#32 – Knowing God Better – John 20

I’m going to start off today with a question:

Q – Who the two men who took Jesus down from the cross? And what was interesting about them? (see below)
A –

38 Afterward Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus (because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate for permission to take down Jesus’ body.
When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away. 39 With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night.

You can find Nicodemus in John, chapter 3. Both of these guys were “secret” believers in Jesus, who didn’t want others to know about it. But now, they both felt compelled to show up.

We’re told that they brought with them 75 pounds of perfumed ointment and long sheets of linen cloth. This was the common approach in preparing a body for burial. The gummy ointment would be spread between the strips of linen cloth, wrapped around the body. It would harden like a tight casing.

39 He brought seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. 40 Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus’ body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth.

We know from the other gospels that they placed Jesus in the tomb was Joseph of Arimathea’s own tomb.

41 The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used before. 42 And…they laid Jesus there.

The other gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) fill in a little detail that John doesn’t mention in his gospel.

The Jews knew that Jesus had said he would rise from the dead.

So, at the request of the Jewish leaders, the Romans affixed an official Roman seal from the boulder to the tomb’s entrance, and posted a trained guard of Roman soldiers at Jesus’ tomb.

John 20:

1 Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb…

We know from the previous chapter that Mary Magdalene had been at Jesus’ crucifixion. When she got to the tomb, what happened?

1 …and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. [meaning, John]

She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

3 Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. 4 They were both running, but the other disciple [John] outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

Q – What did John see in the tomb? It wasn’t completely empty. What did he see? (see below)
A –

5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in.
6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings.

Q – What happened when they saw the linens, but only the linens? (see below)
A –

8 Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed–9 for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead.

Next study you’ll see even more proof of Jesus’ resurrection…

Sincerely,

Marilyn Adamson
director of EveryStudent.com
and StartingwithGod.com