When Everything Changed: The Morning That Rewrote History
What’s John 20 about?
This is the chapter where everything we thought we knew about death gets turned upside down. John gives us a front-row seat to the most earth-shattering morning in human history – the resurrection of Jesus – but he tells it like a detective story, complete with empty tombs, confused disciples, and the moment when grief transforms into wonder.
The Full Context
John 20 sits at the climactic peak of the Fourth Gospel, written likely between 85-95 CE by the apostle John (or his close associates) for a community grappling with persecution and questions about Jesus’ true identity. This isn’t just any resurrection account – it’s John’s masterful conclusion to his entire theological argument that Jesus is both fully divine and fully human. The chapter emerges from the darkest moment in the Gospel narrative: Jesus has been crucified, buried, and his followers are scattered and terrified.
But John structures this chapter like a carefully choreographed drama, moving from confusion to clarity, from despair to belief. He’s writing for both Jewish and Gentile Christians who need to understand that the resurrection isn’t just a happy ending – it’s the vindication of everything Jesus claimed about himself. The literary artistry here is stunning: John uses physical details (the grave clothes, the garden setting, the wounds) to make profound theological points about new creation, victory over death, and the nature of faith itself. This chapter doesn’t just report what happened; it invites readers into the experience of discovering that death has lost its final word.
What the Ancient Words Tell Us
The Greek vocabulary John chooses here is absolutely intentional, and it’s where the magic happens. When Mary Magdalene first sees the empty tomb, John uses blepei – she “sees” or “looks at” the stone rolled away. It’s just observation, nothing more. But when the beloved disciple enters the tomb, John switches to theorei – he “observes” or “perceives” the grave clothes. There’s a dawning recognition happening.
Then comes the moment when this same disciple sees the arrangement of the burial cloths and episteusen – “he believed.” John uses the aorist tense here, which suggests a decisive, completed action. This isn’t gradual understanding; it’s a lightning-bolt moment of faith.
Grammar Geeks
The way John describes Jesus’ burial cloths is fascinating. The othonia (linen strips) were lying there, but the soudarion (face cloth) was “rolled up in a place by itself.” The Greek suggests careful arrangement, not the chaos you’d expect from a grave robbery. It’s like Jesus simply… stepped out of his wrappings.
But here’s where it gets really interesting: when Jesus appears to Mary, she mistakes him for the kepouros – the gardener. John’s audience would have caught the theological irony immediately. In Genesis, God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Now, in another garden, the New Adam – Jesus – is walking again with humanity. The resurrection isn’t just about conquering death; it’s about restoring the original relationship between God and humanity.
What Would the Original Audience Have Heard?
First-century Jews and Gentiles hearing this account would have been absolutely stunned by several elements that we might miss today. Resurrection itself wasn’t a foreign concept to Jews – they believed in a final resurrection at the end of time. But resurrection in the middle of history? For one person? That was unprecedented and frankly scandalous.
Even more shocking would have been the role of women as the first witnesses. In ancient Mediterranean culture, women’s testimony wasn’t legally valid in most circumstances. Yet John presents Mary Magdalene as the first evangelist – the first person to proclaim “I have seen the Lord!” This wasn’t just countercultural; it was revolutionary. If you were making up a resurrection story in the first century, you’d never choose women as your primary witnesses. The fact that John includes this detail suggests he’s committed to reporting what actually happened, social conventions be damned.
Did You Know?
The phrase “on the first day of the week” that opens John 20 would have resonated powerfully with Jewish readers. In Genesis 1, the first day is when God said “Let there be light.” John is suggesting that the resurrection is literally the dawn of new creation – God’s new world breaking into the old.
The disciples hiding behind locked doors would have struck ancient readers as both understandable and shameful. In honor-shame cultures, a teacher’s disciples were expected to vindicate their master’s reputation, even unto death. Instead, Jesus’ followers are paralyzed by fear. This makes Jesus’ response even more remarkable – he doesn’t rebuke them for their cowardice. His first words are “Peace be with you,” and he immediately shows them his wounds, proving his identity and the reality of his physical resurrection.
Wrestling with the Text
There’s something genuinely puzzling about the sequence of events that morning, and John doesn’t try to smooth over the confusion. Mary runs to tell Peter and John that someone has stolen Jesus’ body. But when the two disciples race to the tomb, they find the grave clothes arranged in a way that suggests something very different from theft. Why would grave robbers carefully fold the face cloth and leave it in a separate place?
Then there’s the strange detail about the beloved disciple believing even though “they still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.” What exactly did he believe if he didn’t understand the resurrection? Some scholars suggest he believed Mary’s report about the missing body, but that seems insufficient given John’s careful language about faith throughout his Gospel.
Wait, That’s Strange…
Why doesn’t Mary recognize Jesus immediately? John says she supposes him to be the gardener. But this is the woman who had been devoted to Jesus throughout his ministry. Is this just grief and shock, or is there something about Jesus’ resurrected body that makes recognition difficult? Luke reports a similar phenomenon with the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
The most wrestling-worthy moment might be Jesus’ words to Mary: “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.” The Greek word mou hapou literally means “stop touching me” or “don’t keep holding onto me.” But why? Mary has just discovered her beloved teacher is alive – of course she wants to embrace him! Jesus seems to be saying that their relationship is about to change fundamentally. The physical presence she’s known is giving way to something even better: the spiritual presence that will be available to all believers through the Spirit.
How This Changes Everything
The resurrection doesn’t just change everything – it defines everything. John structures this chapter to show us that we’re not just witnessing the reversal of a tragic death; we’re seeing the inauguration of a new kind of existence.
Notice how Jesus appears to his disciples. He doesn’t knock on the door or announce himself. He simply appears in their midst, despite the locked doors. This isn’t a ghost or a vision – he shows them his wounds, he eats with them (in other Gospel accounts). But his body has new properties. Death hasn’t been reversed so much as it’s been transcended.
The commissioning of the disciples is equally revolutionary. Jesus breathes on them and says “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Greek word enephysesen is the same word used in the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) when God breathes life into Adam in Genesis 2:7. Just as God breathed physical life into the first human, Jesus is now breathing spiritual life into his new humanity – the church.
“The resurrection isn’t God hitting the undo button on Friday’s crucifixion – it’s God revealing that Friday’s tragedy was actually the doorway to a reality so beautiful we never could have imagined it.”
But perhaps the most radical change is in how we understand doubt and faith. Thomas becomes the poster child for skepticism, demanding physical proof before he’ll believe. But when Jesus appears to him, Thomas’s response is the highest christological confession in John’s Gospel: “My Lord and my God!” John is showing us that honest doubt, when met with truth, can lead to the deepest faith.
Key Takeaway
The resurrection isn’t just about Jesus coming back to life – it’s about life itself being redefined. Death no longer has the final word because Jesus has written a new ending to the human story, one where love wins, hope is vindicated, and every ending becomes a new beginning.
Further Reading
Internal Links:
External Scholarly Resources:
- The Gospel of John: A Commentary by Raymond Brown
- John: The NIV Application Commentary by Gary Burge
- The Gospel According to John by D.A. Carson
- Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright
Tags
John 20:1, John 20:16, John 20:19, John 20:28, John 11:25, 1 Corinthians 15:14, Romans 6:4, Resurrection, Faith, Doubt, New Creation, Victory, Death, Eternal Life, Hope, Discipleship, Commission, Holy Spirit, Transformation, Witness, Recognition, Belief
