He is risen!

 

He rose from the dead     chapter 20v1-10

No human eyes witnessed the resurrection of Christ from the dead.  Only the angels who moved the stone and guarded the tomb.  One notable thing when we come to resurrection ground in chapters 20-21 is the changing of His title from Jesus to Lord-20v2, v13, vv18, v20, v25, v28,; 21v7, v12, v15, v16, v17, v20, v21-kurios, sovereign Lord; no longer the servant for His service is done.  Now the Lord who will bring everything to pass that was planned.  On resurrection ground He is Lord, and all shall know it.

John does not focus on the details but the credibility of these events which are the paramount thought in this gospel.

1-2)  “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene, early, while it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.   Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and saith unto them, they have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre and we know not where they have laid Him.

 

“First day of the week” is really the first of the weeks for the word day is in italics being supplied by the translators.  Also “weeks” is plural, indicating this DAY OF DAYS was to be observed every week.  This is further enhanced by the fact that it was early in the morning, before it was yet dark, when Mary Magdalene came to the sepulchre.  This expression is used to underline the practice of the early Church, on a number of occasions and the principle is established that the first of the week is sacred in Christianity.  In honour of this most notable event the church met to commemorate the Lord, and give the firstfruits of their substance, precisely on the first of every week-John 20v19; Acts 20v7; 1^st Corinthians 16v2.  This is also the practise of most churches down to the present day.  This honours the biblical principle of bringing the first of everything to the Lord, He is to be first and foremost in our lives, for He is the first great cause of all.

Mary Magdalene was first at the sepulchre, according to John; not content with having stood at the cross, she came at the earliest opportunity to wait by the tomb.  Consider the devotion of this woman who came in the darkness to stand by Her Lord.  She is a great example of the saying of her Lord “To whom much is forgiven the same loveth much”-refer Mark 16v9.  Her loyalty to Jesus was of the highest order.  She sees the door of the tomb open and she ran to where the disciples were gathered.  Her mindset was one of confusion, rather than excitement, for she thought they had removed His body.

3-9)  “Peter therefore went forth and that other disciple and came to the sepulchre.  So they ran both together and the other disciple did outrun Peter and came first to the sepulchre. And  he stooping down and looking in saw the linen clothes lying yet went he not in.  Then cometh Simon Peter following him and went into the sepulchre and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about His head, not lying with the linen clothes but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went and also that other disciple which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed.  For as yet they knew not the scripture that He must rise from the dead.”

There are a number of interesting observations here.

Peter and John took the lead and ran together to the sepulchre.  There was evident rivalry between Peter and John, as is evident at the end of chapter 21.  When the situation demanded, as this one did, they were together.  This also highlighted in Acts 3v1 “Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer.  This was an outstanding feature in the early church.

John was the younger of the two as he outran Peter to the sepulchre.

The two men had differing characters, John being the more cautious of the two, Peter, arriving later, went straight in.

They witnessed overwhelming evidence that He was risen, by the way the graveclothes were tidily left.

It was clear they had not understood the scripture that He would rise from the dead.  They resisted long enough that He would die, let alone that He would rise again.  This in the face of many prophecies, and declarations from Jesus Himself.  At this point all that Jesus told them came flooding back.

The result was that John believed, in keeping with the trend of his gospel, “that you might believe”.  John was now persuaded of His actual death and His resurrection.  They saw and believed and they are eyewitnesses for us.