¹ Now on the first day of the week Mary Mag'dalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
² 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."
³ Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb.
⁴ They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first;
⁵ and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.
⁶ Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying,
⁷ and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.
⁸ Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
⁹ for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
¹⁰ Then the disciples went back to their homes.

• This passage opens the last part of John's Gospel (ch.20): the resurrection and appearance of Jesus. This chapter contains the resurrection with the empty tomb story (vv.1-10) and Jesus' appearances to Mary Magdalene (vv.11-18), to the disciples without Thomas (vv.19-23), and to the disciples with Thomas (vv.24-29).
• In the preceding passage, Jesus' body was laid in a new tomb in the garden (19:41). This tomb was probably a horizontal cave with a small ground-level entrance, usually less than a yard high. This explains why the disciple must bend down to look inside (v.5).
• Jesus' body was not put into a coffin but probably laid in an "arcosolia", a semi-circle niche, a sort of side-way flat bed formed by cutting two or three feet deep into the side of the cave.
• His body was wrapped in cloth and aromatic oils, and the face was covered with a small piece of cloth. The presence of the cloths in vv.6-7 shows that the body was probably not stolen because thieves would not unwrap and fold the cloths so neatly.
• There are some difficulties within this story, for example, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb alone but in v.2 the pronoun "we" is used. Furthermore, some details are different from the synoptic resurrection accounts.
• "He saw and believed" (v. 8) seems to contradict with "they still did not understand the scripture" (v.9). The most natural explanation is that the beloved disciple believed that Jesus had risen from the dead based on his own observation of the empty tomb rather than on the scripture (See Newman p.606).

The resurrection is Jesus' ultimate glory. It is the sign of the victory over death, the hope for us, and the basis for our Christian faith.

1. Imagine that you are standing in front of the empty tomb and looking in, what does the tomb look like? Is it foul? What do you see?
2. Put yourself in Peter's place: guilt-ridden by his betrayal of Jesus, dispirited by Jesus' death, and now the body was gone! Have you ever experienced moments when God is absent from your life?
3. The beloved disciples saw the folded linen cloths and believed. Can you recall one specific sign that led you to believe in the Risen Lord?

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A synthesis by the Vietnamese Christian Life (Dong Hanh) Community