An Easter Thought Based John 20:19

It was still dark as Mary Magdalene climbed the road to the cemetery on Gethsemane. She had not been able to come to the grave all day Saturday because of Jewish law, but as soon as it was permissible she was on her way. (John 20:1)

She sees something a strange when she arrives. The stone used to close off the Garden tomb has been rolled away from the mouth of the cave. The darkness of the grave stares back at her. Stunned, she turns from the grave and starts running. She runs to Peter and John. (John 20:2)

“They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.” (John 20:3)

Immediately, Peter and John start running back to the grave to see what Mary was talking about.     (John 20:4)

When they get there, indeed the body of Christ is gone, but the grave clothes that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had wrapped Jesus were still there. The face covering was folded and placed separately from the grave clothes. (John 20:6,7)

John’s saw and believed (John 20:8). I’m not sure if he believed in Christ’s resurrection as we understand it today from all the other accounts in Scripture, because the next verse (John 20:9) says: “For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.” But John knew something strange and wonderful, beyond human imagining, had happened.

He was later to learn, as did all the disciples and followers of Jesus, and all of us living two thousand years later, that Jesus had come alive from the dead, walked out of that grave and proved that his offer of eternal life is real, and available to all who will receive him.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” (Acts 16:31)