Day 32
John 20: 1-9
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." 3So Peter went out with the other
disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples went back to their homes.
The Empty Tomb (John 20: 1-9)
Mary saw that ‘the stone had been taken away from the tomb’ (verse 1). The verb declares that the stone had been ‘lifted up’, implying that it had been taken right out of its groove. The stone hadn’t been merely rolled aside. It couldn’t be; it had been permanently displaced from the place where it should be. Mary’s first instinct was to rush and tell ‘Peter and the other disciple. .. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb”’ (verse 2). These disciples then ran to the tomb.
The ‘face cloth’ (verse 7) was a towel or literally a ‘sweat cloth’ that had been used to tie around the neck and over the head to stop the dead person’s mouth falling open. This ‘cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen’. What is described is a tidy and orderly scene, the opposite to anything that robbers would leave behind. Maybe the head of Jesus passed through the towel and spices in precisely the same way that he would appear in the locked room later (verse 19). The towel was now folded and put aside by itself in a way that declared it wouldn’t be needed again. It was the orderliness that caused the other disciple to believe. The language used about the stone and the towel suggests that something significant and miraculous had taken place.
Think:What significance is there in the fact that the grave-clothes were ‘tidy and orderly’?
