About Jesus  -  Steve Sweetman

Next Section - Chapter 20 : 10 - 18 

John tells us in verse 1 that it was early, on the first day of the week, that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb.  It was early enough that it was still dark.  There seems to be a discrepancy between John's gospel and the other gospels that says it was light.  Maybe they left in the dark and got there when it was light.  This time of year it could have been light out as early as 4:30 to 5 p m in Jerusalem. Maybe they reached the tomb while it was dark but soon after the light began to rise over the horizon. 

Mary sees the empty tomb 
with the stone removed from its place and goes and finds Peter and John and tells them that the tomb is empty and that someone has taken the body of Jesus "and we don’t know where they have put Him" (verse 2).  The word “we” tells us that there were others with Mary and we know from other accounts that we means other women.

The verb and its tense concerning the stone being moved away tells us that the coin shaped stone had actually been moved out of the groove in the ground that it was placed in.  The stone was not a ball shaped stone but a coin shaped stone.  The coin shaped stone would slide in the groove which would make it easy to move back and froth.     

These women had experienced sufficient stress over the last few days that was good enough for a life time and now they are presented with an empty tomb, thinking that someone actually stole Jesus’ body.  How broken hearted they must have been.

The reason why Mary and the other ladies would have come to the tomb would be to pour out more spices on the body of Jesus that would reduce any lingering smell.  This was the tradition of the day.

Verse 3 tells us that Peter and the other disciple headed for the tomb.  As I've been saying all along, all Bible teachers understand that other disciple to be John himself.  John simply does not mention his name in his gospel account.  He always speaks of himself in the third person.   

From verses 3 to 9 we see Peter and the other disciple, meaning John, running to the tomb.  John was a faster runner and thus beat Peter to the tomb.   John only stooped down and looked into the tomb and saw the strips of linen that Jesus was wrapped in.  Peter soon arrives.  Unlike John, and just like traditional Peter, he runs right into the tomb.  He sees the linen strips as well and the cloth that wrapped Jesus’ head lying folded nicely.

The cloth's that wrapped Jesus' body were wrapped by many layers and the spices put between the layers were like glue.  The text seems to imply that the form of these clothes still lay on the ground, as if Jesus simply came to life without disturbing the cloths, that is, except for the cloth wrapping His head.  It appears that Jesus took the time to fold that cloth in a neat fashion.  Why this was the case, I don't know.       

Verse 8 tells us that John believed.  It's hard to say just what John believed.  In my thinking, I suggest that it was at this point that John, at least began, to believe that Jesus' body was not stolen.  I think John believed that Jesus rose from the dead. 

In verse 9 John says that these men did not yet understand from Scripture that Jesus should rise from the dead.  We do know that by now these men did understand that Jesus needed to die, but this was only half of the story.  The resurrection was not clearly understood by the disciples, thus the great sorrow the disciples of Jesus suffered.  You can certainly tell that Marry did not understand the resurrection of Jesus.  She thought His body had been stolen, not resurrected. 

Next Section - Chapter 20 : 10 - 18