The resurrection John 20:1-18
Let me go back to where we were a few weeks ago and look at the last couple of verses of chapter 19 before we get into the area of the resurrection. And the last time we were here we ran a little short of time and I didn’t get to verses 28-30 where it says, “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, it is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost.”
So, this tells us Jesus knew that everything He came to do was finished and in absolute awareness of everything that was happening He fulfilled the scripture that’s found in Psalm 69:21 that says, "and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink." Now, at the beginning of His crucifixion they had tried to give Him gall according to Matthew 27:34 and gall was a mild sedative but was given as an act of mercy to the criminals and yet we saw that Jesus wouldn’t take anything to lesson the pain or to diminish His understanding of what He was going through because He wanted to consciously endure all the suffering they inflicted on Him and then knowing that the scripture needed to be fulfilled He said, "I thirst." And the soldiers who had either mocked or ignored Him were moved by God to fulfill the prophecy by giving Him a drink.
We’re told they put this vinegar mixture which was nothing more than a very cheap wine on a hyssop branch and hyssop is a long reed with a bushy end. It probably was like a bulrush or something like that. And it’s interesting because hyssop was very significant to the Jewish people. It says in Exodus 12:22 that when the angel of death was going to pass over Israel, God told the people, "Take hyssop, dip it in blood, and strike the blood on the doorposts and the lintel." And any time hyssop appeared it would always remind the Jews of the very first Passover. And here it was being used as a tool at the sacrifice of the last and greatest Passover as the Lamb of God was sacrificed for the sins of the world.
So, the soldiers gave Him the vinegar to drink, and then knowing that He had fulfilled every prophecy, verse 30 says, "When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, He said, it is finished; and He bowed His head, and gave up the spirit" and that was the end. There was no groan and there was no curse of a victim but the only sound was a proclamation of victory. It was a shout of triumph when He said, "It is finished" because Jesus knew that everything was done because He knew everything.
Now, when He said, "It is finished." We need to ask ourselves, what exactly was He talking about? I mean, what is it; that was finished? Well, all of the sacrifices of the Old Testament that pointed to the lamb of God were finished because as Hebrews 9:11-14 says, “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” So, the price for sin was finally paid and all these sacrifices were finished because they were no longer necessary and then we could also say that all the prophecies of His first coming were finished and then all the work that was assigned to Him by the Father was finished as well.
And by saying, "It is finished," it also tells us that Jesus knew that divine justice was completely satisfied and there was nothing left to do, so then it says He bowed His head and died knowing that the Holy Spirit would raise Him back to life again. I like how verse 30 says, "and He bowed His head" The Greek word means "to pillow your head" it’s like gently placing your head on a pillow.
The problem we have when we read this particular portion of scripture is; that it’s so familiar to us that we think, “Yeah, but just wait, in three days He’ll be back again.” And knowing the end of the story causes us to skip things that we might have seen if we didn’t know what was coming.
And all the people who were either gathered by the cross and even those who believed but had run away when He was arrested would have seen all this from a different perspective because they knew that Jesus died and they knew that death was the end. They saw the guards stabbing Jesus with a spear and they saw the blood and water coming out of His side and they knew that this was an indication that He was dead because they tell us that when the heart stops beating the water separates from the blood.
And so, when they saw this, I’m sure their hearts were broken and they experienced a great deal of sorrow as well as confusion. After all, this was the man that they believed was the Son of God and now He was dead and dead is dead. And everyone they had ever seen die was gone and that was that.
So, what else would they feel if not a sense of confusion? After all, Jesus was the hope of Israel and He was the only hope they had of a personal relationship with God and now that He was gone and they had no hope left. The only kind of hope they had before Jesus was the hope that was associated with the Jewish religious system and these were the very people who killed Jesus. So, as far as they were concerned they couldn’t even go to the temple to worship God anymore. And so, they figured; God was dead and the religious crowd killed Him.
So, on the day Jesus died His disciples would have been devastated. They loved Him, they served Him and they thought He was going to change their world but now He was dead. And then the second day they’d be bewildered and they would wonder, what are we going to do now? I mean, even the very idea of serving God must have seemed like a waste of time because they believed in a God who was all powerful and He could have stopped the crucifixion but He didn’t. And I’m sure they were thinking, “If God is all powerful and He can do anything, then why didn’t He do something?” And then all of their confusion gave way to joy because on the third day everyone was absolutely stunned.
And do you know something odd? The Old Testament gives us very little teaching about the resurrection and even when it does the people don’t seem to understand it. For instance, in Hebrews 11:17-19 it says, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.” So, as far back as Abraham there was talk of a resurrection.
And then in Isaiah 26:19 it says, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” Obviously, Isaiah believed in the resurrection.
And then in Daniel 12:2 we’re told, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” And that leaves no question about a resurrection.
And then in Job 19:25-27 he said, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.”
So, they had some evidence of a resurrection but they lacked any understanding of it simply because they had no example. I mean, no one had ever been raised from the dead and occupied a glorified body. Now, there were a few that Jesus had raised like Lazarus, the 12 year old girl and the son of the widow of Nain but they all had the same body they had before they died and then they all died again. They had been raised from the dead but they weren’t resurrected to new bodies.
And yet, there seems to be several hints that something special was going to happen on ‘the third day’ in the Old Testament but these hints could only be seen by looking back.
For instance, when Joseph was in prison he had a dream about two of his fellow prisoners and when he told them about their dreams he said the third day one will be set free and the other will be killed.
And then, after Israel had traveled through the desert for forty years because of their disobedience God told them to get ready because they’d be going into the promised land in three days. We see this in Joshua 1:10 where it says, “So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: "Go through the camp and tell the people, ’Get your supplies ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you for your own.”’ So, they had three days to pack up and do all the things they had to do to get ready, but listen, they couldn’t do anything until the third day.
And then we read in the book of Esther that when Esther was told by Mordecai to tell the king about the plans of Haman to kill all the Jews she told Mordecai and the rest of the Jews to fast and pray and then she would go in to see the king. And beginning in chapter 4 verse 16 she said, “Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him. Now it came to pass on the third day that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house.” So, both she and they received deliverance from the evil Haman after they had fasted for three days.
And then in 1 Samuel 5 we have the story of the god of Dagon who was the god of the Philistines. It says, “And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.” And if you follow the story you’ll see that Dagon was destroyed on the third day.
And then we have the story of Jonah and how long was Jonah in the belly of the fish? He was there for three days! And some say one of his unwritten prayers was, “God please let me go out the same way I came in.” But, anyway, it was the third day that he came out.
And then in the book of Hosea, the prophet said, “Come and let us return unto the Lord and after two days He will revive us and on the third day He will restore us that we may live in His presence.” And in all of these accounts we see that God placed great emphasis on the third day but listen, He never explains why.
And when we come to the New Testament and we see that the first day was the day Jesus died and everybody mourned because as far as they were concerned the hope of Israel was gone and they had nothing left to hope in. The second day was when they would remember all the things Jesus did and the many things He taught and how all their dreams were crushed and they’d spend their time reflecting on how badly everything had turned out. It was nothing less than a miserable time of depression. And then the third day, everything changed because Jesus came back from the grave and nothing would ever be the same again. And let’s face it, you never know what God is going to do on the first or second day because God is God of the third day. And the problem is, most people quit on the first or second day. You see, the third day is the key but you can’t have the third day unless you have the first and second.
So, here we are at the tomb where Jesus had been buried three days before and very early in the morning along came Mary Magdalene and we notice that according to verse 1 it’s so early in the morning that it’s still dark. And as Mary comes to the tomb she notices that there’s something wrong because someone has rolled the stone away from the opening. And what you have to understand is that this stone would probably weigh somewhere around four or five hundred pounds or even more and it would have been sitting in a rut or a ledge that rolled downward in front of the cave opening. So, she probably thought that grave robbers had stolen the body of Jesus so she ran away and found Peter and John and told them that Jesus’ body was gone and no one knows what they’ve done with it.
Now, this Mary we’re told had been a demon possessed woman and I’m sure her life had really been a mess but one day she met Jesus and He cast out the demons and changed her life. And not only was her life transformed but when she met Jesus He gave her a reason for living but now He was dead and she had come to pay her respects but someone stole the body.
So, not only did she feel hopeless because the one who changed her life was dead but she was also desolate because now she couldn’t even honor His memory because someone had desecrated the grave. Can you sense her desperation? All she wanted to do was to stand outside His grave and tell Him once more how much He meant to her and they whoever ‘they’ were had taken His dead body and desecrated it. So, not knowing what else to do, she went and told Peter and John.
Then we see that Peter and John running to the grave or the sepulcher as it’s called and it’s interesting to see John’s little note in verse 4 where he tells us they both ran but he ran faster than Peter. It’s an odd little comment because it doesn’t really add anything to the story except to tell us that John could run faster than Peter. And then it says that when John looked inside the cave he could see the clothes Jesus had been dressed in lying by themselves which is a little clearer in the Greek because it actually means they were lying as though someone had simply drifted out of them and so they lay there as though the body had evaporated. It would be like us taking a man’s suit and then laying it on the floor with the shirt all buttoned up and a tie tied around the neck of the shirt with shoes and socks where the feet would have been. It would look as though someone had just drifted out of it and that’s what happened to Jesus’ clothes.
And then it says that Peter went in and saw not only the clothes there but also the napkin that was about or wrapped around His head all by itself. And then it says that John went into the tomb and seeing he believed. Now, this seems to be John’s acceptance of the resurrection and yet it says in verse 9, “For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.” So, it seems as though John had believed that Jesus had risen from the dead even though he wasn’t sure that this is what the scripture taught. And what we have to understand is that these people didn’t have a New Testament but they were learning as things were happening. And then verse 10 says, “Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.”
As we see these events also from Matthew’s perspective he tells us as John does that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb on the Sunday morning and according to Luke 24 there were several who had gone to add some more spices to the body which they had personally prepared. So, just because one writer just mentions Mary that doesn’t mean she was all alone. We see this elsewhere where one writer says there was one angel in the tomb while another says there were two. It’s possible that the writer was just focusing on the one who spoke and hardly even noticed the one who didn’t. So, these women were coming to add spices to the body and you have to keep in mind that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemas had already used 75-100 pounds of spices. So, we would wonder, why would they want to add some more?
Well, Jewish tradition held that the spirit of a dead person hung around for four days and by then the body was so disfigured from decay that the spirit no longer recognized it. So, maybe these women just wanted to do one more act of kindness before Jesus’ spirit left.
We can only imagine the emotional trauma these women were going through because at the beginning of the week they had worshipped Jesus as the God of heaven and earth and now there were visiting His body at a grave.
You see, for three years these women had traveled with Jesus. They saw his miracles, they heard His teaching and they believed He was the Messiah, the Son of God come in the flesh. Luke tells us some of them had supported Him financially and we assume they had left their homes for long periods of time to be with Him. They would have endured the sarcastic comments of their neighbors and they might have even been out of favor with members of their families or even excluded from their synagogues. And then they who had so much of their lives invested in Jesus stood at the foot of the cross and watched Him die. And so, I’m sure many of them felt as though Messiah was dead and they had nothing left to live for.
It’s interesting to put the four gospel accounts together and see the order of how things happened. According to John 20:1 and 2 when Mary Magdalene saw the stone rolled away she ran and told Peter and John that someone had stolen the Lord’s body. As soon as she left someone identified as the other Mary who had been with her and some other women heard the angelic announcement in Matthew 28:5, 6. “Fear not; for I know that ye seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”
The angel said, “Don’t be afraid.” What would they be afraid of? They’d be afraid of what they didn’t understand. Let’s face it, we all fear the unusual or the unnatural. Dead people are dead and as much as no one wanted Jesus to be dead at least they could understand death much more easily than they could a resurrection. Then the angel invited them to step into the tomb and see that it was empty and according to Mark 16:6 the angel repeated his message about the resurrection probably because they didn’t get it the first time.
The angel then told the women to go quickly and tell Jesus’ disciples that He had risen from the dead and would meet them in Galilee. And they ran immediately and did what they were told.
Then John 20:12 tells us that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and this would have been her second trip there and it was after these women and Peter and John had left and then she saw the two angels at the tomb, one at either end of where Jesus body had lain. Now, the way they were situated reminds us of the two golden cherubim which were placed on either side of the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant. These two angels were posted at either end of the tomb of Jesus, who, by the sacrifice He had just made of His own life had become the true and eternal mercy seat for all mankind.
And then we have the first appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene in verses 13-17 which says, “And they say unto her, (these are the angels speaking) woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, because they have taken away my LORD, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener saith unto him, sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto Him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the LORD, and that He had spoken these things unto her.”
So, here is Mary Magdalene and no one would have considered her to be anyone special. I mean, she was someone who had been saved out of a life of horrible sin and she was the one out of whom Jesus had cast out seven demons. She wasn’t an apostle and she had no important role in the ministry and yet Jesus appeared to her first of all. And there are many who say the reason He did this was to show His love and concern to one of His followers and it didn’t matter to Him how insignificant anyone else thought this person might be.
And this is a powerful lesson because most people would have expected His first appearance to be to Peter, to John or maybe to a group of apostles but not to a woman and certainly not to someone who had a questionable background. But, I think He picked her out because she was one who loved Him more than the rest.
There seems to be a kind of poetic justice in that women were the first witnesses of the resurrection. They had traveled with and supported Jesus, they were by His cross and witnessed his death and burial and now they were the first to hear about and to see the resurrection.
Several had made suggestions as to why God chose the women to be first and one said, “He chooses the weak to confound the strong.” And remember he said that, not me. Another said, “The women were rewarded for their faithful service to the Lord.” And another, “That since death came through the woman in the garden of Eden, so new life was first announced to a woman at the garden tomb.” And there are others who wrote that, “The deepest sorrow deserves the deepest joy or that supreme love deserves supreme privilege.”
I think the reason is simple. They were the first witnesses simply because they were the first ones there. And then we see their response to the resurrection. And there are several things here. First, we see when Mary first saw Jesus she didn’t recognize Him and some say it was because she had tears in her eyes and others that Jesus was in a post-resurrection state and looked different but for some reason she thought He was the gardener but when Jesus said her name she recognized Him. There are some who think He said it in a certain way or maybe it was the tone of His voice but somehow she recognized it was Jesus.
Now, her name in Greek is Mary but the Aramaic form is “Miriam.” And since everyone spoke Aramaic rather than Greek it’s obvious that she would be called Miriam by her family and friends. And that was what Jesus had always used and that was all He had to say and then verse 16 says, “She turned herself and saith unto Him, ‘Rabboni,’ which is to say Master.” And that’s also an Aramaic word and it’s mostly used when one is speaking to God.
The other gospels tell us that she fell at His feet and we get the impression that she was really hanging on because Jesus was alive and she was hanging on as if to say, “Lord, I’m never letting go of you again.” It reminds me of the Song of Solomon where the Shulamite woman says in Song of Solomon, “I found him whom my soul loveth, I held him and wouldn’t let him go.” And this was the same kind of a thing.
And then Jesus said, “Touch me not” which some have said could be better translated “Don’t keep hanging on to me because I’ve got to go back to my Father and then to my brethren.” And then He gave her a message to give when He told her to tell His disciples, “I ascend unto My Father and your Father and to My God and your God.” And by saying this He was showing that all believers now have the same relationship with God the Father that He does because He has reconciled us to God by His death.
I’m reminded of what Paul says in 2 Corinthians where he says, “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.” In other words, we no longer have a fleshly relationship with Jesus but we have a spiritual one.
Now I want you to notice one other thing that He says in verse 17 that I think is very important because He told her to, “Go to My brethren” and that’s something He never called His disciples before. They’ve been called servants or friends but they’ve never been called brothers until now. And what He’s revealing here is a whole new relationship to Jesus that no one has ever experienced before. And now, all believers are brothers with Jesus Christ by virtue of His death and resurrection and now we are in Christ. And to illustrate this to them He says, “Now I ascend to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.” And what He’s talking about here is a sense of equality before God. And by saying this He’s saying we’re brothers. And that means we stand in Jesus Christ before God as His own children. In other words, we are now what we were created to be before sin entered into the world.
The writer of Proverbs says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” but what does hope fulfilled do? It brings health and healing to the soul. And in the midst of their grief the one thing they wanted more than anything else was to see the Lord again and having seen evidence that He had risen from the dead there were a few things that would have happened.
First, their faith in Him would be renewed. They would realize that everything they believed about Jesus prior to his resurrection was true and then some. Not only was He the Messiah but He was also the Son of God and His death had a purpose. Now, they could actually understand the words of John who said, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” And now, they could understand who Jesus was when John had referred to Him as a lamb.
Second, they no longer had any reason to fear death because death was no longer in the realm of the unknown. And to be absent from the body meant they would be present with the Lord. And why would one fear the one thing they wanted more than anything else in life?
You see, in spite of the fact that Jesus would ascend back into heaven in about forty days they knew they would see Him again and be with Him for all of eternity. And besides this, they also had the hope of seeing their loved ones again who had gone on before them. I remember reading a book by D.L. Moody who said someone once asked him what was the first thing he was going to look for when he got to heaven. And he said, “After I see Jesus I want to stare at the golden streets and see the angels and all of the other marvels of heaven.” And then one day his little brother died and everything changed. Then Moody said, “I want to see Jesus and right after that I want to see my little brother.” I think the people who are in heaven will be much more important to us than all the artifacts of eternity.
There are four things that happen to us when the reality of the resurrection sinks in. One, we’ll have a new perspective on life because we’ll recognize that death is not the end of life but it’s the doorway to eternity. And death is no longer viewed as the ultimate enemy because it merely interrupts our earthly life and ushers us into God’s presence in heaven.
Second, we have a new incentive to serve the Lord. In Revelation 22:12 Jesus says, “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.”
And then third, we have a new sense of accountability because Jesus says He’s coming back again. And in the meantime, He has commanded us to do two things in anticipation of His return. First, we are to watch and this means that each of us are to have a sense of expectancy about His return. In 2 Timothy 4:8 Paul writes, Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.” Are you looking forward to His appearing? And then besides watching, we are also told to be busy working. And all of us have our gifts, abilities and resources we can use to spread the gospel of the kingdom of heaven.
I believe the resurrection of Jesus teaches us that the word of God is true and reliable. He rose from the dead both how and when He said He would. The resurrection is God the Father’s stamp of approval on Him. I mean, logic tells us that if Jesus was anything less than He claimed to be then God the Father would have left Him in the grave. And then we also see that the resurrection is proof that our salvation is complete. And this is the basis of our hope. Hope is a positive attitude toward the future knowing the Son of God has both a purpose and a plan for each and every one of us. And it’s our hope in time and our purpose in eternity that gives our lives any meaning at all.
Well, let me finish by saying that when Mary realized that Jesus was alive and then was told by Him to tell the other disciples verse 18 says, “Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples,” and it says she said, “I have seen the Lord.” And we can only imagine the joy that was on her face because she had met Jesus after His resurrection and a change had taken place in her life. And do you know something? That’s our testimony, too. Our testimony isn’t, “Well, I read the Bible and I agree that it’s true” but our testimony is, “I’ve got the Lord in my life and I want to share Him with you,” that’s our testimony. And that’s the message of the gospel. It’s not second-handed theology, but it’s first-hand experience.
Paul Raider said, “Christians are like a whole lot of people with colds all sitting around sneezing at each other, but nobody gets it because everybody’s got it.” And his point is, it’s so easy for Christians to sit in church and say, “Us four, no more, shut the door.” But, if everyone had that attitude, heaven would be a very lonely place. We’ve got to be more like Mary who heard the word and went right out to share it with others.
