away puzzled. John saw this and something clicked. He suddenly knew what it meant; Jesus had risen from the dead.
John’s Easter way of seeing led him to an Easter faith.
John’s faith may not have been robust; he’s not recorded as sharing it with anyone, although he may have. Still, he possessed at least a glimmer of faith which appears to be more than Peter did at this point.
Yes, Peter would become a believer in the resurrection but why didn’t he experience the same birth of faith at this time? We don’t know precisely but let me offer what I hope are some reasonable suppositions.
1. John may have possessed a more intuitive mind than Peter.
I don’t mean to suggest he was more gullible or more credulous, but that he may have simply been better able to discern the inferences from the facts at hand.
Some people can look at the facts and see what others overlook. In the short story Silver Blaze Conan Doyle depicts Sherlock Holmes with this type of intuition.
Holmes is asked if he had found anything significant in the reports of the events leading up to the theft of a horse named Silver Blaze.
Holmes then alludes to “the curious incident of the dog in the night time.”
His companion responds, “The dog did nothing in the night time.”
Holmes comments, “That was the curious incident.”
Most of us know a dog barking sometime during the night a theft occurs might be significant. It takes a unique mind to conclude something significant about the dog not barking.
John may have been able to draw inferences from the grave clothes that Peter just wasn’t able to see.
Maybe you’re one of those people who feels outrun by others who seem so spiritually insightful. You struggle for the insights they seem to grasp immediately. Don’t despair. People like us just have to work harder.
2. Peter may have been more bound by his prejudices than John.
Luke tells us how the disciples responded to the story the women told. He says they thought “…the story sounded like nonsense, so they didn’t believe it.” It’s interesting Dr. Luke should offer that comment. The word translated “nonsense” or “idle tale” is an ancient medical term that means “the wild talk of those in delirium or hysteria.” (Robertson WP)
Their response to the women’s story is hardly surprising. In first century Judea a woman wasn’t considered to be particularly reliable. Women weren’t even allowed to testify in court. Yet, all the gospels agree the women were the first witnesses to the Resurrection.
Now this is significant, especially when we encounter those who insist the Easter story was spun out of the imagination of the early church. If the writers had been making the story up, they would have inspired more credibility if they had cast men in the role of the first witnesses. That they kept women in that role gives their accounts a note of authenticity.
Anyway, both Peter and John would have been culturally disinclined to believe the women. Yet, John, when confronted by the empty tomb and the evidence within, cast his lot with the women.
My goal is not to suggest John might have been more enlightened than Peter. I just want you to keep in mind that prejudice can keep a person from faith.
If you reject the Easter story outright, you need to examine how you approach the story. Are you approaching the story with a truly open mind or with a mind determined beforehand to exclude the possibility of God acting to counter the power of the grave?
Some Observations On An Easter Way Of Seeing
John didn’t include this story to remind his readers he could run faster than Peter. He didn’t include this story to show he was more spiritual than Peter. He didn’t include it to demonstrate—as some in centuries past argued—the deference paid to Peter in the early church. I believe John included this story of how he came to have an Easter way of seeing to show us something about the nature of faith.
John’s purpose in writing his Gospel was to call people to faith. Naturally he wants us to understand how faith is born, how it develops.
So, what does he tell us?
1. The foundational truth of Christianity is open to scrutiny.
Of all the gospel writers John offers to most explicit invitation to consider and weigh the evidence regarding Jesus. When he uses “signs” as his favorite word for Jesus’ miracles, it’s as if he wants us to ask, “What do the signs point to?”
As he took us on a tour of the Empty Tomb, he lets us see it really wasn’t empty. He shows us some forensic evidence and asks us to begin to evaluate it.
All the New Testament writers share this perspective. They invite their readers to consider the evidence backing up the claims about Christ.
If you’ve never weighed the evidence for Jesus’ claims or if you’ve begun to question what you’ve been taught about Jesus, don’t be afraid to dig deeper. Read the Bible carefully, seek the help of good writers who fairly consider the tough questions, let the evidence lead you.
You don’t have to fear losing your faith. In fact, it may become stronger.
2. The path to an Easter way of seeing will vary from person to person.
As John brings his Gospel to a close he will tell the story of several people who come to possess faith in the Risen Christ, who begin to have an Easter way of seeing. Each story is unique.
As you seek to have that Easter way of seeing, don’t expect your experience to be a copy of someone else’s. You’re an individual. Don’t be discouraged or intimidated by the stories of others. You may not have heard of their struggles, their dark nights of the soul. And remember, you want your Easter faith to be one you can truly own. Above all, be open to God leading you step by step to faith.
3. Remaining blind to the Easter way of seeing is the greatest spiritual tragedy.
John wrote his Gospel to encourage people to believe, but he never forgot there would be those who steadfastly refused to believe.
John never treated these people with disrespect. He saw them as the victims of a spiritual struggle in which they allowed prejudice, selfishness, and arrogance to keep them from faith.
Their refusal to believe meant they were lost. They would not share in Jesus’ Resurrection victory.
If you’re resisting that look which might lead to faith, give up your foolish pride and seek God’s help. Pray to see the truth, the truth which transformed history. Pray to understand the significance of that empty tomb.
Conclusion: A couple weeks ago, during the Friday Evening Bible Study, we read a striking comment in the book we are studying. The author, speaking of the Resurrection of Jesus, said the tomb became a womb. Indeed, that place of death became a place of birth.
Certainly it gave birth to Christianity. But it also gave birth to a new way of seeing.
The empty tomb gave birth to a new way of seeing history. History is not spiraling out of control. It has a goal, an objective. In Christ, God was accomplishing his purposes, using the treachery of the religious leaders and the cruelty of the Romans.
The empty tomb gave birth to a new way of seeing death. The great enemy has suffered a rout that foretells its ultimate defeat. Your Easter way of seeing changes the way you see the loss of your loved one, your friend. Your grief can be real but need not be overwhelming.
The empty tomb gave birth to a new way of seeing disappointment and loss. You may experience the darkness of Saturday following the death of a dream, a hope and know that God may surprise you with something totally unexpected on Sunday.
The empty tomb gave birth to a new way of seeing pain and suffering. The crucifixion was the greatest injustice. A sinless man died accused of the gravest sin: blasphemy. But that injustice was overturned as the stone rolled away and Christ emerged vindicated from the tomb. It reminds us that someday God will make things right.
The empty tomb gave birth to a new way of seeing God. The birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ remind us that God has not elected to remain remote from his rebel creation. As the creed says, for we humans and for our salvation the Son of God came down and was incarnate. He lived with us and endured the worst we could do to him, so we might live with him and enjoy him forever.
The empty tomb gave birth to a new way of seeing ourselves. When we stand back and look at the One who walked out of that tomb on the first Easter, we will embrace a new self-understanding. We see that we could not die the death he died, a death died for the sake of others. We, like the thieves who died beside him, deserve the sentence of death. Only his innocence allowed him to die for others. We see that, without him, we could not experience the resurrection he experienced, for, as sinners, death would have a right to hold us in its grip, to exact the penalty for our rebellion. We see that our only hope is in Christ, not in ourselves.
Paul Meier understands this, when he writes.
Christ is the key to our victory [over death]. If you want to disarm death, you must disarm yourself. Drop your weapons of self-sufficiency and control and surrender your life to Jesus. You must realize that no matter how hard you fight, death will win unless you turn everything over to Jesus and let Him take command. He is the only One who has power over death.[1]
So, let me repeat the affirmation with which we began: The tomb is still empty. Do you see what that means?
Added Material
Reconciling the Gospel accounts: Because each Gospel writer had his own purpose in writing and choosing his material, they weren’t always clear about the sequence of events. Fortunately, it’s not absolutely necessary to know the order in which things happened to grasp the gist of the story. Still, let me offer what may have been the sequence of events leading up to Peter and John’s visit to the tomb.
o The women arrive at the tomb and discover it empty. (All Gospels)
o Mary Magdalene may have broken away from the others to report the discovery to the Eleven.
o Meanwhile, angels appear to the women to tell them that Jesus had risen as he had promised them. (Luke 24)
o In response to Mary Magdalene’s report, Peter and John set off to see to the tomb.
o Along the way or just before they leave, they encounter the other women who are returning to tell their story.
o This prompts Peter and John to quicken their pace and literally run to the tomb.
Alternative explanations of the Easter story: The prejudice that keeps a person from believing has various expressions.
The prejudice may be against those proclaiming the gospel. The early church sometimes encountered those who would not believe because of the low social status of the evangelists. Others allowed cultural or racial prejudices to close their eyes.
Perhaps the most deadly and persistent prejudice is a bias against the supernatural. Those who deny the very possibility of miracle, who insist there is no God to do the unprecedented in human history, will never be persuaded to believe in the Resurrection—no matter how powerful the evidence.
Those who cling to anti-supernatural prejudices will believe almost anything.
They will believe any number of even less believable alternatives:
o That someone other than Jesus was crucified,
o That Jesus didn’t really die on the cross,
o That a frightened band of disciples stole the body from under the noses of the Roman guards,
o That Jesus’ enemies, for some unexplained reason, stole the body which was just where they wanted it to be and then forgot where they had put it when the Resurrection stories started spreading,
o That the women and the disciples all went to the wrong tomb and concluded Jesus had risen (an explanation which assumes the opponents of the gospel never thought of pointing out the right tomb once the Christians started preaching about the Resurrection),
o That hundreds of men and women all shared the same hallucination of the Risen Christ (a psychological phenomenon which has never been repeated),.
There are other “alternative” explanations just as fanciful. One cited in Time a few years ago was totally the product of its author’s imagination. He suggested that Jesus was buried in a shallow grave and his body was eaten by wild dogs; the disciples, upon finding the body missing, jumped to a conclusion which included a resurrection.
The Resurrection of Jesus was not captured on film and archived in a museum for you to watch to bolster your faith. Yet, for two thousand years, some of history’s greatest minds have examined the evidence we do have and concluded the Easter story is the best explanation for what happened.
[1] Paul Meier and David Henderson, Finding Purpose Beyond Our Pain, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009, p. 261.
