Sticking With It: John 20:1-18

For the past several episodes, we have been focusing extra closely on the time Jesus spent on the cross. At the end of our passage for our last episode, Jesus has just finished being buried in the tomb, which was a gift from a man named Joseph who was from Arimathea. Our passage for this episode fast-forwards to resurrection morning, and John focuses in on three of Jesus’ followers. One follower was a woman, and two followers were disciples.

Let’s read our passage and discover what happened. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 20, and we will read it using the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, John sets the stage by telling us:

¹ Early on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb while it was still dark. When she saw that the large stone had been moved away from the tomb, ² she ran to Simon Peter and the follower whom Jesus loved. Mary said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him.”

³ So Peter and the other follower started for the tomb. ⁴ They were both running, but the other follower ran faster than Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent down and looked in and saw the strips of linen cloth lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶ Then following him, Simon Peter arrived and went into the tomb and saw the strips of linen lying there. ⁷ He also saw the cloth that had been around Jesus’ head, which was folded up and laid in a different place from the strips of linen. ⁸ Then the other follower, who had reached the tomb first, also went in. He saw and believed. ⁹ (They did not yet understand from the Scriptures that Jesus must rise from the dead.)

¹⁰ Then the followers went back home.

¹¹ But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. As she was crying, she bent down and looked inside the tomb. ¹² She saw two angels dressed in white, sitting where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and one at the feet.

¹³ They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

She answered, “They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have put him.” ¹⁴ When Mary said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus.

¹⁵ Jesus asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Whom are you looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said to him, “Did you take him away, sir? Tell me where you put him, and I will get him.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

Mary turned toward Jesus and said in the Hebrew language, “Rabboni.” (This means “Teacher.”)

¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold on to me, because I have not yet gone up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going back to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went and said to the followers, “I saw the Lord!” And she told them what Jesus had said to her.

Usually when reading this passage, most pastors, teaches, or speakers would have the tendency to pause and insert thoughts in the midst of this event. I thought briefly about doing that as well. However, I resisted the urge because I wanted you to get the big picture of this event before drawing our attention onto several powerful ideas.

When reading about Mary’s trip to the tomb, I don’t think I ever noticed how she left to tell the disciples without even looking into the tomb. Part of me had always imagined that she looked in the tomb to see that it was empty before running off to tell the disciples. However, according to John’s gospel, this was not the case. There is no evidence that Mary looked in the tomb before either of Jesus’ other followers who ran to the tomb that morning, at least from reading John’s version of this event. The impression I get when reading this event from John’s gospel is that Mary understood that an open tomb meant that Jesus’ body had been removed.

Also, it is worth noting that nothing in the response of Jesus’ followers suggests that they believed Jesus had not died, or that He would rise from the dead. Even with Jesus repeatedly predicting this to happen, John purposefully inserts a note in verse 9 to help us understand that: “They [referring to Jesus’ followers] did not yet understand from the Scriptures that Jesus must rise from the dead.”

If these followers did not understand that Jesus must rise from the dead, then what does John mean when he says that he believed when He saw the empty tomb? In verse 8, John, referring to himself as the other follower who reached the tomb first says, “Then the other follower, who had reached the tomb first, also went in. He saw and believed.”

Both Peter and John did not doubt that Jesus had died. I suspect that they doubted Mary’s word that the tomb was empty. While only Matthew’s gospel draws attention to the soldiers that were positioned guarding the tomb, I am certain that all the disciples were well aware that the religious leaders had made Jesus’ tomb the most secure location in that region.

When John says that he now believed, I suspect that he most likely meant that he believed Mary’s word after having seen the empty tomb for himself. Both Peter and John may have had Jesus’ words in the back of their mind about Him predicting His resurrection, but it’s one thing to remember Jesus’ prediction, and a completely different thing to believe that it actually happened.

However, verse 10, while it seems to be a simple transition statement in John’s gospel, is incredibly powerful. In verse 10, John tells us: “Then the followers [refering to himself and Peter] went back home.”

This left Mary alone by the tomb, and it was now Mary’s turn to enter the tomb. If Mary had entered the tomb before this, there wouldn’t be a reason for her to re-enter it. She would have already seen inside. There likely wouldn’t have even been a reason for her to look inside if she had already looked inside.

However, while Jesus’ two disciples had not seen any angels, Mary, perhaps because she knew nowhere else to go, was open to finding answers and she sees the angels when looking in the tomb.

Why is it significant in my mind that Jesus’ disciples left?

In my mind, I speculate that if Jesus’ disciples had stayed, either they would have then been able to experience the angels themselves, or it is possible that the angels would not have appeared to Mary. I don’t know which would have happened. Jesus’ followers left before Jesus arrived, and this is significant when we stop to think about it.

If Peter and John had stayed with Mary, they likely would have been the first people to see Jesus emerge from the tomb, with the only exception to this being the soldiers who had been guarding the tomb who were there to witness the resurrection itself.

The reason I bring this detail up is that, while we could focus in on Jesus’ message through Mary to His followers, I wonder if all too often, I am tempted to give up on something before Jesus has shown up in it.

If you have ever felt as though God had called you to do something, but that you haven’t been making any progress, there is the strong temptation to abandon it. If you have ever been pressing forward with something that is positive that you know God would want you to do, but you don’t feel God’s presence, it is very easy to let temptation win and simply abandon it.

However, what if you leave moments before Jesus arrived? What if, like Mary experienced, moments after Jesus’ followers leave, Jesus showed up? Mary wins the award for being the first follower to see Jesus because she stayed by the tomb when all the others left. In this event, would you rather be Mary, who stuck it out and stayed at the place Jesus wanted her, or be like the disciples who left to go home and missed the opportunity to see Jesus?

While all of Jesus’ followers ultimately see Jesus at various points during the following few weeks, we discover in this resurrection morning event that only Mary stayed by the tomb, and only Mary got to experience Jesus’ first appearance after He had stepped out of the tomb.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, be sure to intentionally seek God first in your life. If you’ve been struggling whether to stick with something God has called you to, or to abandon it because it doesn’t feel as though God is still with you, consider this a nudge to not abandon this calling yet. Instead, consider this a challenge to stick with it until it becomes clear that God is calling you elsewhere. It is rare for God to call someone to stop doing something without calling them to do something else at the same time. More often, God calls people to take steps of faith forward with Him, and these steps lead us closer to God and further away from sin!

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God and to grow a personal relationship with Jesus. While everyone has an opinion on the Bible, choose to prayerfully study the Bible for yourself to discover for yourself what the Bible tells us about Jesus and what He did for us on the cross! Don’t listen to people who discount the Bible because they have never read it or have only selectively quoted it from other sources. Read the Bible for yourself to discover the truth it teaches in a more personal and powerful way!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!