The Gospel of John: The Resurrection 20: 1 – 31

 The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a completely extraordinary event. However, like Jesus’ death, is also an event that this Gospel has often pointed to. Do you remember in chapter two Jesus said, 'If you destroy this temple, I will raise it up in three days. We are told that Jesus is talking about his body. Or the ‘lifting up’ - in chapter three. Jesus said that the Son of Man must be lifted up. And in chapter twelve, Jesus says,  ‘When I am lifted up’. Jesus is lifted up on the cross, and lifted up in the resurrection.

 Here in Chapter 20, the resurrection happens. Our chapter falls into four scenes.

 1. The empty tomb – 1 - 10

2. Jesus and Mary – 11 - 18

3. Jesus and the disciples, without Thomas – 19 - 23

4. Jesus and the disciples, with Thomas – 24 – 29

 And then there is a conclusion, 30 – 31

 The Empty Tomb – 20: 1 – 10

 Between the placing of Jesus’ body in the grave, till now, the first day of the week, Sunday, there is total silence. Nothing. A terrible thing happens, but there is silence. Sometimes that silent Saturday can seem very long, but Sunday is coming. Sunday for all Christians is a special day. It is our Sabbath, but it is also the day when we proclaim the hope of the resurrection.

 For Mary the day did not start with hope. It started in darkness. All of us know what it feels like to visit a grave. That is Mary. She sets out in the darkness to go to a tomb. In the Synoptics there were other women with her, and that is the case here too because Mary says ‘We’ in v. 2. But our writer wants the camera to be on Mary. She is a disciple to emulate.

 She comes knowing that only Jesus will be in this tomb. Thank you, Joseph and Nicodemus. You stopped Jesus being put into a common grave.

 In the early dawn light, she sees that the stone has been moved. For her that means that someone has come and taken the body of Jesus. It could have been grave thieves, they were a problem; but for Mary, more likely, it was Jews who hated the fact that Jesus had a special grave. They had taken the body and put it where they thought Jesus of Nazareth belonged – the common grave for criminals.

 Mary runs to Peter – and her concern is, ‘We don’t know where…we don’t know where the body is’. She will say the same thing twice more – look at v. 13, and v. 15. She must know where Jesus’ body is. She wants to be near to Him. Here is passion. The writer wants us to notice Mary, she is the one for us to emulate. Later the camera will turn to Thomas, on purpose. The writer wants us to notice the contrast between Mary and Thomas, and to emulate Mary.

 With Peter and the Beloved Disciple we see courage. They know that Jesus’ grave is a dangerous place to go. He was executed as a rebel. If the government sees someone going to a rebel’s grave, they too are probably rebels. They could be arrested. But something inside them responds to what Mary has said. They must find out. And now they run to the tomb. All of this running creates excitement.

 When the Beloved Disciple arrives he looks inside the tomb and see the linen clothes. The Greek word for look here is Blepo, it has the idea of a glance.

 Peter goes right inside, he also sees the linen cloths and also, v. 7, the face cloth rolled up in its own place. There is such detail here. We feel we are very near. This is vivid history. Our writer was there. The Greek word for look here is theoreo which means to look carefully. To focus. To observe

 Now, the Beloved Disciple goes in and looks, And we read – ‘he sees and believes’. The word for see used here is Eiden, to perceive.

 He looked. He beheld. He perceived. The writer wants us to see that in faith there is often a journey. We start with a glance at the Christian faith, then there is more focus, we start thinking seriously about Christ. And then we perceive.

 What though did the Beloved Disciple perceive? In v. 9 we are told that neither Peter nor the Beloved Disciple understood the Scripture that Christ must be raised from the dead. The Beloved Disciple probably did not suddenly receive a full understanding of the resurrection, but he certainly saw that the empty grave was not caused by grave thieves. No grave thief would say, ‘Oh, I must roll up this head napkin neatly’. He understands that something supernatural has happened, but he is not quite sure what. He just knows that more will happen.

 v.10 is a difficult verse. The men went home. We would have expected them to stay with Mary, to think about this more. But no, they both go home. Then we have a famous New Testament, ‘But’.  ‘But Mary stayed’ v.11. There is a contrast here, and the writer is wanting us be like Mary, to stay in the last place Jesus was.

 Jesus and Mary 11 – 18

 For Peter and the Beloved Disciple there were only the linen clothes. Physical evidence. For Mary there are two angels – heavenly evidence. This is underlining the importance of staying.

 And weeping. Mary is crying outside the tomb, and still crying when she enters the tomb. Usually you don’t see much when your eyes are full of tears, but Mary sees more when she is weeping.

 The two angels are sitting, one near where Jesus’ head was, the other where his feet were. They are at either end of the flat ledge in the wall where Jesus had lain. For many this speaks of the mercy seat of the tabernacle described in Exodus 25. Here there were two cherubim, one at either end of the mercy seat. That is beautiful, for truly here is our mercy seat, the empty tomb of Jesus Christ.

 For Mary the angels underline the absence of Christ’s body This has been called, ‘the presence of the absence’. The body should be between the angels, but it is not there. This makes Mary more agitated. Perhaps another wave of tears came over her so the angels ask, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ The question seems out of place. She is grieving, that is why she is crying.

 The question is a gentle rebuke. ‘Woman – why are you weeping when he told you there would be a resurrection? Why are you weeping when now you can see the evidence for the resurrection? Not just the grave clothes, but we two angels – we are proof that something wonderful is happening. Woman – you should be laughing, not weeping. The resurrection is real.’

 Mary tells the angels why she is weeping. There is a ‘they’. There is a group of people who want to hurt Jesus, even when he is dead. So ‘they’ have taken away his body from this good grave. She is almost certainly thinking of the Jews. But she is not going to give up. So, she doesn’t seem to care that she is talking to angels, she doesn’t ask them who they are or where they have come from. She just has one concern – she doesn’t know where Jesus’ body is.

 What happens next is strange. Mary is waiting for an answer from the angels; but she turned around. Why would she turn around? There must have been the sense of a presence. Without seeing, she must have understood that someone else was now in the tomb. And that person was more important than even the angels.

 She sees Jesus, but she does not know it is Jesus. In her mind the Jesus she was going to see would be a corpse, lying down. But this man is standing. So that cannot be Jesus.

 Jesus, v.15, asks the same question as the angels, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’

And then, ‘Whom do you seek’. Jesus’ question takes us to chapter one when Andrew and the other disciple were following Jesus. There Jesus asked them, ‘What do you want’. They wanted to see where he was living. Like those two disciples, Mary is seeking where Jesus’s body is, but Jesus’ question changes. It is not what, it is whom: whom are you seeking?

 Mary’s only concern is Jesus’ corpse. So she doesn’t answer Jesus’ question, but  thinking Jesus is the gardener she asks where the body is. She wants to take the body and make sure there is a safe grave which she can look after. She is seeking a what – a dead body – and a where – the place where that body is. But Jesus doesn’t ask her about the what and where. He asks her about who.

 The ‘what’ and the ‘where’ is never enough. The ‘what’ and the ‘where’ must change to the ‘who’. For at the heart of all meaning, all understanding, is not a ‘what’ or a ‘where’ - but a ‘who’. The question is not what is God; the question is not where is God – the question must be – who is God?

 By thinking Jesus is the gardener, the writer again tilts the camera to remind us that we are in a garden. So of course there was a gardener. That takes us right back to Adam in Genesis 2. He was told to look after the garden of Eden. That was the beginning of creation. Now we are again in a garden with our new Adam, our second Adam, Jesus, raised from the dead. Man again is going to work with God to look after creation.

 In Genesis it is clear that Adam and the Lord God had fellowship. But for Mary there can be no fellowship till she sees who Jesus is. And with her eyes it’s not happening. She has seen the linen cloths, the face cloth, the angels, and now Jesus himself – but still she thinks that the only thing that matters is that she finds Jesus’ corpse.

 Until she hears her name. He says her name. And she sees -  with her ears. Jesus says, ‘Mary’. One word and her whole world changes. The good shepherd who knows his sheep by name, has spoken her name. That’s enough for her. She bursts out with ‘Rabboni’, which the writer translates into Greek as being Teacher. In fact this word in Aramaic can also refer to meaning God. However teacher is very fitting, for a teacher is the one who communicates who God is, the one who brings light to every man, the one who makes God known (1:18)

 Now we imagine Mary wanting to give Jesus a hug, but he says ‘Don’t cling to me because I haven’t ascended to the Father.’ It’s a mistake to think this means she couldn’t touch his resurrected body. We know it was fine for people to touch Jesus’ resurrected body because Jesus asks Thomas to do exactly that later on in this chapter. So what does Jesus mean? Many people think that Jesus is saying to Mary, ‘Don’t think that you can keep things as they were, don’t cling, don’t become dependent on me as I am now, because I am on my way to the Father. The ascension has to happen. The lifting up has not finished. You cannot have the resurrection without the ascension.’ That makes a lot of sense.

 Mary was wanting to ‘take him away’ (v.15). For her, it was all about Jesus – his corpse – and Mary. She was going to care for the grave. But that is not Jesus’ view at all. Yes, He has seen her devotion, her tears, and she is the first disciple he has shown himself to, but now what? It is for Mary to be a witness. We are right back to John 1:19, ‘This is the testimony of John’. Jesus tells Mary,  ‘Go. Go and tell’ Tell who? We expect to read ‘the disciples’, but He says, ‘Go and tell my brothers’. This is the first time we have heard Jesus say this. He is telling Mary, them, us – we are family. And this emphasis continues. In v. 17 Jesus says, ‘My Father and your father, my God and your God.’ The resurrection has happened. Now the ascension must happen, and Jesus wants his family to know this.

 Mary is the first apostle. She goes and she says exactly what Jesus tells her to. She is obedient.

 Before moving to the next scene this part of the story again shouts out that the empty tomb is historical. Enemies of Christianity, especially in the secular West, they say these stories have been made up. It’s fiction. This account asks them a question which they cannot answer. If anyone at that time wanted to make up a story to persuade other people that a man had been risen from the dead surely, they would have made the first witness a man of importance, like Nicodemus or Josephus. Who making up this story would ever have chosen a woman from whom seven demons had been cast out? Nobody. There is only one reason why Mary is the first apostle. Because she was. This account is true. It is history.

 Jesus with the disciples, but without Thomas 20: 19 – 23

 Early in the morning Jesus appeared to Mary. Now in the evening there is a meeting. Some think that only ten were there – the twelve, minus Judas and Thomas. Others think there would have been more, for when the writer says disciples this doesn’t have to just mean the apostles. I find it hard to think that Mary, as the first witness, would not have been there. And in Luke 24 we read that Clopas and his friend, after Jesus left them, went back to Jerusalem. More than just those ten were there.

 These Jerusalem disciples have gathered together in the evening, when it was dark. And there is fear of the Jews, that’s why the doors are locked. The Jews had killed Jesus, they could kill them. It was a dangerous situation.

 And into this darkness and fear, Jesus comes and stands among them. His first words are ‘Peace be with you’. Do you remember what he promised in his farewell teaching? He promised them peace. And now, after the cross and resurrection this is the first thing he gives, his peace. Not once, but twice. In v. 19, and in v. 21. Why twice? We have to see what is between these two times that he says ‘Peace’. He shows them his hands and his side.

 The first peace is his presence. That is beautiful. The second peace is after he shows his wounds. That brings a deeper peace, and great joy, for we read the disciples were glad. The wounds bring a deeper peace because this proves this is the Jesus they knew. Yes, he is different now, but also the same. This is not a dream or a fantasy – this is reality. The Jesus who was crucified, is the Jesus standing with them now. And later they – and we – will understand why these wounds bring a deeper peace. It is because they speak of His love for us. This is how much we are loved.

 Peace, joy – and being sent. As the Father has sent Jesus, so now they are sent. It would be a terrible mistake to squeeze this into just evangelism. The sending is about evangelism but so much more. It is – as Jesus was sent. This means that we are sent to –

 To be steeped in the Scriptures, as Jesus was; to live with other disciples; to teach; to bring healing and exorcism for others; to be concerned about individuals; to serve, even washing feet; to pray; to suffer and die for others. We are not to just go and like a machine share a packaged message we call ‘The Gospel’. We are to go – as Jesus went.

 After the sending, Jesus breathes on them and says ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’. This is not a second Pentecost. There is one day of Pentecost, and the writer knew all about that day. He is not saying this day happened on that first Sunday. What then is this? To be sent as Jesus was sent, how, how could these disciples do that?

The disciples probably looked pretty nervous. We can’t go as you went. Jesus’ response was to breath on them. That takes us again back to Genesis, where God breathed into Adam and he became a living being (Genesis 2:7). It also takes us to Ezekiel and the famous story of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37). And, of course, it takes us to Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus where we learn that the Holy Spirit is like wind. Jesus breathes on them and says – I am sure with a big smile – ‘Welcome Holy Spirit’. This is why you can go like I went.

 Jesus is saying – the Holy Spirit is on his way. As said, this is not Pentecost. This is what some people call symbolic prophecy, or an acted-out parable. So, the breathing is symbolic. It is just like when the Greeks came to Jesus in John 12 and seeing these Gentiles Jesus says, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified’. But nothing happened that hour. The suffering happened days later. But the arrival of the Greeks meant it would definitely happen. So here Jesus is saying – the coming of the Holy Spirit, this will definitely happen, and maybe at that time the disciples there sensed something special, no doubt they were encouraged by the gentle breath of Jesus in their hearts. For all of us there is a special Pentecost experience, exceptional, unique, a one off; but there is also the daily gentle breathing of Jesus in our hearts.

 The result of this sending and receiving of the Holy Spirit impacts others. As Jesus said about the ministry of the Holy Spirit in his final teaching, there will be a confrontation with sin. And, as this Gospel has made clear, the greatest sin is not to believe in Jesus. Seeing these disciples, others will have to make a choice. To believe or to reject. If they believe, and if the disciples see that this is genuine, then God – not the disciples – will forgive their sins.

 The second part of v. 23 has two interpretations. Most think this is the natural consequence for those who reject Christ and the message of the disciples. Those people will stay in their sins. The assumption of translators is that the verse is talking about withholding forgiveness of sins, but those words ‘forgiveness of sins’ are not there in the Greek. It is a very fair assumption, but this is what the Greek says

 Ever of any you may be holding, they are held.

 So this can also mean that if the disciples hold those people fast, then they will be kept. It is talking about how the disciples can keep people in their faith.

 Perhaps, as is typical with this author, he wants us to understand both meanings, because both are in line with other teaching in the Bible.

 In this scene we see the first church meeting. We should note its characteristics.

 Disciples gather together on Sunday. The doors are locked. There is a separation from the danger of the world. Jesus comes and there is the peace of fellowship, with Him and each other. The presence of other Christians definitely brings peace. Jesus shows his wounds. This is God’s love. This must happen – in the worship, in the preaching, in Holy Communion. Our hearts are fed by the grace of the wounds of Christ. We are sent out, full of the Holy Spirit.

 The above is a good check list for our own church meetings, to make sure our church meetings are in line with this first meeting. Somebody wasn’t at that meeting, we must turn to him now.

 Jesus and Thomas, with the other disciples 20: 24 – 29

 We met Thomas in Chapter 11. He came across as a little depressed, the pessimistic type. The disciples were not happy to go to Bethany because it was dangerous. When they see that Jesus isn’t going to change his mind, Thomas says, ‘Okay, let’s go to Bethany– and we will die with Jesus.’

 In John 14, Thomas is negative. Jesus asks if they know the way he is going and Thomas says, ‘Look Jesus, we don’t even know where you’re going, so how can we know the way?’ He sounds a little upset.

 We again see this negative streak when the other disciples tell him they have seen the Lord. It is not pleasant. He has been working with these people for three years and in v.25 he says, you are either lying; or you have gone a little mad. And he says he will never believe – unless he literally touches Christ’s wounds. There is pride here. He is saying, ‘I know better than you.’

 Because Thomas did not go to that first meeting, his character weakness got worse. Same for us when we don’t go to church. For a week there is silence for Thomas. There is no private meeting with Jesus. Nothing – until he goes to the next meeting.

Notice how similar the meeting is to the one the previous week. They come together, the door is locked, Jesus comes and he says, ‘Peace’ to them. And then, just like in the first meeting, he shows his wounds – but especially to Thomas.

 Thomas has been negative, critical, refusing to believe his friends and refusing to believe what Jesus had said in his final teaching. His situation is dangerous. But Jesus comes and is willing to not just show Thomas his wounds, but he is ready for Thomas to touch them. He wants Thomas to believe. This is kindness.

 But where does it happen? It happens in the weekly meeting. The message to us all is very obvious. Don’t miss church. If you miss church, your character will get worse; if you go to church, that is where you will experience fellowship with others and with Christ, this is where your heart will be fed.

 We will never know whether Thomas touched the wounds of Christ or not. I don’t think so. I think he stared at Christ. I think he wept. I think he fell sobbing at Christ’s feet – and then, after such failure, we have the greatest confession of faith in the Gospel. Till now nobody has called Christ God. Thomas does. He says, ‘My Lord and my God.’

 This is full Christian belief. Jesus affirms this belief, but then gives a blessing to the millions like us who will believe even though we have not seen him. This is the second blessing Jesus gives in this Gospel. The first is for when we wash each other’s’ feet…if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them (13:17). Here is the second. Put them together and we have – trust Jesus, serve others and you will be blessed. That’s not difficult to remember.

 So our four scenes end. This feels like the end of the whole Gospel. Jesus with his disciples, the Holy Spirit definitely to come, and the greatest confession a man or a woman can make. And so a conclusion in verses 30 – 32. The writer tells us that there were many more miracles or signs that Jesus did which his disciples saw, but he hasn’t written them down because there are too many.

 But why these signs? So we may read, and believe that Jesus is the Christ, Son of God – and so have life. And, as is typical with our author, the word believe here can have two meanings. A lot has been written about this. This can either mean believe for the first time, to come to faith. So, this is written so you may become a Christian. Or it can mean, this is written that you keep on believing, you keep on as a Christian.

 Let’s go for both. This Gospel has helped millions come to faith. And this Gospel has helped millions keep the faith.

This lesson is already too long so let me end with a story about the empty grave, the centre piece of this wonderful chapter. Around Easter ninety year Nikolai Bukharin, a senior member of the Communist party in Russia, went to Kiev to give a lecture on atheism to a large crowd of workers. He attacked Christianity for about an hour. At the end he asked if there were any questions. A man came up to the platform. He didn’t ask a question. He just said, ‘Christ is risen’, and the crowd shouted back, ‘He is risen indeed’.

 Whatever you are facing today – the grave is empty. Christ has risen.