Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”
Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb.
So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first.
And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there,
and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself.
Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed.
For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.
Then the disciples went away again to their own homes. (John 20:1–10)
Because of Artificial Intelligence, it’s getting harder and harder to verify if videos and pictures on the Internet are authentic or not. So-called Deepfakes are now making us question whether material we view on screens is really that reliable. And ironically, it is actually making us trust our screens less, and making us trust our eyes more. In the third decade of the 21st century, our technology and our gadgets are now more susceptible to tampering, and distortion than ever before. What we are seeing is that to establish the truth of a story, the truth of an event, what we need is people who experienced it, people who reported it.
So when it comes to whether or not the Resurrection of Jesus took place, what would count as evidence? Maybe a few years ago, people would have said, a video from a CCTV camera placed right outside the tomb. But it’s interesting to live in a time where such a video would now be regarded as a fake. And we see the wisdom of the Bible telling us that we can trust its account of the resurrection of Jesus because of the eyewitnesses who saw it and reported what they saw.
The concept of eyewitnesses is all over the New Testament.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, (John 1:14)
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—
the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—
that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:1–3)
For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. (2 Peter 1:16)
and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.
After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.
After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.
Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. (1 Corinthians 15:4–8)
Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us,
just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, (Luke 1:1–2)
In the book of Acts, the apostles continually preach that they were witnesses of the things they were preaching.
What makes these eyewitnesses particularly compelling is a number of factors. One, they were people of good reputation, not considered to be liars. Second, they had nothing to gain, and everything to lose by claiming that Jesus had risen from the dead. Third, their eyewitness account are brutally honest, often including embarrassing details about their own failures, like Peter denying Christ, or Thomas doubting. Fourth, their eyewitness accounts were counter-cultural. In that culture, a woman’s testimony was not considered reliable, and to have the first eye-witness of Jesus’ resurrection be a woman was not what you would include if you were making this up. Fifth, the eye-witness accounts match each other, but also have slight variations, and this gives strength to the testimonies because it shows they were not in collusion, like thieves rehearsing their story before they go on trial. Sixth, these eyewitnesses were alive for decades after Jesus, and were still alive at the time of the New Testament being written. They could have corrected any errors about Jesus being spread, but did not. The writer of the Gospel we are studying lived past the year A.D. 95.
The Gospel of John has one of those eyewitness accounts here in chapter 20. And it has one of those surprising, unexpected details that you would expect in an eyewitness account. Here in John, we have an eyewitness telling you what he saw, and why it convinced him. And at the first, it is not even an appearance of the Risen Christ, it is clothes, grave-clothes.
So if you are uncertain or unsure about the resurrection of Jesus, a video recording of the tomb likely will no longer convince you. Instead, here is an eyewitness account of what happened that Sunday morning. It involved a misinterpretation, followed by an observation, followed by true illumination.
I. Mary’s Misinterpretation
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”
Here John singles out Mary, as Gospel writers sometimes did: focusing on one person to the exclusion of others. But notice that Mary says in verse 2 that “we” – plural – do not know where they have laid him. Mary and at least four other women went to the tomb. Mark tells us it was also Mary the mother of James and Salome, Luke tells us Joanna and other women were with them.
They were wondering how they would get into the tomb to finish the embalming process with such a heavy stone laid in front of it. But when they arrived, probably from a distance, they could see the stone was rolled aside. The Roman seal, which would have been a rope or set of ropes around the stone with a Roman seal affixed to it would have been broken and torn aside. The Roman guard that had been posted there since late Friday was gone. Quite possibly, upon seeing the moved stone, Mary may have run ahead of the other women and got there first. She likely looked in, saw no body of Jesus and decides impulsively to leave the group of other women and sprint back to find Peter and John.
Now had she stayed a bit longer with the other women, she would have encountered two angels, who told the other women that Jesus had risen. But she is running back and forth from the tomb to the house in Jerusalem where the disciples are staying.
She finds Peter and John and tells them what she makes of the scene. Someone has opened the tomb and moved the body, perhaps to some other tomb, and we don’t know where!
Apparently it has not entered Mary’s mind that this could be a resurrection. All she can think is that the body has been moved. When she get back to the tomb, she will talk to someone whom she thinks is the groundskeeper of the tombs and say,
“Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” (John 20:15)
Mary is likely a bit winded from running back to find Peter and John. So Peter and John take off with her trailing.
II. The Disciples’ Observation
Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb.
So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first.
And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there,
and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself.
Peter and John run to the tomb. John lets us know that he ran faster than Peter, and got to the tomb before Peter arrived. But either out of reverence, or caution, John stops at the entrance of the tomb and just peers in. He sees the grave-clothes, the cloths that wrapped the body of Christ.
Peter gets there, and Peter does not wait outside, he dashes into the tomb. What he sees is a scene not of chaos but of order. He sees the linen cloths lying in one place. But then he sees the handkerchief, not thrown aside, not crumpled up, but folded.
Now to understand what he saw, we need to try to imagine how Jesus was embalmed. When Nicodemus, Joseph and some of the women hastily took his body from the Calvary to Joseph’s own tomb, they would have wrapped Jesus in a large linen burial cloth twice his height. The body was laid upon it, and starting from the feet, it was wrapped over the head and then back down to the feet. Smaller linen strips were used to tie the feet at the ankles, and the arms to the body. Expensive spices were applied and poured on and into the strips and the linen.
On top of this, a smaller cloth, known as the soudarion, sometimes translated handkerchief was placed over the face and then tied.
Now there are two things to notice here about the grave-clothes: their state, and their shape.
Their state was firstly, they were still there. They had not been removed, not been taken, but were still present, but with no body within them. That state was also somewhat orderly, not torn, shredded, thrown wildly or randomly around the tomb.
But there is something else here in the shape of the grave-clothes.
Verse 5 tells us that what Peter saw was the linen still in place. The language doesn’t tell us explicitly but it allows for the idea of seeing the linen burial cloth essentially as it was – lying in place, not thrown aside, not crumpled up. Some have suggested that it still retained the shape of the body, but the text doesn’t tell us that. But what it does tell us that is for it to be in place, a body inside it would needed to have passed through these grave clothes, spices and all.
And then the face cloth is not just where it was, but folded up. Someone had taken a few moments to fold it neatly, and place it in a place by itself. In other words, it was placed in another part of the tomb.
Now some have read all kinds of secret meanings into this, that a folded napkin was a rabbinic sign that you were coming back, or the folded napkin in which Jews hide the second piece of three pieces of matzah, the afikomen, to be hidden and discovered. That all sounds deliciously mysterious and symbolic, but none of it can be known by any original or modern reader of this passage.
Instead, the folded handkerchief communicates that whoever did this had enough health, time, and confidence to put something neatly in its place. Someone on the inside of the tomb had the patience, confidence and contentment to take a few extra moments to fold something neatly, and position it.
And in doing that, it was a simple signal to whomever came in: no one ripped off these garments and threw them aside.
Now John goes in and sees this scene.
III. John’s Illumination
Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed.
For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.
John goes in, sees what Peter saw. And now John uses that crucial word in his own Gospel: He believed. What did he believe? According to verse 9, up to this point, they had not understood the Old Testament Scriptures that pointed to the resurrection of Messiah. But now that he saw this scene in the tomb, he believed that Jesus had risen from the dead.
But how? He didn’t see a shining light; he didn’t hear a voice. What could these grave-clothes lying there have possibly communicated to John?
That told John several things.
First, the state and shape of the grave-clothes told him that Jesus’ body had not simply been moved. This was not merely a removal of a body from one tomb to another. Mary’s idea was clearly mistaken. If you were just moving the body of Jesus to another tomb, you wouldn’t take the body out of its wrappings, you would leave them on.
Second, the state and shape of the grave-clothes told John that no one had stolen the body of Jesus. This was not the scene of a grave robbery. As anyone who’s been robbed knows, robbers are not neat and orderly. They don’t fold things for you after they tear your place apart.
If someone, for some reason, wanted to steal the body of Jesus, why would you take strip away the wrappings, and only take the body? If anything, you’d take them with you! After all, linen was expensive, as were all the spices. Furthermore, if you’re trying to steal a body, which is heavy, the grave clothes would make the stolen body easier to carry; it would mask the smell of the decomposing body, it would be easier to disguise if you needed to smuggle it out.
Those people who have theorised that the body of Jesus was stolen stand refuted by this eye-witness account. This was not the scene of a grave-robbery. The disciples didn’t steal the body. The Romans didn’t steal the body – they sealed the tomb, after all. The Jewish leaders didn’t steal the body; they asked Pilate to place a guard to prevent others from stealing the body.
Third, the state and shape of the grave-clothes told John that Jesus had not faked his own resurrection. This was not the scene of a delayed resuscitation. One famous theory to explain away the resurrection is the swoon theory. This claims that Jesus didn’t die on the cross; He merely fainted, fell unconscious, went into a comatose state. The Romans and those who wrapped His body somehow didn’t detect that He was still warm and breathing and proceeded to wrap Him in his embalming linens. But then in the tomb, Jesus regained consciousness and came out, convincing Himself and His followers that He had risen from the dead.
But think about it: here was someone crucified without His garments; these linen cloths would have been his only coverings after the cross. How could He have discarded them and still convinced everyone He had risen, if He had merely swooned? No, the fact that they were left there meant that the resurrected Jesus didn’t need these linen cloths to wrap Himself in; He was going to be robed with new garments around a resurrected, new body. If the grave-clothes are still there, and Jesus is not, then it is not Jesus is the same crucified state in which He was laid.
Fourth, the state and shape of the grave-clothes told John that he was at the right tomb. That also disqualifies the idea that the women and the disciples somehow went to the wrong tomb, found an empty tomb and thought Jesus had risen. No, this was an empty tomb, but not entirely empty: it contained grave-clothes, linen wrappings belonging to a recently crucified man. This was not the wrong tomb.
They are not at the wrong tomb. Jesus’ body has not been moved accidentally or purposefully. This is not the scene of a grave robbery. This is not the scene of a delayed resuscitation. In each of those scenarios, the grave clothes would have been gone as well.
So if no one moved the body, and no one stole the body, and the body is gone, and the grave-clothes are still there, what is the conclusion? Jesus has risen.
Early in the morning, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit raised the mortal body of Jesus into its incorruptible form. The body rose through the garments. The Son of God, now in unveiled glory, clothed as He is in Revelation 1, stood up. An angel had already rolled the stone away, not to let Jesus out, but to allow the eyewitnesses in. Jesus neatly placed the face covering in a separate place to signify that this was a scene of calm, intelligent arrangement. And then He left, to begin His appearances to believers, for the next 40 days.
Now, where does that leave you and I? We don’t have access to that tomb. We weren’t there. But what we have is an eyewitness who tells us what he saw. We must decide if we will trust the eyewitness, or find some other explanation for why he wrote what he did. But what we usually find is that the alternative theory is always more complicated, more difficult and harder to believe than the simple version. To believe that John and the others stole the body, hid it, concocted a story about Jesus, became fiercely bold about their lie and preached it, even though they were tortured, imprisoned and almost all martyred for it.
It is a lot simpler to believe that John wrote his Gospel in around the year 85. He filled in details not covered by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He simply described what he saw. There were still enough people around to refute his Gospel, to point out the tomb of Jesus if it was still occupied. No, he writes,
“This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true.” (John 21:24)
And if what he said is true, then a chain of logic follows. If Jesus rose from the dead, then He is who He said He was, and He said He was God in the flesh and Messiah. If He is God in the flesh and Messiah, then He is the only way to the Father, He is the way, the truth, and the life.
If He is the only way, then the right response to Him is what Thomas said when He saw the risen Christ. He addressed Jesus as My Lord and My God.
When we see the victory, the completion of the work on the cross, the right response is, like John’s, I believe. Or as Paul put it Romans:
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
Thine be the glory, risen, conqu’ring Son;
endless is the vict’ry Thou o’er death hast won.
Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
kept the folded grave-clothes where Thy body lay.
No more we doubt Thee, glorious Prince of life!!
Life is nought without Thee; aid us in our strife;
make us more than conqu’rors, through Thy deathless love;
bring us safe through Jordan to Thy home above.