seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
John 20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
When we left Jesus in the tomb.... John 19.... it was 6PM on Friday..... The Sabbath was just ready to begin. The Sabbath was a 24 hour thing... so at 6PM on Saturday.... Mary would have been good to go....but it was dark.... that didn't stop her... she was going to be there at first light. The Jewish day went from sun up to sun down.... the Jewish night was from sun down to sun up. So.... Jesus was put in the grave on Friday after 3PM when they declared Him dead on the Cross and 6PM when everyone had to be home for the Sabbath. Mary was at the tomb before daybreak on Sunday morning. I found this at enduringword.com.
The mixture of ointments and aloes and spices would dry and harden the linen cloths, making something of a mummy or a cocoon. The normal removal of these burial wrappings would require some tearing or cutting; Peter saw that it was no normal removal of the burial wrappings. “The whole point of the description is that the grave-clothes did not look as if they had been put off or taken off; they were lying there in their regular folds as if the body of Jesus had simply evaporated out of them.” (Barclay)
And this comment comes from the same commentary.Generally, the very first Christians did not believe in the resurrection only because the tomb was empty, but because they saw and met the resurrected Jesus. John was something of an exception; he believed simply by seeing the empty tomb, before meeting the resurrected Jesus.
I am at a loss. Every time I read something in the Bible... no matter how many times I have read it in the past.... I find something new. I thought Jesus had to be in the tomb alone for three days.... that's not so. I'm an old woman with an online NIV Bible and some online commentary. I'm an old woman who was raised in the church.... and I never realized... Jesus didn't hang out in the grave for 3 days..... He was out of the burial linen by Sunday morning.
The commentaries make a big deal about the folded linen.... that's another big mistake I'm clearing up in my mind. See, I always thought the linen was folded like I would fold a blanket and lay it on the mattress. That's not what is being described to me this morning by my online NIV Bible and my online commentary.
According to what I am now reading.... Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea wrapped Jesus in linen that had been smeared with a paste of herbs to keep the smell down..... Jesus was not embalmed... but He was encased in a wrapping that would have dried into a "cast" like thing. It was in two pieces... the head and the body.... but the body... it would have been a body cast. Hard.... laying there uncut, not ripped.... not unwrapped.... a cast... with the body gone.
Now when Lazarus came out of the cave.... He was still wrapped.... Jesus told the men around him to unwrap him. But Jesus wasn't unwrapped.... the wrapping was still in tact [according to the commentaries] but the body was gone.
This is important.... because as the commentaries point out... grave robbers would have either taken the wrapped body.... or they would have had to cut the wrapping to release the body. That linen weighed at least 100 pounds as we learned in John 19. The linen on the bench where the body of the Messiah was laid.... was not ripped, cut, or unwrapped... it was a 100 pound hard empty shell.
Now... that's what John, the best friend of Jesus the Messiah, saw. As soon as John saw the empty casing.... John knew Jesus was behind this. He told them He would see them again... and now the casing is empty.
Peter hadn't figured it out yet.... Peter didn't stop at the door... he went in and probably laid his hands on the casing. His mouth was probably wide open in disbelief. His brain must have been going a mile a minute. I would suppose, had I run into a hard cast of the body of my Messiah.... but no body inside.... I would have probably been brain boggled for some time. Maybe that's why Peter didn't believe right away... as John did... according to John.... maybe Peter was brain boggled.
These were not Pharisees and Sadducees. Peter and John didn't have all the scriptures rolled up in a neat little bundle, encased in leather and tied to their arms. According to the commentaries.... Peter and John didn't know all the scriptures that the event they were witnessing was foretold. They hadn't been trained in all the scripture requirements that Jesus had to fulfill to be called the true Messiah. They just went on what Jesus told them and what they witnessed.
Now Peter and John are in a tomb.... the body of Jesus of Nazareth had been wrapped in linen... smeared with an herb paste.... that hardened into a cast.... like a shell.... and now... the hardened cast was empty.
John knew no grave robber could have removed the body and left the casing in tact.
John knew Jesus was behind this.
Peter was just brain boggled.
