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JOHN’S GOSPEL…HE BELIEVED – 27

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“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.”

‭‭John‬ ‭20‬:‭1‬-‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Woven into John’s story of Jesus, not only fact but interpretation, since John’s gospel became known as “the spiritual gospel”, is John’s own journey to faith. After all, if he were to convince his readers that Jesus is the Son of God and that salvation lies in believing in His name, then his story must bear witness to his own faith. 

John did not easily identify his role in the story by name. He liked to call himself ”the disciple whom Jesus loved”. John was ever conscious of the dramatic change in him through his association with Jesus. 

He began his career as a disciple as a young Jewish hothead, together with his brother, James. Jesus nicknamed them “Boanerges” 

“Boanerges means “sons of thunder” and was a surname Jesus gave to the apostles James and John, the sons of Zebedee. This nickname was likely given due to their passionate and fiery temperaments, and it is recorded in the New Testament gospels of Mark and Matthew.” (Source: Google)

Perhaps Jesus saw in John a potentially good quality, passion, but that needed taming and refining. John’s zeal needed a worthy and divinely-directed purpose only possible through the power of a love greater than any earthly-initiated energy. 

Slowly, as days turned into months and then years, John’s association with Jesus bore fruit. This young hothead eventually morphed into a mature disciple who became known as “the apostle of love.”

John wrote more about love than any of the other New Testament writers, linking God’s love for us to our love for Him in a symphony expressing our union with Him. His writings are an expansion of that union expressed by Jesus in His Upper Room discourse before the cross (John 14-16). 

“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“John was originally known as one of the “Sons of Thunder,” a name suggesting an impetuous and fiery nature. A key example of this is when he and his brother wanted to call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan village that rejected Jesus. His eventual transformation into a compassionate, loving leader shows a profound change, moving from harsh zeal to a balanced, mature faith guided by Christ’s example.” (Source: Google)

What transformed John from “a son of thunder” to “the apostle of love”? Perhaps, in that riveting moment, when John saw the grave clothes, and especially the head cloth on the stone shelf as though the body had simple vanished, leaving the form of Jesus vaguely outlined in the burial cloths, everything fell into place. 

Jesus’ words, His miracles, His actions, His prophecies, His very presence, all came alive in that “lightbulb” moment. John believed!

Apart from Paul, the apostles did not record their own conversion experience. Only John knew the exact second when his heart caved in to the truth he had lived with from the instant when Jesus called him, “Follow me!” By faith through the Holy Spirit, he came alive by the truth. The final impact awaited Pentecost, when the full force of the Holy Spirit’s coming cemented his transformation. 

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The power of this love, a force so great that it changed John’s nature forever, became the motivation and the energy of his life. 

“We love because he first loved us.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So perfect is this love to which he responded that there was nothing left inside of him but to reciprocate with a love that reflected Jesus’ own love for him. Not to love like this would be  evidence that no transaction had ever taken place in his spirit that replaced his natural fire with holy fire. 

John concludes…

“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭20‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So it all came together when John saw…the empty tomb… the empty stone shelf… and the empty grave cloths!

“He (Peter) saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, (John), who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.”

To be concluded…

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – GONE…IN A PUFF OF SMOKE!

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CHAPTER 16

GONE…IN A PUFF OF SMOKE!

​1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. Mark 16:1-8

How would this story impact a first-time reader? What sort of ending would they expect to this extraordinary man’s life? Such an anti-climax to the expectation of the both those who walked with Him and listened to and watched what He said and did, and those who read the story! He seemed so genuine, so full of promise, but His death abruptly ended it all. What now? What of God’s kingdom that He said was here? He’s gone. What are the disciples supposed to do now?

They sit around in the upper room, the most logical place to be at that moment. The atmosphere is tense and heavy with grief. Any sound of footsteps outside puts them on high alert. Only the women move about freely because they are no threat to the Romans. The disciples wait, but for what? They have no idea.

The story moves along slowly, told with simplicity and matter-of-fact-ness. Had Mark made it up, it would not have had the flavour of an eyewitness and especially not from the mouth of women because their testimony was regarded as unreliable in a court of law. Three women go to the tomb at daybreak, having witnessed the burial in a rocky cave near the place of execution. They carry loads of spices with which to embalm His body. Their one concern is the stone. How would they move it to get in? They would solve that problem when they get there. They go anyway.

Imagine their astonishment when they are confronted by a gaping hole in the rock! The stone has been moved! They rush forward and burst into the tomb. It’s lit up with an eerie light – a figure sitting on the stone slab, glowing in the dark. They are paralysed with fear. What does this all mean?

The figure speaks. His voice is soft and gentle. “Don’t be scared, ladies. This is it. Jesus has really risen. Come and see where they laid Him. Now go and tell His disciples that He will meet them in Galilee.” The women flee from the tomb, from the figure with such a mind-blowing message. They can’t make sense of it. It’s too fantastic to take in. They say nothing to anyone in case it is all just a dream. Is this how it’s all supposed to end?

Setting The Record Straight

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SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen Him, they did not believe it.

Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. They returned and reported it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. (Mark 16: 9-13)

Talk about unbelief! First the women at the tomb when the young man told them Jesus had risen; then the disciples when Mary reported to them that she had seen Jesus; then the two whom Jesus had accompanied home from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

I suppose it was understandable seeing to them there was no such thing as someone rising from the dead. O yes, they had seen Jesus raising people from the dead, but that was different. They had come back to life in their old natural bodies.

But the reports about Jesus may have seemed spooky to them. He seemed to come and go like a spirit, and yet, He was a real person. They recognised Him as Jesus. These reporters must have described in detail what they had seen. Best they just dismiss the reports rather than raise their hopes only to be dashed when He failed to show Himself to them.

But that’s where they were dead wrong. It was not only Thomas who refused to believe the good news that Jesus was really alive until he had verified it for himself. The others were in the same boat. They wanted to see Him personally before they would finally abandon themselves to the truth that He was really alive and they could rejoice without reservations.

What is so wrong about that? Perhaps people in this generation could take a leaf from their book. There are too many “believers” walking around today, thinking they are disciples of Jesus but having done nothing more than given mental assent to Him, or ”accepted Him as their personal Saviour” because of what He could do for them – sins forgiven, a free pass to heaven and all that.

Is that how the disciples understood Him and His call to them? If that was so, what difference did it make to them whether He was dead or alive? They had His teaching, and they could carry on with His mission as He had taught and trained them to do. He was no different from any other founder of a religion. After all, they believed in Moses and held to his teaching even though he had been dead for many centuries.

But was that what Jesus had actually taught them? Not by a long shot! All the other rabbis with authority who had ever lived could do no more than pass on their teaching. Their disciples were taught to imitate them but they were, at best, human and fallible. However closely their followers stuck to them, it would make no difference to their hearts. They could copy their rabbis as carefully as they liked – it was all external. Their sinful hearts remained unchanged.

But Jesus was different. He promised His disciples a union with Him that would recreate them from within. He told them of the Holy Spirit, His “other self”, one just like Him, who would come when He left, “another Counsellor” who would be “in” them. He said that they would see Him again and that He would return to take them to where He was. All empty promises if He were dead – or were they? Did they die with Him and prove Him a liar, or would He really be able to make good on His promises? From what they had seen up to that point, everything He told them had disappeared with Him into the tomb behind the stone. They were left helpless, hopeless and alone.

The stories that the witnesses of the resurrection of their Master persisted in telling them, only served to make their loss more poignant. Why raise their hopes when they knew His resurrection was impossible? Whoever added the last few verses to Mark’s story to set the record straight, since Mark’s story ended abruptly with the women fleeing from the tomb, made sure that Mark’s readers would know that Jesus’s story did not end there.

What the disciples dismissed as impossible, actually happened and much more. Everything that Jesus taught and modelled hung on His promise that He would rise again. Did He or didn’t He? If not, then He was just another hoax!

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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