If they had had any designs to advance their own interest
Resurrection 203
The grave-clothes were found in very good order. This serves for an evidence that His body was not stolen away while men slept. Robbers of tombs have been known to take away the clothes and leave the body, but none ever took away the body and left the clothes, especially when it was fine linen, and new. Anyone would prefer to carry a dead body in its clothes than naked. Or, if they were supposed to have stolen it and have left the grave-clothes, it is hardly likely that they would have spared the time to fold up the linen.
When John entered with Peter, Peter saw and wondered (Luke xxiv. 12), but John saw and believed. A mind disposed to contemplation may perhaps sooner receive the evidence of divine truth than a mind disposed to action. But what was the reason that they were so slow of heart to believe? The evangelist tells us: "As yet they knew not the Scripture."'
5. THESE WERE CAUTIOUS WITNESSES
If they had had any designs to advance their own interest by the resurrection they would have caught greedily at the first spark of its evidence. They would have raised and supported one another's expectations of it and have prepared the minds of those who followed them to receive the notices of it. On the contrary, we find their hopes were prostrated. It was to them as a strange thing, and one of the furthest from their thoughts. Peter and John were so shy of believing it at first that nothing less than the most convincing proof could bring them to testify to it afterwards with so much assurance. They were not only honest men who would not deceive others; they were also cautious men, who would not themselves be imposed upon.
(a) The disciples went away, not much the wiser, to their own homes, to their own friends and companions. They went away for fear of being taken on suspicion of a design to steal the body away, or of being charged with it now it was gone. Instead of improving their faith they are concerned about safeguarding themselves. It is their own safety they think about. (b) They went away because they were at a loss as to what to do next and what to make of what they had seen.
(c) They went away to report to the other disciples, and to consult with them what was to be done. Probably it was then they appointed their meeting in the evening, when Christ came to them.