Sermon -- Easter Dawn (April 20, 2025)

JOHN 20:1-9

A MEDITATION ON THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD.

In the name + of Jesus.

     “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb.  She saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb” (John 20:1).  We don’t know what else Mary observed.  Were the soldiers who had been guarding the tomb already gone?  Did she get a glimpse of the inside of the tomb?  She must have not seen the angels, and she certainly did not hear their announcement that Jesus had risen from the dead.  Mary saw the stone had been rolled away.  That was all the evidence she needed.  Her conclusion: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they put him” (John 20:2).

     Peter and John heard her report.  It demanded further investigation.  So, they ran from their upstairs room in Jerusalem to the tomb just outside the city walls.  John got there first.  He was not as bold as Peter, so he only stooped to look inside the tomb.  John reported what he saw.  “Bending over, he saw the linen cloths lying there” (John 20:5).  Peter, of course, never seems to hesitate with anything.  “Simon Peter … went into the tomb.  He saw the linen cloths lying there.  The cloth that had been on Jesus’ head was not lying with the linen cloths, but was folded up in a separate place by itself” (John 20:6-7). 

     Peter and John observed more than Mary had.  They assessed the evidence.  The tomb was, indeed, empty.  The body of Jesus was gone.  They did not see the angels or hear the announcement from them, but they did observe the linen cloths that had been wrapped around Jesus’ body.  If someone were to steal a body, they would not have unwrapped it.  And they certainly would not have taken the time to fold up the head cloth nice and neat.  They assessed the evidence.  Jesus’ departure from the tomb was done in calm and intentional fashion.  If the grave clothes were left behind, it is because they were no longer needed.  Besides observing the scene, Peter and John both had Jesus’ words to call to mind.  Jesus had told them them “that the Son of Man must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the law; be killed; and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31).  Everything Jesus had said was going to happen happened.  This was the final word to be fulfilled.  John makes his personal confession: “He saw and believed” (John 20:8).

     What did John believe?  That Jesus had risen from the dead.  But John acknowledged that he and Peter “still did not yet understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead” (John 20:9).  They had not connected the dots that the Lord had foretold this throughout the pages of Scripture.

     Our Lord has revealed his love and his salvation since the Garden of Eden.  Some of God’s promises are glaringly obvious.  Psalm 16, for example, prophesies: “You will not abandon my life to the grave.  You will not let your favored one see decay” (Psalm 16:10).  But as we mine the Scriptures for gems, we continue to discover the ways the Lord has foretold and foreshadowed the death and resurrection of the Christ.  For example, we can marvel at God’s miraculous deliverance of Daniel from the lions’ den.  It is a historical event from the early days of the Persian Empire.  But now consider: Daniel was an innocent man who was unjustly condemned to die.  He was placed in a den which had a stone rolled in front of it.  He was as good as dead, a feast for roaring lions looking for someone to devour.  In the early morning, the stone was taken away and Daniel came out alive.  See how this foreshadows Jesus’ resurrection!  Many other examples are recorded which continually pointed God’s people to the Christ, for whom it was necessary that he “suffer many things…; be killed; and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31).  This is why we give our attention to the Scriptures.  Our Lord wants us to live in the confidence of his love and of our place in his eternal kingdom. 

     Peter and John saw the evidence in the tomb.  They believed that Jesus had risen from the dead.  It is proof that God has accepted Jesus’ death as the full payment for your sins.  It is proof that Jesus has authority over death and the grave.  And it foreshadows your own resurrection to life everlasting.  Peter and John still had God’s promise to ponder, to study, and to meditate upon.  So do we.  We have heard the evidence.  We meditate on the promises.  We rejoice in their fulfillment.  We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.