Scripture Reading: John 20
We come to chapter 20 of the Gospel of John, a chapter concerned with resurrection. If we know the contents of this Gospel in the way of life, we will realize that chapter 20 is a chapter of multiplication, a chapter of glorification. This multiplication for glorification was the goal of the Lord’s life on earth.
The Gospel of John first reveals that Christ is God, the eternal God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). Christ’s deity is eternal and absolute. From eternity past to eternity future He is with God, and He is God. Therefore, 1:2 emphasizes that He was in the beginning with God. As the eternal God, He is the One through whom everything came into being (v. 3).
John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” This verse reveals that the Word, the eternal God, became incarnate. As this incarnate One, the Lord lived on earth among men for thirty-three and a half years. His human living is recorded in the first seventeen chapters of this Gospel. These chapters reveal the eternal God living a human life.
Whoever would imagine that God would become a man and live among men for thirty-three and a half years? Although this is beyond our imagining, the Gospel of John reveals that the very God, the eternal One and the Creator of the universe, became a real man with a body of flesh, blood, and bones. The name of this man was Jesus. As we read the Gospel of John, we see what wonderful things were done by Him and through Him as He lived as a man among men. Even though He was still the very God, He lived a genuine human life.
Chapters 18 and 19 of John’s Gospel are quite particular. In these chapters the Lord certainly did not behave Himself as an ordinary man. However, our understanding of these chapters may be natural. When we read John 18 and 19, we may sympathize with the Lord in a natural way and pity Him for all His sufferings. But in these chapters we do not have a picture of a pitiful situation — we have a portrait of a victorious person. Therefore, in our reading of these chapters we should not feel sad and sympathize with the Lord. Instead, we need to see that these chapters are a record of the victory of Christ’s resurrection life. John 18 and 19 are an exhibition of the unbreakable resurrection life. In everything recorded in these chapters the Lord behaved Himself as the One who is the resurrection and the life (11:25). This wonderful person is life, and in these chapters this life is exhibited.
In chapter 19 this divine life passed through death. Death did everything to Him that it was able to do, but it had no way to conquer Him or hold Him down.
Let us review some of the details concerning how the Lord as the resurrection and the life behaved in the presence of death. After praying concerning His glorification, the Lord boldly went to the garden for the purpose of handing Himself over to death. He knew what would happen. He even encouraged Judas, the one who betrayed Him, to act more quickly (13:27). The Lord was ready to give Himself over to those who would put Him to death. Instead of trying to escape, He went to the garden knowing that there He would be arrested.
In 17:1 the Lord Jesus prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.” Do you know what it means for the Lord to pray that the Father would glorify the Son? This prayer means that the Father should have the Son put to death. Hence, when He prayed for His glorification, the Lord actually prayed concerning His death.
After uttering this prayer, He boldly went to the garden to present Himself to those who would put Him to death. As we read chapter 18, we should not feel sorry for the Lord. On the contrary, we should realize that here we have a description of a victorious and glorious situation. In the events described in this chapter, life is exhibited.
We have pointed out that the Lord’s behavior in these chapters indicates that He was not at all afraid of death. For example, 18:4 says, “Jesus therefore, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, Whom do you seek?” Here we see the expression of life, and life is not afraid of death. The Lord was ready to be taken by them. His one request was that they would let His disciples go: “If therefore you seek Me, let these go away” (v. 8). Even in the midst of that situation, the Lord cared for His disciples. The Lord exhibited Himself as life both to His opposers and to His disciples. According to the human concept, the things that were happening to Him were extremely negative. But He, as life, was not afraid of these things. What can death do to the One who is the resurrection and the life?
With this principle as the basis, we should read chapters 18 and 19 again. Then we will see that every incident was an opportunity for life to be manifested and exhibited. According to these chapters, life was able to pass through the process of death. In chapter 20 we have the result of this process.
In previous chapters we pointed out that the Lord’s death was for His multiplication. To Him, death was not a termination; it was a multiplication. This means that death was not an ending for the Lord; rather, it was a new beginning. Apart from death, how could He have entered into resurrection? First there is death and then resurrection.
In 12:24 the Lord indicated that He as a grain of wheat would fall into the ground and die and then grow up to produce many grains. This is multiplication. Praise the Lord that after passing through the process of death described in chapters 18 and 19, the Lord grew up in resurrection with His multiplication.
The Lord’s multiplication consists of His brothers. This was the reason that the Lord told Mary the Magdalene to go to His brothers (20:17). This means that through the Lord’s death and resurrection, the Lord’s timid disciples became His brothers.
We know that Peter took the lead to be timid. Peter denied that he was one of the Lord’s disciples: “Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. Then they said to him, Are you not also one of His disciples? He denied and said, I am not” (18:25). Peter certainly was timid. It seems that neither he nor the other disciples were worthy to be disciples, much less brothers of the Lord. Nevertheless, on the day of Christ’s resurrection, timid Simon Peter became a brother of the resurrected Christ.
It was the resurrected Christ who told Mary to go to His brothers. The Lord’s brothers are His multiplication, the result of His wonderful death. The Lord died as a grain of wheat, and in resurrection the result was that many grains were produced. Praise the Lord that all His disciples became His brothers in resurrection! This is the multiplication of the crucified Jesus and the resurrected Christ.
This multiplication is the glorification concerning which the Lord Jesus prayed in John 17. Before He died, the Lord prayed that the Father would glorify the Son. Then in a short period of time, perhaps less than forty hours, this prayer was answered when in resurrection the Lord was multiplied and glorified.
Let us now go on to consider the signs in chapter 20 of the Gospel of John.
The first of the signs in John 20 is that of the first day of the week. Verse 1 says, “Now on the first day of the week, Mary the Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was yet dark and saw the stone taken away from the tomb.” It is significant that the Lord was resurrected not on the last day of the week but on the first day of the week. This day denotes a new beginning. In the Bible the first day of the week is also called the eighth day. After a week of seven days, we have the eighth day, which is the first day of the week. The Lord died during one week, and He was resurrected at the start of another week. Therefore, the first day of the week is a sign.
John 20 speaks of both the first day of the week and the eighth day (v. 26). We have seen that the first day is also called the eighth day. The first mention of the eighth day in the Scriptures is related to the circumcision of the children of Israel. God commanded them to be circumcised on the eighth day (Gen. 17:12). According to John 20, the second Lord’s Day after His resurrection was the eighth day.
The sign of the first day of the week indicates that the entire universe had a new beginning in Christ’s resurrection. His resurrection ushered in a new period, a new age. In the sight of God the entire old creation was crucified with Christ and buried with Him. Then on the first day of the week there was a new beginning with Christ’s resurrection.
Whereas the Lord’s death was a termination of the old creation, His resurrection was the germination of the new creation. For this reason, instead of keeping the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, we meet on the Lord’s Day, which is the first day of the week. This means that in resurrection we are in the eighth day, or the first day of the week. Elsewhere, the New Testament calls the first day of the week the Lord’s Day (Rev. 1:10), for it was on this day that the Lord Jesus was resurrected to become the living Lord and to usher in a new beginning in resurrection.
In John 20:1 we are told that Mary came to the tomb early in the morning. Here early morning is a sign signifying the freshness and brightness of life in resurrection. When you were saved and regenerated, did you not have the sense within of something fresh and bright? This is the sense of resurrection. Whenever we are in resurrection, we have the sense of freshness and brightness of life.
Often my spirit stirs within me and causes me to rise up early in the morning. I can testify that when I rise up early, I sense the freshness and brightness of life in resurrection. No doubt, when Mary met the Lord and heard Him speaking to her, she had the sense of freshness and brightness. This is the significance of the sign of early morning.
Perhaps you have never realized that in this chapter Mary the Magdalene is herself a sign. This sister signifies the ones who love the Lord and who seek the experience of Him.
In contrast to the sisters, the brothers are often satisfied with facts or doctrines. The sisters, however, care for experience. The reason the sisters pursue experience and the brothers are often satisfied with doctrine is that the sisters are much more emotional than the brothers. Usually, the brothers are more sober in mind than the sisters are. For example, when Mary broke the alabaster flask and anointed the Lord, she acted in a very emotional way (12:3-8). If she had been sober, as Judas was, she never would have done that. The one who was sober asked why the ointment was wasted and why it was not sold for a certain amount of money. To a certain extent this is an illustration of the soberness of the brothers.
Generally, it is the brothers who are sober and the sisters who are emotional. Some may say that Mary the Magdalene was foolish to go to the tomb early in the morning while it was yet dark. It might have been only four o’clock in the morning when Mary arrived at the tomb. Those who are sober-minded in a natural way may have criticized her for her behavior.
When Mary saw that the stone was taken away from the tomb, “she ran therefore and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him” (20:2).
When Peter and the other disciple heard this, they came to the tomb and saw that it was empty. Moreover, they “beheld the linen cloths lying there and the handkerchief which had been over His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in one place apart” (vv. 6-7), and then they believed that the Lord had risen from among the dead. After believing the fact of the Lord’s resurrection, “the disciples therefore went away again to their own home” (v. 10). They had the fact of resurrection, but they had not met the resurrected One.
Unlike the brothers, Mary, an emotional sister, was not satisfied. She “stood outside at the tomb weeping. Then as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb” (v. 11). Then she saw “two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain” (v. 12). Peter and John saw the linen cloths and the handkerchief, but this sister saw two angels.
Then she received further revelation, a definite word from the resurrected Christ Himself. Thinking that the resurrected Christ was the gardener, she said to Him, “If You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away” (v. 15). “Jesus said to her, Mary! She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, Rabboni!” (v. 16). Like a lamb who knows the shepherd’s voice, she immediately recognized the voice of the Lord.
Mary wanted to cling to the Lord, but He did not allow it. “Jesus said to her, Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (v. 17). Here the Lord seemed to be saying, “Do not touch Me in My freshness. The freshness of My resurrection must first be presented to the Father for His enjoyment. Mary, go tell My brothers that I ascend to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.”
The Lord’s word to Mary indicated that in resurrection His disciples had become the same as He insofar as they also were sons of God. On the day of His resurrection, the only begotten Son became the Firstborn (Rom. 8:29), and His disciples became His many brothers, the many sons of the Father (Heb. 2:10-11). Before that day, God had only one Son, the only begotten Son. But in Christ’s resurrection many sons were born. This means that the Lord’s resurrection was a great bringing forth, a delivery that saw the birth of millions of sons of God.
Acts 13:33 indicates that Christ was born in His resurrection as the firstborn Son of God. This was the reason God said to Him, “This day have I begotten You.”
As we have seen, Christ was not the only one born in His resurrection; all His believers, including us, were born in His resurrection to be the sons of God. The disciples in John 20 are our representatives. Therefore, all of us are sons born of God in the resurrection of Christ. For this reason, 1 Peter 1:3 says that we have been regenerated through the resurrection of Christ.
Praise the Lord that when Jesus Christ was born as the firstborn Son of God, we all were born with Him! Mary was the first to receive the revelation of this, for she was not satisfied with the fact but was seeking the experience of Christ. Hence, Mary the Magdalene is a sign of those who love the Lord and seek to experience Him.
We have already pointed out that whereas Mary was seeking the experience of the Lord, Peter and John were satisfied with the fact of the empty tomb. I wonder how Peter and John felt when Mary came to them with the report that she had seen the Lord and that He had spoken with her (John 20:18). John may have said to Peter, “I wanted to linger at the tomb, but you urged me to go back. Didn’t I tell you that we should stay for a while?”
Many times the brothers are satisfied with the fact and do not linger to seek the experience of the Lord. Sometimes the brothers may even hinder certain saints from seeking the experience of the resurrected Christ. Brothers, we need to learn from this sign not to be satisfied with the mere fact or doctrine but to seek the experience of the resurrected Christ.
