Expository Thoughts (continued)
6. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the sepulcher; and he saw the linen cloths lie, 7. and the napkin that had been around his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but wrapped together in a place by itself. 8.
Then the other disciple, who came to the sepulcher first, went in also; and he saw and believed. 9. For as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. 10. Then the disciples went away again to their own home.
The last two chapters of St. John's Gospel are taken up with accounts of our Lord's appearances after His resurrection. Like Matthew, Mark, and Luke, St. John dwells very fully on the history of the crucifixion and resurrection. But, as in other parts of his Gospel, so here also, he supplies many deeply interesting details that the other
Evangelists, for some wise reasons, have not recorded. A few preliminary remarks on the whole subject will not perhaps be found uninteresting. The matter is one about which every Christian ought to have very clear and correct views.
(a) Concerning the importance of Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead, it would be hard to speak too strongly. It is a cardinal article of the Christian faith, second to none in value. It is the grand proof that He was the promised Messiah whom the Prophets had foretold. It is the one great sign which He named to the Jews when asked to give convincing evidence of His Divine mission—the sign of the Prophet Jonah, the rebuilding of the temple after destruction.
(Matt. 12:39, John 2:19-21.) If He did not rise again after three days, they were not to believe Him. It is the completion of the work of redemption which He came into the world to accomplish. It proved that the ransom was accepted and the victory over sin and death obtained. Christ "was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification." "We are begotten again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." (Rom. 4:25, 1 Pet. 1:3.) If He had not risen again, our hope would have been a huge uncertainty. It is a fact which has the closest connection with the spiritual life and position before God of all believers. They are counted by God as "risen with Christ," and they should regard themselves as partakers of Christ's resurrection life and sitting in heavenly places. Not least, it is the pledge and assurance of our own resurrection at the last day. We need not fear death and look at the grave with despair, when we remember that Jesus Christ rose again in the body. As surely as the Head rose, so shall the members be raised. Let these points never be forgotten. When we think of them we may understand why the Apostles, in their preaching and Epistles, dwell so much upon the resurrection. Well would it be if modern Christians thought more about it. Myriads seem unable to look at anything in the Gospel except the sacrifice and death of Christ, and altogether pass over His resurrection.
(b) Concerning the evidences of Christ's resurrection (the proofs that He actually did rise again from the grave with His body), it is more remarkable to observe how full and various they are. He was seen at least eleven times after He rose again, at different times of day, in different ways, and by different witnesses. He was seen first by one woman alone, then by several women together, then by one man, then by two men, and each time in the open air. Then He was seen by ten disciples in the evening in a room, then by eleven disciples again in a room, and afterwards on five different occasions, at one of which no less than five hundred people were present. Those to whom He appeared touched Him, talked with Him, and saw Him eat and drink.
(Matt. 28:9, John 20:27, Luke 24:42.) Nor must it be forgotten that all who saw Him were most unwilling at first to believe, and most slow to credit the report of His resurrection. Yet they were all finally convinced! If there is any fact in Christianity that is well supported by evidence, it is the fact of Christ rising again from the dead. It is the one fact that no infidel has ever fairly grappled with. One thing at any rate is most undeniably certain, and no infidel can escape it—the
Apostles a few weeks after our Lord's crucifixion were utterly and entirely different men in every way from what they were before the crucifixion. They were bolder, more decided, more unhesitating followers of Jesus of Nazareth than they used to be, to a most enormous extent. Even such men as the German Rationalists Paulus and Strauss, according to Tholuck, are obliged to make the curious admission, "Something extraordinary must have occurred."
(c) Concerning the best mode of harmonizing the accounts that the four Evangelists give of our Lord's appearances after He rose again from the dead, there is undeniably some difficulty. But it is probably far more apparent than real. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each tell their own story. There is a most decided absence of any