John 20:1
“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.”
When Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had taken Jesus’ body off the Cross and prepared it for burial, Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ mother–Mary and another woman, Salome were with them (Mark 15 records this). We’re told that Jesus had cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene, but we don’t know a whole lot more about her. She is often seen traveling with Jesus and his disciples, along with several other women. In all regards, Mary Magdalene was also a disciple of Jesus, but not considered an Apostle.
It appears that Mary Magdalene had some wealth, Luke records that Mary Magdalene and the other women supported Jesus “out of their own means.” I’m speculating, as many Bible scholars have done, that Mary Magdalene became a devoted disciple of Jesus out of her gratitude to him for casting demons out of her. Nothing seems to deter Mary Magdalene from following Jesus, even to the Cross. When all the disciples/Apostles other than John had abandoned Jesus, Mary Magdalene was there with him. I think her actions tell us about the true condition of her heart; she could well have been one to sing Amazing Grace had it been written in her time—I think she knew it was Jesus who had saved a wretch like her.
I must admit, I am really wrestling right now with God, as a disciple of Jesus. I’m wrestling with how effective of a disciple I am. I do good things, I serve the Lord and people, but I have an overwhelming sense that my discipleship is lacking. I think the area it’s lacking in the most is how often I actually share, or neglect to share, the gospel with others. I keep very busy doing really good things, but I’m not so intentional about sharing the gospel. I get the feeling that Mary Magdalene was a disciple of Jesus and couldn’t help telling what he had done for her in delivering her from demons and offering her redemption and reconciliation to the Father. When I think of my own redemption, I’m not so sure I’m as excited as Mary was to tell other people. And I think I’m failing at discipleship because of it.
There must have been the need for a second round of anointing Jesus’ body after his death. Perhaps Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had given it a cursory anointing, enough to hold it over until the Passover was over; and then it could properly be attended to. Mary Magdalene had come to the tomb, before daylight, to anoint Jesus’ body (Mark 16) only to discover that the stone had been rolled away and the body was missing.
“So 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.’” (v2)
Nearly all, if not all, of Jesus’ disciples had missed his teaching on his own resurrection. Mary Magdalene’s first thoughts were that the Jews or Romans had taken Jesus’ body out of the tomb. If I try to climb inside of Mary’s mind I would have to ask the question “what did she think the Jews or the Romans had done with his body, and why would they have done anything with it?” Maybe it was that Mary thought the Jews wanted to thoroughly eradicate Jesus, and by stealing the body they could ensure that Jesus’ disciples had nothing to venerate. Without a body in a tomb, what would there be to remember. Similarly, when we bury a loved one or friend, we place a tombstone over the grave as a memorial and remembrance of that person, to which we will sometimes then go and remember the life of that person. Maybe the Jews wanted to completely eliminate any chance of that happening.
Mary Magdalene first meets Peter and John and tells them what has happened. “So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.” (v3-4) I wonder what was going through the minds of Peter and John as they sprinted toward the tomb. Were they mad that Jesus’ body was missing? Were they doubtful of what Mary Magdalene had seen? What did they think they were going to be able to do once they got there and found an empty tomb? Did they even remember that Jesus had said that he would resurrect? Did they realize that THAT day was the day he indicated that he would resurrect on?
“And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.” (v5) John is narrating his personal experience when arriving at Jesus’ tomb. All it took was a look on John’s part; he didn’t need to go in once he’d seen the empty tomb and the linen cloths lying by themselves. I can imagine him stepping away from the opening of tomb with a shell shock look on his face. I imagine his eyes glazed over in a distant stare, numb to everything that had happened in the last week, and especially the last three days. It wasn’t enough that Jesus had been crucified, now they had done something with his body. What else could happen?
“Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.” (v6-7) Peter was always going to be Peter. John’s standing outside the tomb in disbelief, but Peter charges into the tomb in typical Peter fashion—act first, think later. Peter had always been this way; always the impetuous one, always the one to be first, always the one to speak up first, always the one to do something, first. I’m so much like Peter was that it’s frightening.
What Peter sees is really interesting if we take time to dissect the elements he sees. First, the linen cloths were lying there. These would have been the linen strips that Jesus would have been bound in; and for a person to get out of them they probably would have had to been removed one by one, almost peeled off the body. What Peter seems to see is the strips lying there as though they hadn’t been removed, but that Jesus’ body had been removed from them. We’d almost expect the linen strips to be balled up in a corner of the tomb or scattered across the floor of the tomb, if they’d been removed one by one. Second, the face cloth that had covered Jesus’ face had been folded up and was off to one side by itself. Nothing haphazard in how the face cloth had been removed; it wasn’t tossed aside, like somebody might have done had they just come to steal the body. But, with care, the face cloth had been folded and laid aside.
I’m curious as to whether Peter was cognizant of these things, or, if all he saw was that the tomb was empty; Jesus was gone.
“Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.” (v8-10)
Again, John is narrating his own experience that day. When John entered the tomb and saw that Jesus was gone, he indicates that he “believed.” But what did he believe? According to what John says next, it wasn’t the resurrection that John believed, so John must have simply believed that Jesus’ body WAS missing, as Mary Magdalene had told them; and that the Jews or Romans had absconded with the body. In this moment I get a sense of hopelessness on John’s part. He didn’t know the resurrection had taken place; he admits that; and the last thing we see then is that the disciples “went back to their homes.”
What were they going to be able to do about any of this? What could the disciples do about the fact that Jesus’ body was missing and it was probable that somebody had taken it? Could the disciples go to either the Jewish or Roman authorities? Doubtful, since they had just both conspired to execute Jesus. What would anybody be willing to do?
That resurrection day started off pretty bleak for the disciples. Hopelessness and helplessness had settled in and they had resigned themselves just to go back home; Peter, John the other women and Mary Magdalene. Their grief must have been unbearable, especially to Mary Magdalene; the One who had driven out the seven demons, the One whom she had become a disciple of was gone, really gone. What would she do with her life now?
How does one go one being a disciple without Jesus?
