Continuing a Bible study of the Gospels:
(John 20:1) Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early, when it was yet dark, to the sepulchre, and saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
At the end of the last chapter, Jesus had been buried in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and Matthew 27:60 had told us Joseph had rolled a large stone against the opening of the tomb. Mary Magdalene now came to the sepulchre very early in the morning on the day after the Sabbath and saw that the stone had been taken away.
(2) Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre and we do not know where they have laid Him."
Mary Magdalene had surely looked inside the tomb after seeing the stone rolled away to know that Jesus was not there. She assumed the Romans had removed His body or perhaps the men who had laid Jesus there in the first place and she ran to Peter and John to tell them. Joseph and Nicodemus had laid Jesus in Joseph's tomb because it was nearby, and the Sabbath was soon to commence. Perhaps she thought they had now moved Him to another location. The other Gospel accounts speak of other women who were with Mary Magdalene and that they saw angels who told them Jesus had risen. However, those accounts state the women came at dawn or just after sunrise, and here John said Mary Magdalene came while it was still dark. It seems she must have come first and then returned a little later with the other women.
(3) Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. (4) So they ran both together and the other disciple outran Peter and came first to the sepulchre.
Peter and John both ran to the sepulchre to see for themselves. John outran Peter and got there first.
(5) And he, stooping down, saw the linen clothes lying, but he did not go in.
John stooped down to look into the sepulchre and saw the linen wraps that had bound Jesus lying on the ground. However, he did not go into the sepulchre.
(6) Then came Simon Peter following him and went into the sepulchre and saw the linen clothes, (7) And the napkin that was around His head not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
Then Peter came and he went straight into the sepulchre and also saw the linen wraps lying on the ground. He also saw the separate wrap that had been wrapped around Jesus's head. However, it was not lying with the linen wraps, but was wrapped together in another place by itself. That would suggest that Jesus had not been taken away in a hurry, but that either Jesus Himself or angels had taken time to orderly remove His wraps.
(8) Then the other disciple went in also, who came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed. (9) For as yet they did not know the scripture that He must rise again from the dead.
Then John went into the sepulchre also. He saw the linen wraps and the napkin and he believed. What exactly he believed, scripture does not tell us. It says that they didn't yet know and understand the scriptures that said Jesus must rise again from the dead. Perhaps he believed that what Mary Magdalene had said was true. But as "believing" usually takes on a deeper sense as truly believing in the Lord, I can't help but wonder if John was sensing that Jesus had risen of His own accord. After all, Jesus had told His disciples that He would be risen from the dead, even if they did not fully understand the scriptures at that point.
(10) Then the disciples went away again to their own home.
Peter and John then went home.
(11) But Mary stood outside at the sepulchre weeping and as she wept, she stooped down into the sepulchre, (12) And saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain.
Mary Magdalene stayed behind at the sepulchre, weeping outside of it. She stooped down to look into the tomb. She saw two angels in white sitting inside the tomb, one at the head of where Jesus's body had lain, and the other at the feet.
(13) And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid Him."
The angels asked Mary Magdalene why she was crying. She told them what she had assumed, that they (the Romans or Joseph and Nicodemus) had taken away the body of Jesus and she did not know where it was.
(14) And when she had said this, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and did not know that it was Jesus.
Mary then turned away from inside the tomb and saw Jesus standing there, only she did not realize that it was Jesus. She may have only modestly glanced at whom she thought to be just a man, and also her eyes were full of tears.
(15) Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, "Sir, if you have carried Him from here, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away."
Jesus asked Mary Magdalene why she was crying and who it was she was seeking. Mary assumed He was the gardener and asked Him if He had carried Jesus's body away and asked Him to tell her where He had taken His body so that she could take it away.
(16) Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned herself and said to Him, "Rabboni," which is to say, "Master."
Jesus then spoke only Mary's name and she turned toward Him and immediately recognized Him as her Lord.
(17) Jesus said to her, "Do not touch Me, for I am not yet ascended to My Father, but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'"
I don't believe Jesus's meaning was that He couldn't be touched at all because He had not yet ascended to His Father in heaven. We are told in other scriptures that people touched Jesus before He ascended. In Matthew 28:9, Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" held Jesus by His feet and worshipped Him. Jesus told "Doubting" Thomas to touch His side (later in this chapter). In Luke 24:39, Jesus told His disciples to touch Him and see His nail-scarred hands and feet to know that it was really Him. I believe Jesus's point was that Mary needn't cling to Him because He wasn't going to His Father just yet, and He had a mission for her, to go tell His disciples that He would be ascending to His Father God who was their Father and God. This would assure them that even though Christ had died, they were still united to Him and to the same Father God in heaven.
(18) Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and He had spoken these things to her.
Mary Magdalene went and told the disciples that she had seen Jesus and she told them what He had told her to tell them.
(19) Then the same day at evening, being the first of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, "Peace to you."
The evening of that same day the disciples had assembled together behind closed doors for fear of the Jews. However, Jesus was able to divinely come in there and stood in the midst of them and spoke to them a greeting of peace.
(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.
Jesus then showed the disciples His hands and His side partly to prove that it was really Him and not a spirit, and to prove that He had been truly resurrected from the dead with the marks of the nails in His hands and the stabbed place in His side. He had not yet ascended to heaven in His glorified form. The disciples were very glad to see their Lord.
(21) Then Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you; as the Father has sent Me, even so I send you."
Jesus again gave them a greeting of peace, and then told them that He was sending them out on a mission as the Father had sent Him on one. Nothing had changed because of His death. In fact, it would be enhanced by His resurrection and ascension back to heaven.
(22) And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
After Jesus told the disciples He was sending them out, He breathed on them and told them to receive His Holy Spirit. I believe it was symbolic of when God first breathed life into man at the beginning of creation. He was now breathing new life into them to be renewed to their mission without Him physically, but with His spirit and everything He had taught and shown them.
(23) "Whosever sins you forgive, they are forgiven them; whosever sins you retain, they are retained."
Only God and Jesus as God can truly forgive sins. But Jesus was giving them permission as part of their mission to tell one who had repented and professed Jesus as his Savior that his sins were forgiven and God would honor that. Actually God forgave first; they would have already been forgiven because he had repented and accepted Jesus, but Jesus would have His disciples doing His work as He had done while He was with them. On the other hand, if they perceived one had not repented and accepted Jesus, then they could declare his sins were still retained by him.
(24) But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
It seems that all of the disciples had assembled together except for Thomas who was not with them when Jesus came to them. Thomas is the Hebrew name meaning "twin," and Didymus is the Greek name meaning the same thing. By his name, one would gather that Thomas had a twin, but the Bible never mentioned who that might be. In an apocryphal book called The Acts of Thomas, it is suggested that Thomas was called Twin because he looked like Jesus, however as that book was rejected as part of the Bible, we can't really know if that was true or not.
(25) The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Except I see in His hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe."
The other disciples told Thomas afterward that they had seen the Lord, but Thomas did not believe that it had really been Jesus they saw. He told them that unless he could see Him himself and see the wounds of the nails in His hands and even put his fingers into those wounds, as well as put his hand into Jesus's side where He had been stabbed by the Roman soldier, he would not believe that it had been Jesus they saw.
(26) And after eight days, again His disciples were inside and Thomas with them, Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you."
Eight days after Jesus had appeared to His disciples, they were again gathered together behind closed doors and Thomas was with them that time. Jesus came to them again even though the doors were shut, suggesting it was in a supernatural manner that Jesus appeared to them. He stood in the midst of His disciples and again gave them a greeting of peace.
(27) Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here and behold My hands, and reach your hand here and thrust into My side; and do not be faithless but believing."
Jesus, knowing what Thomas had said to the other disciples, told Thomas to look at His hands and put his finger into the wounds, and put his hand into His side so that he would believe it was really Jesus who appeared before them and not to remain faithless.
(28) And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God."
It seems Thomas did not have to touch Jesus's wounds, but that he acknowledged Jesus as his Lord. Not only Lord, but he acknowledged that Jesus was God Himself. I believe that is the first time any disciple had gone as far as to say that besides John writing it in the beginning of his gospel account.
(29) Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed they who have not seen and have believed."
Jesus acknowledged that He knew that Thomas truly believed in Him at that point because he had seen Him. However, He added that those who believed in Him, having not seen Him physically, were blessed, perhaps the more blessed. Their faith would seem to be greater because they hadn't seen physical proof but believed God's word. As 2 Corinthians 5:7 says, "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
(30) And many other signs Jesus truly did in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book.
John revealed that Jesus had done many other works in the presence of His disciples about which he had not written in his Gospel.
(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.
John went on to reveal his purpose in writing his gospel account the way he did. He wrote to prove that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing that of Him and believing in Him, one would have everlasting life. Truly, John seemed to go above and beyond the mere actions of Jesus, to show his readers the deity of Christ Jesus more than the previous Gospels did. And writing this right after he wrote that Jesus said those who had not seen but still believed were blessed, he gives his readers assurance and confidence that although we were not there to witness Jesus in the flesh, what he wrote is true and we may be saved and have everlasting life if we believe.
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