Christ rises from the dead
20
📚Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.20:1 The authors of all four Gospels record the great fact of the resurrection of Christ. However, they do not use the same words or write all the same details or refer to all the same individuals who appear in one or another of the Gospels. For example, here John speaks of Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb, but Matthew says that another Mary came with her. Mark says Salome also came along, and Luke wrote of several women and names Joanna. Which of these accounts is correct? All of them. Saying that one of them came to the tomb is not the same as saying that the others did not. (See the note at Mark 4:1-20.)⚜
2 📚Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord away from the tomb, and we 📖 don’t know where they have put him”.
3 📚Therefore Peter and that other disciple set out, going to the tomb.
20:3 They knew that the disciples had not removed His body and they wanted to find out what had happened. We should be as eager as they to know the true facts about it. They are given to us in the New Testament.⚜
4 📚So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and arrived at the tomb first. 5 📚And stooping down and looking in, he saw the strips of linen lying there, but he did not go in. 6 📚Then Simon Peter, following him, arrived and went into the tomb, and saw the strips of linen lying there. 7 📚And he saw the cloth that had been around his head, not lying with the strips of linen, but rolled together in a place by itself. 8 📚Then that other disciple, who had first reached the tomb, also went in, and he saw and believed.
20:6-8 Joseph and Nicodemus had wrapped these strips of linen around the body of Jesus (John 19:40). If men had come to steal the body it is not at all likely they would have neatly removed these strips and folded the burial cloth that had been around His head. They would have been in a hurry and would either have taken the body wrapped up as it was, or would have torn the linen strips and the cloth off and let them fall anywhere. John immediately understood this and believed that Jesus had risen from the dead.⚜
9 📚For they still did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
Christ appears to believers
10 📚Then the disciples went away again to their own homes.
11 📚But Mary stood outside at the tomb, weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb,
20:11 This was Mary Magdalene (v 18). She followed the disciples back to the tomb and became the first to see the Lord Jesus after He rose from the dead. It is interesting that His first appearance was to her and not to His mother or to any of the apostles. He had compassion on a woman whose knowledge was little and whose faith was weak, but whose love was strong.⚜
12 📚and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and the other at the foot.
20:12 The other women who had come at first with Mary had seen only one angel. That one was outside the tomb seated on a stone (Matt 28:1-7). The two Mary saw were inside the tomb and had not been there when Peter and the other disciple went in. They probably had the appearance of men. Note on angels at Gen 16:7.⚜
13 📚And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have put him”.
20:13 The Jewish people placed much emphasis on the proper burial of the dead. Mary was grieved, thinking that grave robbers had been at work and had shown disrespect to the dead body of Jesus.⚜
14 📚And when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.
20:14 See also John 21:4; Matt 28:17; Luke 24:16, 37. It seems that after His resurrection Jesus did not look exactly the same as He did before it, so Mary did not immediately recognize Him. And of course she was not expecting to see Him at all. It is also possible that her head was bent as she wept and she did not look at His face.⚜
15 📚Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?” She, thinking he was the gardener 📖, said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him off, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him away”.
20:15 Jesus well knew the answer to this. Compare John 6:5-6; 11:34. Was there a gentle rebuke in this question? Compare Luke 24:5. (Sometimes in their ignorance of what God is doing Christ’s disciples weep when they should rejoice.)⚜
16 📚Jesus said to her, “Mary”. She turned around and said to him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher).
20:16 She had not recognized Him but she knew His voice, and realized also that no strange man could call her by name. Perhaps the moment of recognition came when she turned again and looked more closely at Him.⚜
17 📚Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, 📖 for I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren 📖 and tell them that I am ascending 📖 to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God 📖”.
18 📚Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.
20:18 Mary Magdalene became the first to bear witness to others of the resurrection of Jesus.⚜
The appearance to His disciples
19 📚Then on the evening of the same day, it being the first day of the week, while the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled, for fear 📖 of the Jews, Jesus came 📖 and stood among them and said to them, “Peace 📖 be with you”.
20 📚And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad, when they saw the Lord.
20:20 Verse 27. He was proving to them that He was indeed their Lord Jesus and that His crucified body had risen from the dead. Compare Luke 24:36-43. Their rejoicing when they saw Him fulfilled His word to them in John 16:20-22. All their joy and hopes had died when He died (Luke 24:21). Now they spring to life again at His resurrection. Compare 1 Pet 1:3.⚜
21 📚Then Jesus said to them again, “Peace be to you. As my Father has sent me, even so I send you”. 📖
22 📚And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
20:22 This symbolic action signified that He was the source of life, power, and the Holy Spirit. He was sending them forth and He would spiritually qualify them for the work they had to do. It is interesting to compare this verse with Gen 2:7. It would seem that in some sense they now received the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that they had not had the Spirit with them before. Even in Old Testament times believers knew something of the presence and work of God’s Spirit (Ex 31:3; Jud 3:10; 1 Sam 10:6; 16:13; 2 Sam 23:2; Ps 51:11). But now the Lord Jesus was giving God’s Spirit in a new way. It is likely that at this time they were given special wisdom and understanding in the Scriptures. Compare Luke 24:45. He may have been giving the Spirit as an indwelling presence (John 7:39; 14:17). And it is clear that He was giving them authority to minister as His representatives. Later He would grant them the Spirit in an even greater measure (Acts 1:4-5; 2:1-4).⚜
23 📚The sins of everyone you forgive are forgiven them; the sins of anyone you do not forgive are held unforgiven”.
20:23 Compare Matt 16:19; 18:15-18. The Lord Jesus was speaking to the representatives and human founders of His church. This means that the Church on earth (made up of all true believers in Christ), having received God’s Spirit, will be able to proclaim what sort of men are forgiven and what sort are not forgiven. The Greek here could be translated something like this: “Those whose sins you forgive have already been forgiven; those whose sins you let remain unforgiven have not been forgiven”. The meaning is: It is God in heaven Who forgives sin or not (note at Mark 2:7. See also Ps 103:3; 130:4). And it is God Who determines what sort of people shall be forgiven and what sort will not be. And He has already determined this – Luke 24:46-47; Acts 10:43; 13:38-39; Eph 1:7; 1 John 1:9. God forgives those who repent and trust in Christ. Forgiveness is a gift of His grace. It is the work of the Church to proclaim this truth.
Compare 2 Sam 12:13 for something similar in the Old Testament. God said of prophets in the Old Testament that they would do things when the meaning plainly is that they would declare them (see Jer 25:15-26). And this is true in the case of the apostles. By preaching Christ’s gospel they opened the door of forgiveness to all who would believe, they shut the door to all those who would not believe. They pointed individuals to God Who forgives sins. In Matt 6:12; Luke 11:4 the Lord Jesus taught us Whom we should ask for forgiveness of sins. The Church or any member of it can say to anyone on earth “If you repent and believe in the Lord Jesus all your sins are forgiven; if you do not repent and believe they are not forgiven”. And they can say to all believers “If you confess your sins to God He will forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness”. Christ did not appoint from among Christians any special group of people as priests who alone could pronounce such truth. All believers in Christ are priests, all can speak the truth of forgiveness (see 1 Pet 2:5, 9).⚜
The appearance to Thomas with the others
24 📚But Thomas called Didymos, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 📚So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord”. But he said to them, “Unless I see the print of the nails in his hands, and put my finger into the nail prints, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe”.
20:25 This is why he is sometimes called “Doubting Thomas”. He should have been willing to believe the testimony of the other disciples. But the desire for certainty is not to be condemned.⚜
26 📚And after eight days his disciples were again inside, and Thomas was with them. The doors were locked but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be to you”.
20:26 Verse 19.⚜
27 📚Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and reach your hand here and put it into my side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing”.
20:27 See how loving and compassionate the Lord is even to weak and doubting disciples. He was showing him (and all of them) a real body with the unmistakable marks of crucifixion still on it. And Jesus insisted that Thomas accept the evidence for His resurrection. “Do not be unbelieving but believing” is a word that comes to all of us today.⚜
28 📚And Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God”.
20:28 God turns His people’s failures to some good. Because of the doubts of Thomas, and Christ’s revealing Himself to him, we have this great expression of faith. Thomas, as a Jew instructed in the Old Testament, and taught by Jesus Himself for three years, knew very well that there was only one God and that to have any other god was the worst of sins (Matt 4:10; Ex 20:1-4; Deut 6:4-5; Isa 43:11; 44:6; 45:5). When he called Jesus “Lord” and “God” he was expressing his conviction that Jesus was the incarnation of the one true God, the Jehovah of the Old Testament. See also John 1:1, 14, 18; 5:17-18; 8:24, 58; 10:30-33; other references at Phil 2:6; Luke 2:11.⚜
29 📚Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed 📖 are those who have not seen and yet have believed”.
20:29 See how the Lord Jesus accepts his words. In other words, He agrees with Thomas that He is Lord and God. If Jesus did not know He is Lord and God it is inconceivable that He would have done this. Mere men, if they are good men, do not accept divine honors (compare Acts 14:13-15).⚜
30 📚And indeed Jesus performed many other 📖 miraculous signs 📖 in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 📚But these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, you might have life through his name.
20:31 Here are three very important truths.
First, there is something wonderful to believe – that Jesus is the One anointed by God as the Messiah of Israel, the Saviour of the world, and that He is God’s Son sharing God’s very nature (notes at Matt 1:1).
Second, there are very good reasons for believing this – the miraculous signs Jesus gave, including His resurrection from the dead.