En route to the Father 20:1-31

Eye-witnesses of the resurrection

Despite a security guard and the tomb entrance having been sealed (Matt 27:62-66), when Mary Magdalene gets there just before dawn she finds the tomb empty. It seems she had arranged to rendezvous with Mary the mother of James, Salome (Mk 16:1), some other women from Galilee, and others (Lk 24:1), to re-anoint Jesus’ body. They arrived a little later, just after sunrise - but she had already run off to call Peter and John.

John, probably younger than Peter, got to the tomb first. Tomb entrances sloped downwards into a hollowed-out underground space. But having any contact with a dead body, or even touching a tomb, made one ritually unclean: and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which follows on from Passover, was in progress. So he stooped down in the half-light of daybreak, and peered in - but did not enter. He saw the linen grave clothes, still filled with Nicodemus’s precious spices, lying there. Whatever had happened, this was no grave-robbery!

Peter then catches him up, and with his usual impetuousness, brushes past him and enters the tomb. From inside, he can now see not only the cloths that had shrouded Jesus’s body, but also the burial turban: and it is neatly folded just where Jesus’s head had been - separated from the grave clothes. This resurrection was not like Lazarus, where others had had to loose him from the grave clothes before he could move freely. This was more like a butterfly leaving its cocoon, with the clothes exactly where they had been when the body was inside them.

John uses a different Greek word to distinguish Peter’s ‘seeing’ from John’s. John at first just saw with his physical eyesight, whereas Peter saw in a way that caused him to wonder what on earth had happened (Lk 24:12). The Greek word is ‘theoridzo’ - he began to theorise.

Maybe he called John in to see, maybe John just couldn’t not enter. Anyway, he too sees the neatly arranged grave clothes and turban, and he now ‘sees’ - in a third way. The Greek word used, means to see in a way which implies understanding: ‘I see’ - ‘I get it’. He has not yet physically seen the Risen Lord, but he ‘sees’ and believes (v8).

What was it that led John to believe?

At this point, neither Peter nor the author John ‘knew’ the scripture, that Jesus must rise again from the dead (v9). There are many Old Testament ‘types’ which hint at the resurrection: for instance, Abraham’s offering of Isaac (Gen 22:9-14 & Heb 11:17-19), or Joseph’s enslavement then elevation. But from Jesus’s comment to the Emmaus Road disciples (Lk 24:25-27), it seems that none of them had grasped these hints.

Perhaps the most direct prophecy is the one Peter quotes at Pentecost (Acts 2:24-32):-

“Therefore My heart is glad, and My glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave My soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You will show Me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore”. (Ps 16:9-11)

Isaiah had given another very clear prophecy: “When you make his soul and offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand” (Isa 53:10).

It is unlikely that the disciples had never heard or read these scriptures. But they didn’t ‘know’ them. They were aware of them, but hadn’t grasped their significance. Peter’s Pentecost sermon shows just how powerfully Jesus taught them, during the forty days between the resurrection and His ascension (Acts 1:1-3). His teaching was all based on the Old Testament scriptures, opening their minds through the Holy Spirit.

So how did John come to suddenly believe?

Of course, Jesus had repeatedly told them He would be crucified, but would rise on the third day. But the crucifixion seems to have destroyed their faith in His words. Now however, faced with the evidence of a tomb which was open, empty and neat, John knew there could be no other explanation. It had to be true!

Over the centuries, numerous people have tried to disprove the resurrection. More than one have been trained lawyers, who knew how to sift truth from deception. And yet far from disproving it, they have ended up believing, just as John did, because of the evidence.

The rest of the chapter gives us examples of how the disciples came to recognise the risen Christ in different ways. Mary, whose eyes were clouded with tears, recognised the sound of His voice. That evening Jesus invites the disciples in the Upper Room to see, to touch, to handle Him; and to observe Him eating fish and honeycomb. A week later, Thomas the ultimate realist, realises that Jesus had heard his earlier skepticism, and knows him inside out: and he does a screeching 180º u-turn from disbelief into total faith, declaring Jesus to be ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus knows exactly what will convince each individual: for some it is evidence, for others it’s emotional, for some it’s experiencing Jesus’ omniscience, and so on.

But the evidence for the resurrection is powerful. The authorities were never able to produce the body, despite having taken precautions to prevent its theft. Their cover story, that the disciples had stolen the body, never stuck. The dramatic change in the disciples, from fearfully cowering behind closed doors to boldly preaching to the Pentecost crowds that they were responsible for Jesus’s death, speaks volumes. Had the story been an urban myth, there is no way it would have featured a woman as the first eye-witness, for women’s testimony was discounted in Jewish legal affairs. An eyewitness says that blood and water flowed from His side: there is no chance that He just fainted before being buried - the Roman soldiers made quite sure of that. And there were so many Old Testament prophecies that were precisely fulfilled in the manner of His death.

Why is the fact of the resurrection so important?

The bible records many many eye-witness encounters with the risen Lord. After Mary, the other women also encounter Christ. Sometime that day, Jesus appears to Peter individually. That afternoon two disciples meet Jesus on the Emmaus Road. That evening, as they’re having supper, Jesus gatecrashes and rebukes them for not believing the women, then invites them to see His wounds and touch Him, even watch Him eat, to prove that He is no ghost! A week later, He does the same thing so that Thomas isn’t left out.

Then the action moves to Galilee. Seven of them go fishing, and Jesus repeats the miracle he’d used for their original calling. All eleven of them meet Him on a mountaintop, reminiscent of when he first formally constituted them as His team. Paul tells us five hundred disciples met Him on a single occasion, many of whom were still alive to be cross-examined at the time of his writing (1Cor 15:6). Finally James, Jesus’s brother, met Him (1Cor 15:7).

Altogether there was a forty-day period in which He ‘showed Himself alive to them by many infallible proofs’ and taught them intensively about the Kingdom of God. It culminated with Him leading them out of Jerusalem on the Bethany Road, and ascending to heaven from the Mount of Olives.

Why does scripture spend so much time establishing the resurrection beyond reasonable doubt?

• It is the very foundation of our faith (1 Cor 15:12-20)

• The resurrection is God’s declaration that Jesus is the Son of God with power (Rom 1:4)

• We are justified and reconciled by Christ’s death, but saved by His life (Rom 5:9,10)

• It is our union with Him in resurrection, that enables our victory over sin and death (Rom 6:1-11)

• It is the source of our hope for our own resurrection (1Pet 1:3)

The fact that some of the Eleven were still having doubts when they met Jesus in Galilee (Mt 28:17) suggests that heart knowledge of Jesus’ living Presence doesn’t necessarily come from knowing the evidence alone. There has to be an experiential ‘knowing’, which He promised us in the Upper Room discourse (14:19-21). The way He physically manifested Himself to the Eleven, was to lay the foundation on which the church has subsequently been built. “These things are written that you may know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (20:31).

It is the heart awareness of Jesus’ living Presence that gives us assurance of our salvation, and our union with Him. Every time we see prayer answered, or experience a ‘God-incidence’, or become aware of His Presence as we meet in twos or threes, He is manifesting Himself to us. For some there will be visions or dreams: but ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’ (v30).

If your awareness of Christ’s Presence has faded compared to the days of your ‘first love’, ask Him to reveal Himself to you afresh & to help you recognise the myriad daily signs He is here, with you.

Mary’s revelation (vs 11-16)

By the time Mary had followed Peter and John back to the tomb, they’d gone home a different way, each ‘to their own home’. The initial adrenaline rush of finding Peter and John had passed; they were not there; and the tomb was still empty. Her grief could be contained no longer - she wept and wept and wept, thinking she was alone.

Like John, she was wary of entering the grave: but astonishingly, there were two angels sitting guarding the graveclothes, one at the head and one at the foot of where Jesus had lain. Whether she knew at the time that they were angels, seems unclear: they were clothed in white, but angels in a place of the dead would be hard to get your head around! She responds to them as if it was a perfectly ordinary encounter.

From their point of view, there was no reason for her to weep: the tomb was empty because the Lord of Glory had risen from the dead! Their question ‘Why are you weeping?’ must have seemed a little tactless, to say the least. She explains that ‘they’ - those who inflicted such awful humiliation and suffering on the One she loved - must have removed His body; perhaps to prevent the tomb becoming a place of pilgrimage.

As she answers them, she senses someone behind her, and turns. Through her tears she sees a man whom she doesn’t recognise: and He asks her the same silly question! She assumes he’s the gardener Joseph of Arimathea had employed to look after his smart new tomb. If so, the man must have been involved in disinterring Jesus’ body, and therefore would know where it had been taken. Surely he’d be glad for someone to take it off his hands?

Then came a single word that utterly changed everything, for Mary. The Master spoke her name with infinite tenderness and pity. In an instant, her grief turned into astonished joy! ‘Rabboni!’

“A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me. Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labour, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” (15:19-22)

What would you do, if you thought someone you loved had died a terrible death, and then suddenly there they were in front of your very eyes? My guess is that you’d hug them and hug them and hug them, until the tears of joy and relief gradually subsided. That's what Mary did.

After a little while, Jesus gently disengages from her and tells her not to cling to Him. Why does He do this, when

• He had allowed other women to do so, and to worship Him (Matt 28:9)?

• He later invited the disciples to touch and handle Him (Lk 24:39), and

• He invited Thomas to touch His scars and put his hand into the deep wound to His heart?

Mary has the starring role in John’s account of the resurrection. She is the first person to visit the tomb, the first to see Jesus, and the one to break the marvellous news. She loved Him deeply, because He had cast seven demons out of her: and wanted His body to be given a proper burial, and treated with respect. The word used for ‘touch’ in this verse is the word ‘haptos’, from which we get our phrase ‘haptic (touch-related) feedback’. It implies clinging close, and is sometimes used of sexual intimacy. Whereas the word used when the women hold Jesus’s feet, is different and just means a firm grasp.

In fact, John doesn’t actually say that Mary did touch Jesus, just that she mustn’t cling to Him - as He was going to the Father shortly. It is not that He is a disembodied spirit, or that she would in some way defile Him from entering the Father’s Presence. Rather, He is telling her that her relationship with Him is about to change - from body and soul, to spiritual.

Jesus’s message for the disciples (vs 16,17)

Why does Jesus then instruct Mary to tell the disciples that though He hasn’t yet ascended, He is ascending to His Father and their Father, His God and their God - when He will be seeing them in person only a few hours later?

Some have suggested that Jesus did in fact ascend to the Father, between this appearance and His visit to the Upper Room the same evening. The thought is that He needed to ascend in order to present His blood sacrifice in the heavenly Temple. That would explain His use of the present tense, ‘I am ascending’. However with the exception of Hebrews 9:11-12, there is nothing else to support this in scripture.

A simpler explanation is that Jesus sees Himself as mid-journey. When He died, He descended into the depths of the earth (Eph 4:9). He is en route from Hades to Heaven, but with a stopover on Earth. He is breaking His journey, in order to give the apostles eye-witness evidence that they will later need in order to be His witnesses.

Christ’s message to the apostles is not so much about why He is busy just now and won’t be able to see them till later. Rather, it’s focussed on the huge change in their relationship with Him and with God. Having previously referred to them as disciples, then servants, then friends (15:15), He now calls them His brothers! This is the fulfilment of David’s prophecy, “I will declare Your name to My brethren” (Ps 22:22).

To a Jew, family relationships came first in terms of loyalties. Jesus had previously redefined His family as being those who do the will of His Father in heaven (Matt 12:46-50). His brothers by birth, didn’t believe in Him and don’t seem to have been present at His crucifixion to support their mother: even though one of them (James) later became a leading light in the Jerusalem church, and the author of one of the books of the New Testament. Mary Magdalene knows that Jesus is referring to His disciples, not His birth family.

What a shocking truth Mary’s message contained for the Eleven! Jesus, of whom they had been ashamed three days ago, was telling them He was not ashamed to call them His brothers! He had borne all their shame, on the cross - as He hung there, naked, derided and scorned. They need not feel ashamed to meet Him in person, risen from the dead: for His Father, His God was also their Father, their God. Thus His message prepared their hearts for His meeting with them that evening.

Jesus is not ashamed to call His disciples His brothers, even though they have so recently deserted Him, because they (and we) are one with Him (Heb 2:11). It was His union with us that cost Him His death on the cross; and it is our union with Him that means we share His resurrection life. Our life is hidden with Christ in God: we are seated in the heavenlies, at God’s right hand, in Christ (Col 3:1-3). Just as we have been baptised into His death and resurrection, so too we are in Him in His ascension, and in Him as He sits at the Father’s right hand, the throne of all authority.

With these words, Jesus declares the fulfilment of His earlier prophecy: “At that day, you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (14:20). “The Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father” (16:27-28). His incarnation is completed by His ascension: ‘It is finished!” Indeed.

But when Mary relays the message, despite Peter and John’s findings at the tomb, no-one believed her (Mk 16:14)

You are My witnesses. (vss 19-23)

Later that day, as the disciples were gathered for supper, Jesus gatecrashed their meal. The disciples had locked and barred the doors, for fear that the Jewish authorities would try and arrest them all, on the pretext that they had stolen Jesus’s body (Mt 28:11-15). But despite their security precautions, Jesus simply appeared among them in the room : we are not given any further details as to how.

This event is central to the gospel, being recorded in detail by three of the four evangelists. Each is writing with a different perspective and selecting different elements, but only Matthew skips this, fast-forwarding to Jesus’s appearance in Galilee. All four gospels (and Acts too) record Jesus’s ‘Great Commission’ to the disciples, which happened first at this meeting.

At first the disciples were terrified, thinking that they were seeing His ghost (Lk 24:37). But Jesus reassured them, firstly by audibly speaking ‘Shalom!’ to them, and then by inviting them to inspect His nail-marks and gashed loin, and touch Him (Lk 24:38-40). He wanted them to know that He was really human - that He was flesh and blood.

Despite their joy, the disciples still couldn’t believe: it just seemed too good to be true. So Jesus commandeered some of the broiled fish and honeycomb prepared for their meal, and ate it in their presence (Lk 24:41-43).

It is hard for us to grasp how earth-shattering this would have been for them. Years later, when John came to write his first letter, he expresses the wonder of it all: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life – the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declared to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us – that which we have seen and heard we compare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full” (1Jn 1:1-4)

They were physically hearing, seeing and touching the eternal Logos of God; experiencing fellowship with the Father and the Son as they did so. They understood that the resurrection was God’s declaration that Jesus was His Son, and had all His power and authority (Rom 1:4). It proved the reality of the incarnation, that Jesus was (and is) both fully Man and fully God,

Having finally established the physical reality of His resurrection, it seems from Luke's account that Jesus repeated His Emmaus Road teaching, opening the scriptures to corroborate what their senses were telling them (Lk 24:44-49). But from here on, Luke’s account closely mirrors John’s: Jesus goes on to commission them as His witnesses, to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations, starting in Jerusalem. But first they must receive the Holy Spirit.

Each gospel author focusses on different aspects of the Commission:

• Matthew emphasises Jesus’s supreme authority, given Him by the Father as reward for His self-sacrifice (Mt 28:18-20; Phil 2:9-11). They are to make disciples, baptise and teach them all Jesus’s commandments. .

• Mark emphasises that the gospel will determine one's judgement, by whether or not the hearers believe. New believers will have the same gifts as the apostles, to cast out demons, heal the sick, speak in tongues etc.

• Luke emphasises the preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins, and the apostles’ roles as witnesses of the crucifixion and resurrection (Lk 24:46-49).

• John echoes Luke on their need for Holy Spirit empowerment. He records how Jesus symbolically breathes out, whilst telling them they must receive His Holy Spirit. And he echoes Matthew in recording that Jesus gave them authority in their mission work, to forgive or retain sins. (You’ll recall how Jesus used this same authority in His own ministry, shaking the dust of Capernaum off His feet (Mt 11:20-24) but telling the paralysed man his sins were forgiven). John Stott calls this ‘the authority of a preacher, not of a priest’ it has to do with mission, and we see Peter using it in his preaching on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:40).

But John adds his own unique understanding of the nature of our commission, in line with his central theme of the incarnation:

            ‘As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’

Of course, the Father equipped Jesus with His authority (5:26,27), and gave Him the Holy Spirit ‘without measure’ (3:34).  But Jesus’s words say so much more!

• Jesus was the first missionary, being sent by the Father.  He is our pattern in all our mission work. He came, in obedience to the Father; and He only spoke what He heard the Father saying, and did what He saw the Father do.  We must likewise listen to Him in all things.

• Jesus left the glory and peace of eternity, to dwell amongst us.  We are called likewise to live in the world, though not ‘of it’.  That means identifying with the people we are sent to: living in the same circumstances, not preaching at them from a position of superiority.

• Like Him, we are sent to sinners, not to those who think they are righteous. He ate and drank with ‘publicans and sinners’ such as Zacchaeus.  Whilst holding to the moral law, we should be known as loving and accepting, not hypocritically self-righteous.

• He did not just preach but also manifested God’s Name in His works of healing and grace.  The social gospel is not enough without preaching, and preaching is ineffective without manifesting God’s heart in social action.

• Just as Jesus was hated for telling the truth about God, we shall experience the same hatred - often from our own family and relatives (15:20-25).  We are called to share ‘the fellowship of His sufferings’ as well as ‘the power of His resurrection’.

Just as we are one with Christ in His death, resurrection and ascension, we are one with Him in His mission: to bring men back to the Father through the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes (Rom 1:16).

It is when we count everything but loss for Jesus’s sake and the gospel, when our identification with Him and His mission is complete, that we fully experience what it is to ‘know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings’ (Phil 3:10).

A skeptic’s radical U-turn

For some reason Thomas missed out on that first reunion between Christ and His disciples.  He is known as ‘doubting Thomas’ but I see him as the supreme realist amongst them.  It was he who realistically faced up to the prospect of dying with Christ if they went back to Bethany (11:8,16).  And it was he who expressed the team’s bewilderment about Jesus ‘going to the Father’ (14:5).  He was courageous and honest.  But ‘once bitten, twice shy’.  “It’s all very well for you lot - you’ve seen the Lord.  How can you expect me to believe unless I see Him too?”

Any resurrected crucifixion victim would have the nail marks, but only Jesus would have the additional wound in His side.  And Thomas demanded more than sight or touch: he wanted to put his hand right into the wound that had pierced Jesus’s heart!

Jesus gatecrashes the Sunday evening team meal once again.  Once again, the doors are locked: it seems the disciples haven’t yet received the holy boldness they had after Pentecost.  Jesus greets them, then straightaway invites Thomas to do exactly what he had demanded.  Christ's words proved that He had been present with them, and listening, when Thomas expressed his skepticism!

We don’t read of Thomas actually touching Jesus, after all. The realisation that Jesus knew every word he’d said, proved to him that Christ was omnipresent and all-knowing.  Just like Nathanael (1:45-49), it was the knowledge that he was known 'inside out’ by Christ that undermined his skepticism.

His immediate response was total capitulation.  Mary had called Jesus ‘My Lord’:  Thomas goes a huge step further in adding, ‘My God!’  He acknowledges that he is dealing with Deity incarnate; that from now on, he will worship this Man with every fibre of his being.

Tradition has it that Thomas took the gospel to India, where he eventually died as a martyr.

Jesus accepts Thomas’s worship, but declares a blessing on those who believe without seeing.  Along with the other disciples, Thomas had seen many other ‘signs’ pointing to Jesus’s deity, prior to the crucifixion.  But the ones John has chosen to record, along with the resurrection evidence, should enable anyone to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God - and through believing, to enter the spiritual communion with the Father and His Son which is the essence of eternal life.

It is thought that John’s gospel originally ended at this point, and that what follows in John 21 is a postscript, perhaps added by a different author (21:24).