Surprise at the Tomb
John 20:1-10 records Mary Magdalene's reaction when she got to the tomb where Jesus had been buried and found the stone rolled away and the soldiers who had been guarding the tomb gone. She immediately went to tell the disciples about this sacrilege of the tomb - it had been emptied by tomb raiders as far as she could tell. Some of the disciples immediately went back with her, probably doubting her testimony, or at least hoping to find some evidence as to what had happened.
How often are we just like the disciples. Jesus had told them what would happen. He would die, be buried, and would rise again just like Jonah had when he died and was swallowed by the whale. Three days later, the whale spit his body up on the beach, or close, and his life returned by the power of God, and he went on to do his business in Nineveh, grumbling all the way. Jesus had died, was buried, and had risen back to life the third day. And what a life He rose to.
It wasn't like Lazarus, who had also been buried for days when Jesus called him forth from the tomb. Lazarus lived for some period following that and then died again. Jesus rose to reign at God's side, never to die again. The divinity that He had temporarily discarded in order to live as a human was again restored to Him, and He walked in victory over the grave and death and all earthly problems. Hallelujah.
At any rate, Simon Peter went into the tomb first, followed by John, and seeing what had happened, John began to assimilate the things that Jesus had said, and believed that for sure Jesus was the Messiah.
We need to believe and have faith in what Jesus and the rest of the Bible have said. A word was given on belief and faith in a Sunday morning service recently that is worth reading. Jesus asked the question about whether He would find faith when he came back (Luke 18:8). It's a good question. We are saved by God's grace, but through faith (Ephesians 2:8). What's the status of your faith today. Trust that the Bible is true. Trust that God meant everything He said, and that Jesus relayed it properly.
Some seek an experience like Saul had on the Damascus road (Acts 9:1-22). But Jesus declared that if we had seen Him, we have actually seen the Father (John 14:9). Jesus was totally transparent to the Father's will. He was a perfect tool, and was used exactly as God wanted Him to be used, He said what God wanted said, He went where and when God wanted Him to go. They were completely in tune through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Would that every Christian, myself included, had that same oneness with God through the Holy Spirit 24 x 7 x 365 x our lifespan - and no sloughing off on daylight savings time changes or leap year! Sadly, I still have far to go. But I'm not giving up, and you shouldn't either.
The disciples came to the tomb and found it empty as it should have been. The Roman guards couldn't keep the angel from rolling the stone away to show that Jesus was gone. A Roman legion couldn't have done it. There shouldn't have been any surprise for the disciples, but they really hadn't understood all that Jesus had told them. There's are certainly passages of the Bible that we still don't understand clearly. Exactly how the tribulation period will play out we can only guess at. We haven't experienced it first hand (and hopefully our only experience with it will be looking down from heaven). After it has happened, then the scripture will make more sense and we will see how the prophecy described what happened. But for now, it's tough to understand. I imagine it was similarly tough for the disciples to hear what Christ was saying and truly understand before it happened. Even though they had seen Lazarus raised, they hadn't seen anyone raise up from the dead after three days in their own power. Yet it happened, just as He said.
They went their way to ponder all that they had seen.
Jesus and Mary
Meanwhile, Mary was at the tomb weeping. John 20:11-17 records what happened when she looked into the tomb and saw there were two angels in white raiment sitting at the head and the foot of the platform where Jesus body had lain. They had to ask why she was crying. She still hadn't sunk up to the resurrection of the dead, and tells them that tomb robbers had stolen Jesus body, and probably disgusted with the angels, she turned around to leave.
Jesus was standing there, but she thought it was the gardener. He also asks why she is weeping, and I suspect that she thought something like, "Have you never buried anyone you love?" Then to come and find the body gone, and you think I should not be crying, oy, vey! Did you do this wretched thing? That's a paraphrase, but I think it's pretty accurate. Maybe she thought that the owner of the tomb had objected to what was done since it was new, and the gardener had just moved the body elsewhere.
But Jesus then calls her by name, and the sound of her name coming from Jesus broke through the mental gymnastics she had to perform to realize that it was really Jesus. She refers to Him as Rabboni or Master, and moves to grab onto Him and hug Him, not letting go any time soon. I was going to say to death, but that expression really should be retired, I guess. He tells her that He has things that He must do and He can't be delayed at this point, but He tells her to go and tell the disciples that she has seen Him in the flesh. He is on His way to ascend to His rightful place in heaven with God.
Mary's Announcement
John 20:18 tells of Mary finding the disciples and telling them everything that Jesus had said. But they were evidently still struggling some with belief. We come by that naturally, but again, we must have both belief and faith.
Jesus' Announcement
Later that same day, in John 20:19-23, Jesus makes an appearance in the place the disciples where hiding with the doors shut and possibly barred. It didn't stop Jesus from appearing in their midst - which probably scared them quite a bit. But to convince them it is really Him, He shows them the marks of the crucifixion and the spear scar. He tells them to be at peace. Tough to do when a resurrected Christ shows up in your midst.
But Christ is always about His Father's business, even post death. He prepares them for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, tells them to forgive and not hold on to sin, and to instruct others likewise. They all had work to do, and they weren't getting it done by cowering in an upper room. Likewise, we all have work to accomplish. I've been remiss in getting the commentary through John. I had a dream, though, of harvest fields that were not white to harvest, but had already been cut and put into square bales and they were being taken back to safety. My bale wasn't very big, and it didn't look like it was the cleanest straw, but I then went on to dream about internet connections and was led to believe that there was a small part that I was to do and that I should get on with it. So I'm trying to finish up John. Romans is next.
Whatever God is calling you to do, you need to get with His program. The time may be really short. If the fields are in the final stages of getting the crop to a safe place, then the time may be very short. Of course, relative to God's time, I'm not sure what that is. The harvest fields have been ripe for 2,000 years so far. The end gathering may take decades, or centuries. But whatever time it takes, there are people alive today who don't know God who need to know Him and who will be dead before the rapture of Christ's church happens. Reach out and do your part while there is still light.
Doubting Thomas
Finally, John 20:24-31 concludes the chapter with the account of Thomas. He didn't happen to be around when Jesus had showed up the first time, and when Thomas heard what they had said, he said that he wouldn't believe them unless he saw it for himself. There are names that will live in every culture and be remembered in history probably forever. Washington, Lincoln, Patton, Eisenhower, Roosevelt, and the like are names that have automatic associations in the minds of most everyone in America at least. So it is with Thomas. Doubting Thomas. The person who didn't have enough faith.
When we think of how we will be remembered, we hope it will be for something great, and remembered fondly, and not as only a doubter. But Jesus wasn't through with Thomas. He made another appearance, again declared peace to the assembled disciples, and then turned to Thomas and told him to reach out and touch the hands, feet, and sides and stop being faithless and believe. Thomas would have probably shrunk to the size of a speck of dust if it was possible for being called out for his lack of faith.
But of all the things Jesus could have said about his doubts, He refrained, and simply told him to satisfy himself. He then said a very important thing in verse 29: Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. And that is just where all of us are. We have the New Testament in printed form, but we live 2,000+ years after Christ walked the earth. Although we can read and hear about Christ, both in Bibles, study texts like this, or sermons or otherwise, we have to choose to believe it is all true. We have to accept that Jesus blood is sufficient to save us, just like the disciples. Our salvation isn't because we are good, although we should try to be good. It isn't because of the works we have done, although we should try to do good works as well. Our salvation is by the grace of God and our faith.
John closes his account of Jesus life by saying that there were a lot of other things that Jesus did while He was on the earth that didn't get included. It's a lot easier to type into a text editor than to commit with dipped ink to parchment, I can tell you, but even so, the disciples didn't record everything. They probably remembered and told people of many other things, but only so much was recorded. But it was enough.
Today, God is still working, just as he did during the lives of the disciples and the early church. The Holy Spirit is still at work leading people to Christ. The Holy Spirit is still guiding and working through the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit to help make Christianity look like something people should take an interest in and seek salvation for their sins. Nothing has changed though. There is still much more that is done than is written down, even though it is much easier to do so now.
When the Jordan was crossed, Joshua told a person from each tribe to gather up a stone to make a monument marking where the nation of Israel had crossed the Jordan on dry land, just as their elders and some of them had crossed the Red Sea decades earlier. It was to be a remembrance that future generations could look at and when asking what it was for, could be reminded of the great things God had done.
If God has done something in your life, set up your own memorial marker. Don't let the Holy Spirit's work be for naught. There are many who won't see your marker either, and they must rely on faith and believe that all that was said in the Bible is true. But there are also those who will see the markers from lives lived today in the 21st century, and ask what's that all about. Be ready to tell them, so that perhaps another person can be saved. The fields may be baled, but there's always the gleaners who can come and get just a little bit more!
I don't think that Jesus is making many more appearances as He did for Saul. He had a particular purpose for Saul and He needed to get Saul's attention. But God is working all over the world. Even though we don't have a time machine to go back and directly observe the life of Christ, we can see how He is working around us today. He might not do everything we want Him to, and maybe, ultimately, that's a good thing. But God is still at work, and those monuments help us and others to believe.