Dear Christian friends:

The text I have chosen for my message is from the gospel of St. John, which was read before. At first reading it seems dull when compared with the other three resurrection gospels. In it we miss several events that give radiance and joy to the Easter message. There is no earthquake, no angel coming down from heaven to roll back the stone from the entrance of the tomb; no angel saying to the women,”He is not here; he is risen!” There is only an open, empty tomb, linen burial bands and a folded napkin lying on the stone table where Jesus’ body had lain, and three sad and bewildered disciples.

We may well wonder why John's account of the resurrection is so different from the accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Many liberal scholars and others who deny the resurrection of Jesus say these discrepancies prove that the resurrection of Jesus is a myth and not a historical fact. However, we must keep in mind that John was the last of the Gospel writers and that in many places he supplements the record of the previous writers on the assumption that his readers were familiar with the other gospels. John, no doubt, felt that it was not necessary for him to repeat what the other three writers had so eloquently recorded. What John here emphasizes does not contradict what the others had reported, but supplements it and adds to the evidence that Jesus did in fact arise from the dead that first Easter morning. And really, it is not dull, but is just as exciting on closer examination as the other three accounts, for it, too speaks loudly and clearly that:


First, John gives us the amazing evidence lying on the stone table where Jesus' dead body had been laid.

So that we may fully appreciate this evidence we need to briefly review what happened on Friday evening after Jesus died; how Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus removed Jesus' body from the cross and prepared it for burial according to Jewish custom.

Joseph brought with him fine linen strips, and Nicodemus a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds of it. Joseph's new tomb was nearby where Jesus had been crucified, so they brought His body into the tomb and laid it on a rather high stone table. After washing His body the two men wound the linen strips around the arms, legs and body, sprinkling a liberal supply of the aromatic spices between the layers of linen. Around the head of the Savior they bound a linen napkin or sweat cloth. Jesus’ body must have looked like a mummy when they were finished.

However, apparently, they did not have time to complete this burial procedure, since the Sabbath began at 6:00 P.M. So they quit. They pushed the heavy disk like stone to close the entrance and left. The women from Galilee, who followed Jesus, had been observing this burial ritual, and apparently agreed with the men to come back on Sunday after the Sabbath and complete the burial rite.

On the Sabbath Day the chief priests and Pharisees asked Governor Pilate for a soldier watch to secure the tomb so that Jesus' disciples could not come by night and steal away Jesus body and claim that He had risen as He had said He would. Pilate gave them the soldiers and allowed them to secure the tomb with his own seal.

Now we come to our text: It says, ”Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance." Mary Magdalene did not come alone. Several other women came with her, as the other three gospel writers plainly tell us. However, John is interested in telling the Easter story from the viewpoint of a Magdalene. Apparently Mary, as soon as she saw the stone rolled aside, wrongly assumed that enemies had broken into the tomb and removed Jesus' body. While the other women remained at the tomb, she ran to tell Peter and John, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him.” (verse 2) Peter and John started for the tomb. On the way they may have met the other women who tell them of the appearance of the angel and his message: "He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. Electrified by this, Peter and John break into a race for the tomb.

Our text tells us that John arrived first: "He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around his head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen." (verses 5-7)

There must be a good reason why John mentions these linen strips twice, and why both times he emphasizes that they were lying there. The inference is that they were lying there in undisturbed order just as Joseph and Nicodemus had wound them around Jesus’ limbs and body on Friday evening. But now they were collapsed, without Jesus body. They had not been stripped off or cut off of the body and thrown in a pile. Peter stood there in deep thought and amazement.

R.C.H Lenski, a famous Lutheran Bible scholar comments on this amazing phenomenon: "No human being wrapped round and round with bands like this could possibly slip out of them without greatly disturbing them. They would have to be unwound or cut through or cut and stripped off. They would thus, if removed, be strewn around in disorder or heaped in a pile or folded in some way. If the body had been desecrated in the tomb by hostile hands this kind of evidence would appear. But hostile hands would have carried off the body as it was, wrappings and all, to get away as soon as possible and abuse it later elsewhere. But here the linen bands were. Both there presence and their undisturbed condition spoke volumes. Here indeed was a sign to behold.” So far Lenski.

There is even another sign. The cloth which was upon Jesus’ head was not lying with the linen strips, but in a separate place, in a place by itself, having been folded up. (verse 7) Clearly Jesus’ body had not been carried away for another burial, nor had it been hastily removed, since these are signs of deliberation, choice and care.

Friends could have folded the head-cloth, but they could not have taken the body of Jesus out of the linen strips without disturbing them; enemies likewise could not have done that. There is only one conclusion to make — Christ Himself, with His glorified body, passed out of the linen shackles, and either He or an angel folded the head-cloth — a witness to the fact that He is risen! He is risen indeed!

When John finally went inside the tomb, our text tells us that, "He saw and believed." (verse 8) The linen strips indicated to him that Jesus was alive. The Lord's natural body of flesh and blood, which had been laid in the tomb earlier, had been changed into a spiritual body, and as such passed through the linen strips without disturbing them.

The folded head-cloth and the linen strips lying in perfect order are certainly strong proofs of Jesus' resurrection that first Easter morning, but there is much stronger proof than that, which John alludes to here in our text.

There is evidence of the Old Testament Scriptures.

Peter and John and all the disciples that first Easter were ignorant of this stronger evidence, and I might add that we often are too. John confesses that when he writes here in our text. They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. (verse 9) At first the disciples believed because of what they saw, it was only later on that they believed because of Scripture.

Had they understood the Old Testament Scriptures they would have been prepared for the tremendous event of Jesus’ resurrection and would have waited for it with anticipation and great joy. They should have known better, because Moses and all the prophets had testified of Christ's resurrection. On that first Easter afternoon Jesus pointed that out to the two disciples on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. He scolded them for their grief and unbelief, saying: "How foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." Did not Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them what was, said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.“ (Luke 24:25-27) Christ had to suffer, die and then arise from death, because the Scriptures said so.

For us also the strongest evidence of Christ's resurrection is the prophecies in the Old Testament and their fulfillment by Jesus in the New Testament.

The question is: are we familiar with these Old Testament prophecies and are we aware of how perfectly they were all fulfilled in Jesus in the New Testament, in His birth, His ministry, His suffering, death and resurrection? Or must we confess with John that we still do not understand from the Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead?

I'm sorry to say it, but I think that many of us are as bad off as John, Peter and the other disciples were on that first Easter. They should have rejoiced at Jesus' death on Good Friday, but they didn't. We should rejoice at our own death and at the death of a believing loved one, but do we? We should be glad and eager to die to sin and then arise to anew life of holiness, as our baptism indicates, but are we?

After His resurrection Jesus taught His disciples to do this, and it did wonders for their faith. On the day of Pentecost, Peter applied Psalm 16:8f to the resurrection of Jesus, not to David, as most would do. It says:

"I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me in the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay." Then he told them that King David's tomb, with his decayed body, was still with them.

You can read his stirring sermon that converted more than 3000 people that day in Acts 2:25-37. In that great sermon Peter also quoted Psalm 110:1, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies they footstool. Peter said that prophesied Jesus, not King David, that God made the crucified Jesus both Lord and Christ.

So when your faith is weak, when you fear death and the grave, when a believing loved one dies, get back to the Bible, the whole Bible, both the Old Testament and the New! It clearly states that Christ is risen! And that He is risen indeed! And because He is risen, we, too, are risen, now in this life, and also for the life to come!

Amen.