Jesus Is Alive!

Lesson #325

We ended the last lesson with a report from Mary that Jesus had been taken from the tomb. “So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first” (John 20:3 - 4 ESV). Upon hearing the report from Mary, Peter and John decided to go to the tomb to see for themselves. They were in a hurry to get there and so they ran. It is interesting that John reveals that he is like us in saying that he outran Peter.

They arrived at the tomb to check things out, “And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in” (John 20:5 ESV). Since we know that John got there first, we know that it was he who looked in. John may have gotten there first because some think he was younger than Peter. Was it possible that Peter held back a little because of apprehension over the possibility of meeting Jesus there, remembering that he had denied him earlier.

John stopped at the entrance and looked in, but “Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself” (John 20:6 – 7 ESV). Visualize what Peter saw and what it means. The linen cloths that Jesus was wrapped in for burial were lying there where Jesus was laid. This would strongly suggest that Jesus rose through the linen cloths just as he will later appear in a room with the disciples behind closed doors. Indeed, Jesus did rise from the dead as told by the angel in Matthew 28:6.

“Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed” (John 20:8 ESV). John then follows Peter into the tomb and he saw the evidence before him and he believed what Jesus said about rising from the dead and also believed what the woman reported. Up to this point the disciples did not understand what Jesus meant about rising from the dead: “for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead” (John 20:9 ESV). Things that were written in the Old Testament and things that Jesus said simply did not have meaning to them, but now John is beginning to understand.

Having heard the report of the women and seeing, for themselves, the empty tomb, “. . . the disciples went back to their homes” (John 20:10 ESV). It is uncertain what is meant by “their homes” here so we will not speculate along with others.

Prayer

Father, the struggle the disciples are going through in trying to understand, to believe what Jesus has been saying about rising from the dead is not unlike the struggle many go through in accepting salvation in Jesus Christ. The marvelous thing is that Jesus did die on the cross for our sin and he did rise to obtain victory over death and insured our salvation; a salvation that is a free gift to us, but a gift that required the sacrifice of the true Lamb of God. Father, thank you.