The Empty Tomb (1-10)

John next told the story of how he came to personal faith in the resurrected Christ. He began his story with Mary Magdalene coming early Sunday morning to the tomb. It was still dark, so the women with Mary Magdalene wondered how they were going to get the stone rolled away (Mark 16:3-4) so they could anoint Jesus' body with the spices they’d brought (Mark 16:1). They arrived before light and noticed the stone had been “taken away” from the tomb. These words “taken away” hint that the stone had been lifted up and thrown aside (1).

Other Gospels state that other women were with Mary Magdalene, but Mary Magdalene became the focus of the story. 

We know from the other Gospels that some of the women entered the empty tomb to find the angelic beings affirming the absence of Jesus' body and announcing that Jesus had risen from the dead. It is likely that all this happened on their second visit after they had announced to Peter and John that the tomb was empty, after Peter and John had arrived and then returned home.

Mary Magdalene ran to tell Peter and John that Jesus' body had been taken from the tomb and was missing. She seems to have assumed that Jesus' corpse was taken by grave robbers (2).

Peter and John ran toward the tomb, John outrunning Peter (3-5). John looked in but did not enter. He stooped down to look through the opening, which was probably 36 inches high and 24 inches wide. When Peter arrived, he went right in. John had seen just the grave clothes; Peter saw not only the grave clothes, but also the facecloth used to keep the mouth of a dead body closed, lying separately and folded. Peter was standing within the tomb, seeking to make sense of what he was seeing. No robber nor Roman authorities would remove the grave clothes, and certainly none would bother to fold the headcloth. This was the act of someone who wanted to communicate a message (5-7). 

John entered the tomb after Peter, and upon seeing the clothes, realized Jesus had risen from the dead. His mouth was opened and he was speaking once again, the folded headcloth proof to John. The tomb was not to let Jesus out but the world in. John believed Jesus had risen, although he still did not understand the Old Testament scripture and its prediction of this event (Psalm 16:10-11; Isaiah 53). The disciples then returned to the homes where they had been staying (8-10).

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene (11-18)

The two men did not go back to the disciples immediately, nor did they stop to tell Mary Magdalene what they had seen. John, of course, believed, but Peter was still processing. Mary Magdalene returned to the tomb weeping and took another look. Two men were sitting where Jesus' body had been laid. One was sitting where His feet had been, and the other was sitting where His head had been (11-12).

The angels, she later remembered, were dressed in white and asked her why she was weeping. She still believed the corpse was taken and the grave robbed. She was at the tomb because she had no idea where else to begin looking for the body (13).

Mary then turned around and left the tomb only to encounter Jesus, although she had no idea it was Him (14). Jesus, like the angels, asked why she was weeping and whom she was seeking. 

She imagined Jesus to be the gardener having come to tend the tomb. Assuming He must know something about the whereabouts of the body, she asked Him if He had carried Jesus' corpse away (15).

Jesus then spoke Mary's name. When He said her name, she knew immediately it was Jesus and responded in Aramaic, calling Him Rabboni, meaning “Teacher,” or more properly, “Honored Teacher” (16).

As she called Him Rabboni, she clung to Him, in an “I am not letting You go” sort of way. Jesus told her she was going to have a new relationship with Him. She was not going to be able to hold on to Him physically; He had to go to His Father and take His place on the throne of the universe, at the right hand of God. He had risen to bring every enemy under the feet and the authority of His Father. 

She was to go to her brothers of the new family He was bringing together. She was to announce that Jesus was going to ascend to His Father and their God (17).

This was one hugely significant and radical moment. Jesus appeared first to a woman, to Mary Magdalene; she was made the first witness. No fictitious account of the Resurrection would have concocted such a story. No one, in that day, would have thought to use a woman to bolster a fib. This is nothing less than a truthful witness.

Mary went and announced to the disciples exactly what she had been told (18).

Jesus Appears to His Disciples (19-23)

That evening, the evening of the first day of the week, the disciples were fearful and hiding behind locked doors. Jesus, without opening a door, came and stood in their midst, announcing that they should be at peace instead of full of fear (19).

He then showed them His hands and side. Upon seeing the hands and feet, they went from fear and despondency to joy, knowing they were seeing the risen Christ. He was not a ghost or apparition; they were seeing the risen body of Christ. This is crucial to the story. Jesus was not alive as some spirit without a body but as one with a resurrected body. Again, a fictitious story would not need a body nor contain the hope that the dead corpse of Jesus would never be found. The entire emphasis of the gospel story was the reality that Jesus was resurrected (20).

Jesus again announced that they should, from this moment on, be filled with complete peace in the Father. As the Father had sent Him, He was now sending them out (21).

Jesus then breathed on them, and this was meant to be a creative act. Next, He said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Right then, they received the Holy Spirit, and with the Holy Spirit, the power of the gospel: forgiveness. He had given them the power to forgive sin. Jesus had come to die for sin; He was now sending His disciples to announce that Jesus had forgiven sin and they could forgive by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

From that moment on, when the disciples expressed forgiveness of sins, the sins were forgiven. If they withheld forgiveness, then the sins remained unforgiven. A magnificent power so evident even to this day is that when the Church forgives, people are given a new start, a Holy Spirit-breathed new life. When sins are retained, remembered, retold, and held over heads, then the sinners’ lives are destined to remain under the shame of past deeds. The power of forgiveness is to be a mighty force characteristic of the Church (22-23).

Jesus Appears to Thomas (24-29)

Thomas had not gathered with the disciples on that first Sunday night. He had remained unconvinced by the witness of Mary Magdalene. The other disciples had told him that they too had seen the Lord, later that evening, at the gathering he had not attended. Thomas must have assumed they had seen an apparition, for he determined that the needle of his faith would remain pointing to unbelief unless he placed his fingers into the nail marks on Jesus' body. Thomas would need to touch the body of Jesus to believe in the Resurrection. Otherwise, the entire story would be to him a story of the ghost of Jesus at best (24-25).

Eight days later, a Monday evening, the disciples gathered together again inside a locked room. Jesus once again stood among them. He calmed them as before with the greeting of peace (26). Jesus then focused in on Thomas and told him to put his fingers in His hands and in His side and invited him to no longer disbelieve (27).

Thomas then declared words of genuine faith in giving Jesus his full allegiance. He called Jesus “his Lord and his God,” having seen in the Resurrection that Jesus was not merely just a man, or even a man sent from God, but He was the Lord and God, thus claiming Him as being his personal Lord and God (28).

Jesus then told Thomas that he believed and committed his allegiance based on sight. Jesus went on to say that those who would really be blessed were those who could give their allegiance to Yahweh and His Son apart from sight but based on testimony and revelation (29).

The Purpose of John's Gospel (30-31)

John then laid out the purpose of his book: to cause the readers to put their full allegiance in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God; then, in giving Jesus their faith allegiance, the readers would experience life in His name. John admitted Jesus did much more than he could include in the book, but he wrote of those things that had power to bring the reader to allegiant faith in Christ (30-31).