Meeting the empty tomb and the risen Jesus in John 20
The discovery past two disciples of the empty tomb, and Mary Magdelene'southward encounter with Jesus, in John 20.1–18, is one of the main options for the gospel reading for Easter Sunday. And it is, in many ways, the most highly-seasoned choice, because of its polished literary form, its focus on individuals, and its description of the moments of recognition. Since nosotros now enter the Easter season, it bears continued reflection.
The passage is full of features worth noting, many of which make it characteristic of the Fourth Gospel:
- The double meaning of timings and descriptions which take both literal and symbolic significance.
- The selection of individuals to focus on, including one-to-one see with Jesus, when there were clearly others present.
- The repeated ironic theme of reversal, expressed in both implicit and explicit ways.
- The importance of seeing and assertive leading to faith.
- Literary and thematic connections with earlier passages in the gospel, particularly chapter 1 (the 'prologue') and chapter 11 (the raising of Lazarus) as well as chapters 9 and 10.
The narrative begins where the previous part of the story had left off, at the tomb where Jesus had been laid. There is simply no mention, here or in the other gospels, of anything of 'silent Saturday'; the followers of Jesus rest in grief and silence equally Jesus rests in the tomb. Where Matthew and Marking offer absolute fourth dimension markers ('after the Sabbath') this gospel typically uses a relative time mark 'On the starting time twenty-four hours of the week…' The first calendar week of testimony to the risen Jesus ('nearly a week later on' John 20.26) matches the outset week of testimony in chapter one.
Mary Magdalene becomes the key figure in this episode, which is interesting since she had made no advent in this gospel prior to her presence being noted at the cross in John 19.25 (though Luke 8.2 notes that she has been accompanying Jesus for some time in his ministry building). Though she alone is mentioned here, it is apparent that she has not come alone, since she tells the men that 'we do not know' in verse iv. In the light of this gospel's focus on individuals, there is no reason to think that this account contradicts the mention of other women in the iii other gospels—it is just being selective.
The description of it 'still being nighttime' isn't really a contradiction to the other gospels mention of 'early dawn' or 'the dominicus has just risen', since Mary appears to exist able to see the tomb and the rock that has been moved. The darkness hither has symbolic importance; in chapters 3 and 4 the dissimilarity between Nicodemus coming in the nighttime of evening and the woman meeting Jesus in the light of day was less the contrast between organized religion and unbelief and more an indication of degree of understanding. Mary is notwithstanding in the darkness of grief, only her agreement of what is going on has not yet dawned.
Mary sees that the stone 'had been taken away' from the tomb, using dissimilar language from the other three gospels that the rock was 'rolled away' (Matt 28.2, Mark sixteen.4, Luke 24.2). Some have suggested that, where the Synoptics describe a disc-shaped stone, John is describing a more common rock plug that would exist dragged away. Merely there is no need to suppose this; the word used,airo, is a full general term for removal, and was the term used for the removal of the stone closing the entrance to Lazarus' tomb in John eleven.39, 41.
Hither is the first reversal: Mary turns from the tomb and runs to the other disciples. The 'disciple whom Jesus loved' has traditionally been identified with John the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve. He claims to be the 1 who has written this gospel (John 21.24), simply he features only in the 2nd one-half of the gospel, his testimony focusses on Jerusalem, it makes no mention of James (the brother of John) and it gives niggling prominence at all to The Twelve. Richard Bauckham makes a persuasive statement that he is a Jerusalem-based disciple, and not one of the Twelve. Mary'southward assumption is that someone has come up and reburied Jesus in another location; her understanding is nonetheless shrouded in the darkness of grief.
At that place is a sense of excited but anxious hurry in this get-go part of the story, portrayed in office by Mary running to the Simon Peter and the other disciple, and so them running back to the tomb. But information technology is also created by the constant changes of tense, mixing by tenses with 'celebrated present'. Mary runs…and comes…and says, whilst the two men went…and were going…and were running.
There is something of a rivalry between these ii, with contrast and reversal threaded through the description of them, something that will exist revisited in the final chapter of the gospel. Peter sets out kickoff; then the other disciple overtakes him; but he stops at the entrance, whilst Peter comes past him and goes correct in. The linguistic communication of 'stooping' to look in makes little sense in different times and cultures—I cannot retrieve of always having had to stoop to look at a tomb. But it makes perfect sense in historical context, since stone-cutting tombs of this period would have low doors, and you cannot run into much without stooping down, and fifty-fifty entering the chamber which broadens out across the depression, narrow archway.
The mention of the 'linen cloths' (othonia) and the 'face fabric' (ESV, NET) or 'napkin' (AV) (soudarion) is maybe the almost intriguing feature of this account. The other disciple sees only the start of these, which were used to wrap the trunk of the dead person; if Jesus' torso had been laid on a shelf on one side of the sleeping room, with his head nearest the entrance, and then you could not run into thesoudarion without going in to wait effectually the corner. Mention of both of these recalls, over again, the raising of Lazarus, where the dead homo comes out walking, with theothonia around his body and legs and thesoudarion around his head, which Jesus instructs the people to remove (John eleven.44). But in that location is, of grade, no need for whatsoever human intervention here: Jesus has escaped the clutches of death and its apparel without any assistance.
Here comes yet another reversal: Peter is the offset to meet, just the other disciple is the beginning 'to believe'. This raises two key questions: what did he believe, and why? Taking these in reverse order, the narrative simply gives the facts of the two pieces of textile every bit the reason for the disciple's belief, without much explanation. (Jo-Ann BrantPaideia commentary, p 267, notes that this is a recognised feature of Latin drama, known every bitenergeia, where the facts are described without any explanation being given. It offers the whole narrative a sense of directness and immediacy, rather the opposite of Hercule Poirot's laboured explanations of the details in an Agatha Christie novel!) Thesoudarion is 'folded' or 'rolled upwardly' ἐντετυλιγμένον,entetuligmenon; Brant and Craig Keener suggest that Jesus, having been restored to life, casually folded information technology up and placed information technology downwardly. But the linguistic communication hither is exactly the same that has been used in Matthew 27:59 and Luke 23:53 for Joseph wrapping Jesus' body upward at his burial—and the narrative emphasises that it isdivide from theothonia; the implication hither is that the linen strips are still in the place where the body of Jesus had been, and the head cloth iswithal in the place where his caput had been. Not only does this contradict the idea that the trunk has been taken and moved, or robbed from the tomb—it shows that Jesus has been raised to life through the cloths, which take simply collapsed in their place. This is rather cleverly illustrated by Andrew Sach using gimmicky clothes!
As the sun rises, and dawn becomes clearer, this disciple sees and believes—but he as however simply sees this sign. He has not yet connected this with the teaching of the Scriptures (which Jesus expounds to the two travelling on the Emmaus Route in Luke 24)—nor has he yet had a personal run into with the risen Jesus. It is organized religion, but not even so in its fullest grade.
With religion half formed, and much still to ponder, the two disciples render to their homes, without yet having a bulletin to share. But Mary lingers at the tomb, notwithstanding in grief, probably non merely weeping merely near likely (in that culture) continuing to express her grief by open wailing. She too stoops and looks into the tomb, and sees angelic figures which she appears not to recognise. Again, there is no particular need to see the descriptions of the angels here as contradicting the accounts of the other gospels, since each is being selective—and angels are able to come up and go! But as Jesus has asked a repeated question of Martha and Mary in John 11 with variations of answer, and so we have a repeated question asked of this Mary, with a variation in her reply. 'The Lord' in her written report to Simon Peter and the other disciple has now become 'my Lord'; he will before long become 'my Teacher!'
Having turned to the tomb, she now reverses management, and turns to see Jesus himself—though the light has still not yet fully dawned. She assumes he is a humble gardener—and there is gardening of a sort involved, every bit Jesus has taught in John xv. But Jesus adds to the question of the angels a question that he has been asking since the beginning, of the first disciples in John 1.38: 'Whom do you lot seek?' The moment of recognition comes when Jesus calls her past name—for, every bit we know from John ten.3, 'the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by proper name.' She responds in the most personal terms; where in John 1.38 he was merely 'Instructor', now for Mary he is 'My Teacher', literally 'My peachy one!' This is an acclamation that will not be confined to i minor grouping, in their own civilisation and language, simply will need to exist translated into Greek, thelingua franca of the mean solar day, then that all might hear this good news—and then the writer of the gospel provides us with the translation, both of the expression and of the gospel news. Now the sun has fully risen.
In this abbreviated narrative, Jesus control 'Do not cling to me' implies that she has flung her artillery around him. It is very unfortunate that the episode has mostly been circulated in Jerome'due south Latin Vulgate translationNoli me tangere, 'Do not touch me', suggesting either that Jesus was too fragile or holy to bear on, or that he wasn't actually physically, actual raised. But we do here get the first proffer that Jesus' ultimate future—and therefore the ultimate nature of faith—is for him to be ascended and to send his Spirit. Seeing and assertive are the foundations of apostolic faith, just seeing without assertive, based on apostolic testimony, will be the reality for successive generations. The new reality, that God is Begetter not only to Jesus but to all who believe, and so that we are together brothers and sisters of Jesus, is established here but made real past the Spirit (Romans 8.15).
Whilst the other disciple is the first to accept believed, Mary Magdalene is the offset to acquit churchly witness—and the narrative is emphatic here, that she is the apostle to the apostles. In her grief, she has encounteredangeloi, the celestial messengers sent from God; now in her belief she is sent to proclaim, the verbangello, by Jesus himself. In the last great reversal in this narrative, she really is now on the side of the angels!
This whole episode is in an interesting place within the Fourth Gospel. The whole narrative was edifice to the crucifixion as the moment of Jesus' glory, his enthronement and his exaltation. What importance does the resurrection have within this theological shape? If the cross achieved everything, if there 'It is finished!' what is the meaning of the resurrection?
The cross is Jesus' exaltation. The resurrection is the exaltation of the believer from grief to joy, from despairing uncertainty to exuberant confession, from loss to blessing. (Jo-Ann Brant,Paideia commentary, p 265)
We need to note that the disciples, including Mary, are not witnesses to the resurrection, but to the empty tomb and the raised Jesus. The resurrection is the ultimate reversal of all that has appeared to triumph in the earlier narrative. And the disciples move, by stages, in having their eyes opened and their hearts changed as they meet the risen Lord.
(The illustration is a 12th century Spanish ivory plaque, with the superscription 'D[omi]n[u]south loquitur Marie', 'The Lord said "Mary"' I like information technology chiefly considering it looks as though Mary and the risen Jesus are engaging in a dance of joy together, their clothes swirling around them as they dance. Information technology seems to be a great expression of what the resurrection means.)
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