It’s Really True

John 19:38-20:31

Many have doubted and denied Jesus' resurrection and its significance. John's account of this event proclaims the truth, and what it means to live with this knowledge.

Jesus was crucified. Then what happened?

His resurrection. He was raised from the dead.

Was he raised from the dead? Many have doubted and denied it.

Here’s Matthew’s account of what happened after Jesus died. His body was taken down and placed in a small, stone cave-like structure—a tomb.

The next day, on the Sabbath, the leading priests and Pharisees went to see Pilate. They told him, “Sir, we remember what that deceiver once said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will rise from the dead.’ So we request that you seal the tomb until the third day. This will prevent his disciples from coming and stealing his body and then telling everyone he was raised from the dead! If that happens, we’ll be worse off than we were at first.”

Pilate replied, “Take guards and secure it the best you can.” So they sealed the tomb and posted guards to protect it.

Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.

Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint….

…some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened. A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe. They told the soldiers, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’ If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.” So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today. (Matthew 27:62-28:4; 11-15 NLT)

Jesus’ resurrection was widely denied among the Jews of the day. Many believed Jesus’ body was taken by his disciples. Jesus’ resurrection was a story, a sham, a hoax.

Is the resurrection of Jesus widely denied or believed today? Many, I think, say they believe in the resurrection of Jesus. But believer or not, I don’t think it matters to most whether Jesus was raised from the dead or not.

What is the truth? Was Jesus was raised or wasn’t he? Does it matter?

Today truth—when it comes to religion—doesn’t seem to matter. In fact, there is no truth when it comes to religion—just faith. You have your “truth,” what you believe, and I have mine. What’s true for you, isn’t necessarily true for me. We’re free to believe whatever we want, whatever “works” for us, whatever is meaningful to us. No one person’s beliefs are more right—the truth in an “absolute” sense—than any other person’s beliefs. All religions are considered true, because none of them are considered true. If you believe in the resurrection, then it’s true… for you.

Let’s look at John’s account of what happened after Jesus died (John 19:38-20:31). As we read, think about what John included, what he omitted that you might have expected him to include and why he did what he did.

Joseph and Nicodemus (19:38-42)

Afterward Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus (because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate for permission to take down Jesus’ body. When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away. With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought about seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus’ body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth. The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used before. And so, because it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

I would have expected the Twelve or one of the Twelve to have gotten Jesus’ body—as John’s disciples did when he was beheaded (see Matthew 14:12). (If the Twelve were planning on staging Jesus’ resurrection—as some claimed—I especially would have expected them to get the body in the first place.) Instead, it was two of his lesser followers/disciples, Joseph and Nicodemus. The other Gospel writers note Joseph’s and Nicodemus’ devotion to Jesus. But John, surprisingly, seems to emphasize their failings: Joseph was a secret disciple because he feared the Jewish leaders. Nicodemus came to Jesus under the cover of night, presumably because he was fearful someone might see him.

Mary, Peter and John Find the Tomb Empty (20:1-10)

Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed—for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home.

This reads like a police report testimony of witnesses—rather matter-of-fact. John doesn’t specifically mention, as do Mark and Luke, that the reason Mary had gone to the tomb was, according to Jewish custom, to prepare the body. There’s no hint in John’s account that Mary expected to find the stone rolled away. In fact, she was shocked. She didn’t know what to think. That was why she ran off to tell Peter and John what had happened and to see if they knew who could be behind this. They too were shocked and ran to see for themselves. I think John’s point is that these people are reliable witnesses who were there, saw and didn’t have an agenda—they didn’t see and report what they wanted to see. The leading priests and Pharisees, according to Matthew, remembered Jesus’ promise to rise from the dead, but his disciples didn’t remember. John emphasized this in his account: “They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.” They did not have a plan to steal Jesus’ body as some alleged.

Jesus Appears to Mary (20:11-18)

Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

“Mary!” Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).

“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.

Apparently Peter and John left the tomb and went to tell the other disciples what they found because none of them expected Jesus to have been raised from the dead. Again, Peter and John’s response and actions do not substantiate the claim they had stolen the body as a hoax.

Mary returned to the empty tomb. She was distraught—as you would expect—because she thought someone had stolen Jesus’ body. She was so distraught she wasn’t surprised to be talking to angels, nor did she recognize Jesus, who appeared to her. Her failure to recognize him is indicative of just how distraught she was and how far the idea of Jesus being resurrected was from her thinking. She thought Jesus’ was a gardener because it could not, in her mind, be him. Jesus was dead.

Jesus had, in fact, been raised from the dead. No one had taken the body. He was alive. In bodily form. He appeared to Mary. She touched him. She clung to him. He talked to her. She believed. He told her to tell the others. And he left her.

Jesus Appears to His Disciples (20:19-23)

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Far from perpetrating a hoax, far from confident and under control, Jesus’ disciples had locked themselves in a room, afraid of the Jewish leaders. Jesus miraculously appeared. They were astonished. Two times Jesus had to tell them to calm down. They were filled with joy when they realized he was not a ghost, not a figment of their imaginations. It was really him. He showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. He had been raised from the dead. He was alive.

Jesus Appeared to Thomas (20:24-29)

One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”

Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”

“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.

Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

Why did John include this incident with Thomas? What was the point? Jesus’ own disciples had to be convinced, it had to be proved to Thomas that Jesus had been raised from the dead. The testimony of his brothers wasn’t good enough. He just couldn’t believe it. He was faithless. Jesus appeared to him and proved his was alive and was not a ghost. “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side.” Thomas saw and experienced Jesus.

If you look objectively at what John recorded for us here about what happened after Jesus died, you recognize he was recording the facts for us. He was not spinning a tall tale. He wasn’t perpetrating a hoax.

What did the disciples stand to gain by stealing Jesus’ body and claiming he rose from the dead, if he didn’t? Nothing. In fact, they suffered persecution and were murdered for what they testified to. Why would they suffer and die for a fairy tale? Because is wasn’t. It was the truth.

Why did John feel it was necessary to emphasize that these were eyewitness accounts? “This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true” (21:24). Why did he feel it necessary to defend the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Two reasons. First, because there were many who were denying the gospel, denying these things happened, denying that Jesus is the Christ (see 1 John 2:18ff.). Second, because the truth matters.

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (20:30-31)

John (along with the other disciples) recorded what they had seen Jesus do. They were eyewitnesses—honest eyewitnesses. Notice this emphasis in the opening of John’s first letter:

We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy. (1 John 1:1-4)

These things, these miracles really happened. They are true. They are signs. That is, the miracles Jesus did were not just to meet an immediate need. Nor were they just to “wow” us with Jesus’ person and power. They are miracles that testify to, they point to something beyond themselves. Jesus gave many miraculous signs as to who he really is. John did not record them all. But he has selected the ones he did to establish what is the truth, as sufficient proof, as a foundation for belief, for the settled conviction, for the reader to arrive at the reasonable conclusion that Jesus fulfilled the Scripture prophecies which identify the Messiah, and that he, therefore, is the Messiah, the Son of God.

John was not just a historian wanting to make sure the facts were known, the historical record about Jesus was correct. John was not just a close friend and follower of Jesus trying to clear Jesus’ name or defend his character. John was not just a student and a practitioner of Jesus’ teaching and way of life who wanted to promote this way of life it to others. He was not just an adherent to a new religion that was meaningful to him, that was “true” for him, that “worked” for him, that he was trying to convert others to.

John was testifying to what he had seen and heard and experienced. He was proclaiming the truth. That is, he was telling the truth so as to encourage the application of the truth. Believing the truth was not just acknowledging the truth. Believing is applying the truth, living by the truth. The truth is not just facts. The truth is a person. A living person. The truth is, Jesus is the Messiah. By believing in him you will have life by the power of his name (his character, his nature, his essence).

We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning…. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself…. …he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father…. We proclaim to you… so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. …so that you may fully share our joy.

Jesus was not just another prophet of God, a moral teacher or founder of a religion. Jesus is completely unique. He is the Messiah. He is one with the Father. He is God. He is alive. He is life. To believe in him is to trust him, is to have fellowship (a personal, intimate, dependent relationship) with him that literally becomes true life in you. Not just inspiration. Not just imagination. Literal life. Life to the fullest extent. Life that is life. Fellowship with God. Joy.

What John wrote what we just read about Jesus’ resurrection so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.

Do you believe in him? Do you have life by the power of his name? Do you have the fellowship with the Father and with Jesus Christ that John experienced and proclaimed? Do you have joy?