John 20:1-10

Friends, thanks for joining us.

Thanks for being back with us.

We hope that you had a great Easter weekend.

And, kind of as we alluded to last week, the timing of this,

and we can't take credit for it because it certainly wasn't planned,

but the timing works out well.

We're fortunate in that today we move into chapter

20 of the Gospel of John, which is John's

Easter story, and

as is the case generally,

John has a different spin, some details that are not in the other gospels.

And so today we'll just we'll look at the

time in the front half, we'll look at the front part of the story.

And then I'll start reading here, we'll come back and talk it through

early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came

and saw

that the stone had been removed from the tomb.

So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple,

the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them,

they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have

laid him.

Then Peter and the other disciples set out and went toward the tomb.

The two were running together,

but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

He bent down to look in and saw the linen

wrappings lying there, but did not go in.

Then Simon Peter came following him, and went into the tomb.

He saw the linen wrapping lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus head,

not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up and placed by itself.

Then the other disciple who reached the tomb first also went in,

and he saw and believed, for as of yet

they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead.

Then the disciples returned to their homes.

So I mentioned only

John gives us this kind of foot race story.

The idea that first Mary Magdalene, who goes in,

in this instance by the tomb to herself, or at least no one else is mentioned,

she comes back, she tells them that she can't find Jesus body

for some reason, only John

and Peter, who are kind of the two primary disciples

in most of the gospel stories, take off running the, it.

Well, I should back up Michael.

We scholars, I I'm sorry I didn't feel that in

the reference here is to the disciple that Jesus loved.

That is generally understood to be John.

In fact,

correct me if I'm wrong here, Michael, but I think the the vast bulk of scholarship

and scholarly biblical work says that

this is very likely to be John himself.

And so they run to the tomb.

John's faster than Peter,

maybe also younger.

Or interestingly enough, John hesitates.

But if you know the gospel portrayal of Peter, he never hesitates.

He runs right in.

They both see the clothes, but John sees and believes,

and then they do not yet understand,

and they return to their homes.

Which probably doesn't mean their own houses.

It means to the place that had been,

lots of interesting things happening here, Michael.

We have it's pretty as we've said,

probably for the last couple of weeks as we've been working our way

to the resurrection story, kind of scant details,

a pretty condensed telling.

John could spin this out longer, but doesn't, kind of a lot going on here.

And, interesting.

The things that John

gives us and the way he gives us the details

that are not found in the other stories.

It we see a lot of the characters making the appearance really quickly.

There's a strong economy in this story because you see, Mary

is that one who goes to the tomb, comes back.

Then you have this idea that you've got these two other disciples

and, and, you know, you have this idea that there's a kind of,

not competition as much as there's a,

a display of, of leadership priority that's happening.

And who's getting to the tomb first?

There's a

the foot race has some interesting implications for how,

you know, these leaders of the church, both will move forward as

being core witnesses to what they've seen and what they come to believe.

This idea of outrunning Peter is certainly fascinating

when this is couched within the telling that John has given.

And to your point, Clint, the idea that scholarship,

they talk about this being a way of the author remaining humble, right?

The idea that without naming yourself as being central to the story,

you can also say, you know, I was there.

Hey, by the way, when I talk about being a witness, that's not just me

saying that I'm collecting other stories, but I I've been part of it.

There's a relational aspect to that kind of witness.

And so this foot race, I think is fascinating because

on one hand, it's a jab because Peter doesn't get there first.

On the other hand, it's the admission.

You know, John is a person with caution and the person

looking to see the whole situation.

And Peter runs right in and is the first to enter into the tomb

to see what's there.

It's so there's an honoring of the fact that Peter's the rock upon

which the church.

There's a lot of those details happening in a story like this.

Clint. Yeah, I, I think what's interesting,

on one hand, it probably is humble not to put your name in,

but when you give yourself the title The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved, maybe,

maybe it pushes back on that humility just to touch.

One of the things that I think scholarship is helpful

in, in assisting us to see is that this gospel

is very likely written within and to a community

that was very supportive of John, that was very influenced by John.

And so, again, this idea that this the disciple

Jesus loved, would be very comforting, very inspiring to a group of people

who at least looked themself

to the line of John's testimony and thought of themselves as kind of

an extension of John's own faith,

that they thought of themselves as John's.

He's their beloved pastor, their beloved disciple.

He's kind of their origin story, as they might understand it.

And so we see here, I think, the whether he gives himself this name

or whether someone else helps him get there,

I think it's easy to see why that would have been celebrated.

There's another detail, I think, Michael, that is here that,

I've always been fascinated with,

and it says that the wrappings were lying there.

And then in verse seven and the cloth that had been on Jesus head

was not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself.

And that word rolled up implies almost folded.

In other words, it wasn't thrown.

There was a certain order to it, like it had been placed there, on purpose.

And I heard a wonderful

take on this that was essentially along the lines of,

if we're ever

tempted to think

that Jesus somehow,

you know, ran breathlessly out of the tomb or narrowly escaped death,

this is John's little nod to the victory being so complete

that Jesus got up and folded his clothes

before he left the tomb that that he

that his resurrection was so total

and so final that he's not running from anyone.

He took time to put the cloth away in an orderly fashion.

And I.

I don't know if that's the intention here, Michael.

I'm not sure that's what John is or isn't trying to tell us,

but I think it's a nice way to look at that detail.

Yeah, I think that absolutely helps us.

And I think we should know this, Clint.

Also that we now have the return of clothing as a, as a meaning in which

we had that explicitly pointed out just a few verses ago when the centurions,

the Romans were divided and casting lots over Jesus's clothes.

And so here, at the end of the day, the last clothes

that Jesus was supposed to wear are now left behind.

There is in a book like John going to be theological significance to that.

I also want to point out that the other gospels

include their own ways of pushing

back on the idea of a of a body theft, which was a natural belief

that would be had that someone just went in and took the body.

And of course, the disciples didn't find Jesus's body

because someone else took him in, who went in there broke and took the body

and part of the lesson in this, I think very practically, is no grave

robber goes in and takes the body and leaves behind

folded grave, grave clothes that it would not make any sense at all.

So this is also a nod for those who might be skeptics to say no.

Listen, some of those assumptions you're making about what happened,

it is not true.

And the reason they need to do that, by the way,

and we're in the Easter season liturgically here.

That's just the moment that we're recording this,

but listen, people have been doubting

the resurrection since literally day one,

and let's not miss that even within this text.

Right.

The other disciple reached the tomb first and went in.

He saw and believed, but they did not fully understand yet the Scripture.

So where where's the other gospels are going to have even embedded in it?

A portion of doubt?

Your John's not going to ascribe that to John's experience, but yet there's

still a lack of awareness, a fullness of understanding what's happening.

They have to go back and they have to see all of these things come together

in the revealed presence of Christ.

And I think that's an important reminder in this story, is that it's

not here to answer all of our questions about how things happen.

It is, however, addressing some of the

the deeper concerns that people were raising about these disciples.

Witness.

And John is embedding both a theological meaning with the practical sort of,

the notes that need made to help people along that path.

I think there's a nice devotional element to that as well.

We we often think that

understanding precedes believing

that you have to understand something before you could put your faith in it.

And here, for this disciple is exactly the opposite is true.

He he believes he just doesn't yet understand the Scripture.

His faith precedes his knowledge, his understanding.

And I think that there's a really powerful invitation in that we

we will struggle

if we need to understand Easter before we can believe it.

We will struggle if we need to understand resurrection,

and if we think we need to make sense of the empty tomb

before we can believe it, before we can embrace it in faith,

we will have a hard time, I think.

And there's a I think there's a flow to this

that is helpful because I think it feels true

in our own lives that we put our faith in something.

And once we do, then we move toward understanding what it means.

But it it doesn't always necessarily work.

The opposite way.

Faith often comes first, and then we move toward understanding.

And I think a lot of people in our day and age

maybe assume that that's the other way around.

So it's interesting.

I think this story embeds that lesson

in a really consistent way.

And we see it again here today.

And if you've been with us for the study, this is not going to be new to you.

But I just want to have us all look back on verse one here.

It's the first day of the week when it is still dark.

And if you've been with us through the study of John, we've mentioned

how important the time of day is and even the amount of light present in the scene

and here the disciples, when they arrive at the tomb,

they arrive in darkness. And this idea

that they get in to the tomb, I just think of this as powerful.

They get into the tomb and they begin to understand.

They begin to see.

There's there is belief here, right?

But the understanding is not yet complete.

How are they going to get that explicitly?

The scriptures. Right.

This is a teaching moment.

It's to say if you get to the tomb in the darkness,

where are you going to turn to understand on the other side of belief,

you're going to turn to the scriptures.

You're going to turn to the accounts of what God has done.

And of course,

the scriptures referenced here would be what we would call the Old Testament,

a firm understanding of how God's been working throughout the whole of history.

This is a cosmic story that John is telling, and I just think

even those small details about the time of day that this is it

gives us a sense

for where the disciples were at in their individual journeys right now.

And it's not full day yet.

They don't have complete comprehension that they're not the master preachers

of the thing. They witnessed it.

That's still coming.

Right now there are people encountering a thing that is unbelievable

that they are leaning into, and it's leading them down a path of discipleship.

You know, thing. It's really interesting, Michael, that

in some of the other

gospels, they sort of try to put us in the story.

Us being the reader is he isn't.

He did he didn't he?

I think,

you know, Mark, maybe Matthew to an extent, lesser extent,

but trying to draw us in as characters or have us enter the story.

John, I think, always allows the reader to know more than the characters.

And so we we watch the characters here with the full knowledge that Jesus

has risen and, and in the narrative, we already know that, right?

We would be.

He tells us they didn't understand.

Jesus must rise from the dead.

You, the reader, understand that.

And and that gives John a unique flavor, because then we get

to watch the characters and how they react to this news

as it dawns on them or as they encounter it.

And I, I think that is a different aspect

than reading some of the other gospel pictures.

I, I, I appreciate about John that he always allows us

to know what's

happening as it happens or before it happens.

And so then we become an observer of the characters in the story in a way

that I think is more true than it is in some of the other tellings.

It gets in a way, since we are a third party looking in.

John does cast these characters in fully human clothes.

I mean, we see these characters with their doubts, with all of their misgivings.

There's a real sense in which John doesn't shy away from the fact

that these men and we're, as we're going to see tomorrow,

these women are all in radically

different places trying to understand what's happening to and around them.

And there's a way in

which John is giving permission to us, the reader, in that equation,

because we know this of ourselves, we know that we as humans

are a mixed bag, full of moments of great faith and believing,

and also many doubts and sinfulness and and brokenness and all of this besets us

in this complicated turn that we call life.

Right.

And John is comfortable showing us Jesus Christ, who has perfect intention

and perfect execution on that intention his entire life.

And the men and women who surround him

are in many ways jostling back and forth because of their reality.

And yet they are the witnesses that give us the hope

and promise of what they see in this man, Jesus Christ.

It's the fact we can relate to these disciples,

the fact that they get to the tomb, and we can imagine all the feelings

that they feel that that lead them from despair to hope.

And then we think,

well, what's going to happen next to them as they go along the journey?

That's exactly what a disciple is.

And that's what John's trying to show us through their reactions.

And even this 20th chapter, John, just it just is the case.

John unfolds this story for us in more acts

than do the other guess, the other gospels.

So this is just scene one, and there are multiple scenes to come.

John paints more portraits of this day than do Matthew, Mark and Luke.

We just John includes more of a variety of stories, some different details.

So thank you for joining us on scene one.

Hope you can be with us as we continue through.

John does some really fascinating things with Easter, and

I hope you'll be able to be a part of it as we continue.

We'll be back tomorrow. See you then.