The Empty Tomb
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He 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. Finally the other disciple who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead) John 20:1-9
Jesus’ body was laid in the tomb late in the afternoon of the day of preparation for the Sabbath (late Friday afternoon) and remained there through the Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday). ‘Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.’ Sometime an hour or so before dawn (around 5 am) on the Sunday morning Mary arrived at the tomb. She was astonished to find the stone rolled away. As well as being quarried out of rock, expensive tombs like Joseph’s would have been sealed with a wheel-shaped stone which was rolled down a sloping groove across the entrance. While easy to close, it would require several strong men to push it open.
‘So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”’ Alarmed that Jesus’ body has been taken by the authorities or grave robbers, (a capital offence around this time), Mary hurries to find Peter. His denial of Jesus a few days earlier doesn’t seem to have disqualified him in Mary’s thinking. She says, “we don’t know where they have put him” so Mary was not alone.
‘So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.’ The ‘other disciple’ is traditionally identified as John, the gospel’s author. Peter and John seem to have been together and both immediately ran to the tomb. John was younger and reached it first, but true to character, he didn’t crouch down to go inside. The entrance would have been around a metre high. ‘He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.’ Peter was not so restrained. ‘Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb.’
John carefully describes the scene. ‘He 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.’ The cloths that had been wrapped around Jesus’ body are lying there as if still wrapped around it, with the spices still sticking to them, and the head turban lying separately. Because the cloths are undisturbed it seems they were still in the shape of Jesus’ body but the body was gone – as if the body had somehow passed through the cloths without disturbing them. What they saw was like a discarded chrysalis after the butterfly had emerged. Obviously the body had not been stolen by Jesus’ enemies.
‘Finally the other disciple who had reached the tomb first, also went inside.’ When he saw the linen strips and the facial cloth lying there with no trace of Jesus’ body, ‘He saw and believed.’ John had previously believed that Jesus was the Messiah; that He was sent from God, but he had not understood the resurrection. John adds in parenthesis ‘(They did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead).’ It would take some time before the disciples would understand that scripture foreshadowed the resurrection. Luke describes how the risen Jesus Himself opened the eyes of the disciples to understand the Scriptures, what was written about Him “in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:25-27,44-46).
John and the other New Testament writers place an enormous emphasis on the empty tomb. Jesus’ resurrection was not just spiritual survival after death. It involved a real resurrection of the body. This was the beginning of the new creation. In his gospel John carefully chose a number of extraordinary miracles to highlight Jesus’ ministry. If the seventh is His death, the eighth is His resurrection. Jesus rose on the first day of the new week, the eighth day. He is “the firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:18). The firstborn received not just a double portion but the authority to lead the family. Jesus now leads God’s people and at His return we will be given resurrection bodies like His resurrection body. “For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:52,53)
To listen to this message, download in MP3 here.