The first day of the week, or the day after the Sabbath, signifies a new beginning, a new age. In Lev. 23:10-11, 15, a sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest was offered to the Lord as a wave offering on the day after the Sabbath. That sheaf of the firstfruits was a type of Christ as the firstfruits in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20, 23). Christ resurrected on precisely the day after the Sabbath. By His all-inclusive death He terminated the old creation, which had been completed in six days, after which was the Sabbath day. In His resurrection He germinated the new creation with the divine life. Hence, the day of His resurrection was the beginning of a new week — a new age. This day of His resurrection was appointed by God (Psa. 118:24), was prophesied as "this day" in Psa. 2:7, was predicted by Himself as the third day (Matt. 16:21; John 2:19, 22), and later was called by the early Christians "the Lord's Day" (Rev. 1:10). On this day Christ was born in resurrection as the firstborn Son of God (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5) and the Firstborn from the dead to be the Head of the Body, the church (Col. 1:18).

The gathering of the disciples here may be considered the first meeting of the church before Pentecost. This meeting took place to fulfill Psa. 22:22, according to Heb. 2:10-12, so that the Son could declare the Father's name to His brothers and praise the Father in the church, which is composed of His brothers.

Through His life-imparting death and resurrection, the Lord made His disciples one with Him. Therefore, His Father is the Father of His disciples, and His God is the God of His disciples. In His resurrection they have the Father's life and God's divine nature, just as He has. In making them His brothers, He has imparted the Father's life and God's divine nature into them. By making His Father and His God theirs, He has brought them into His position — the position of the Son — before the Father and God. Thus, in life and nature inwardly and in position outwardly they are the same as the Lord, with whom they have been united.

Previously, the most intimate term the Lord had used in reference to His disciples was "friends" (John 15:14-15). But after His resurrection He began to call them "brothers," for through His resurrection His disciples were regenerated (1 Pet. 1:3) with the divine life, which had been released by His life-imparting death, as indicated in John 12:24. He was the one grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died and grew up to bring forth many grains for the producing of the one bread, which is His Body (1 Cor. 10:17). He was the Father's only Son, the Father's individual expression. Through His death and resurrection the Father's only begotten became the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). His many brothers are the many sons of God and are the church (Heb. 2:10-12), a corporate expression of God the Father in the Son. This is God's ultimate intention. The many brothers are the propagation of the Father's life and the multiplication of the Son in the divine life. Hence, in the Lord's resurrection God's eternal purpose is fulfilled.

On the day of His resurrection the Lord ascended to the Father. This was a secret ascension, the ultimate fulfillment of the going predicted in John 16:7. It occurred forty days prior to His public ascension, which took place before the eyes of the disciples (Acts 1:9-11). On the day of resurrection, early in the morning He ascended to satisfy the Father, and late in the evening He returned to the disciples (v. 19). The freshness of His resurrection must be first for the Father's enjoyment, as in the type the firstfruits of the harvest were brought first to God.

Lit., wailing; so in vv. 13, 15.

The Lord is not only life but also resurrection (John 11:25). Hence, death cannot hold Him (Acts 2:24). He went into death of His own accord to accomplish His work. When He finished His mission, He came out of death and rose up from it.

See note 5¹.

All the things that were cast off from the Lord's resurrected body and left in His tomb signify the old creation, which He wore into the tomb. He was crucified with the old creation and buried with it. But He rose from within it, leaving it in the tomb and becoming the firstfruits of the new creation. All the things left in the tomb were a testimony to the Lord's resurrection. If these things had not been left there in good order, it would have been difficult for Peter and John to believe (v. 8) that the Lord had not been taken away by someone but had risen by Himself. These things had been offered to the Lord and wrapped around Him by His two disciples, Joseph and Nicodemus (John 19:38-42). What they had done toward the Lord in their love to Him became very useful in the Lord's testimony. (So for linen cloths in v. 6.)

The Lord's resurrection had been accomplished, but the discovery of it required the disciples' seeking in love toward the Lord. It was thus that Mary the Magdalene discovered it and obtained the fresh manifestation of the Lord and the revelation of the issue of His resurrection: that His Father is the Father of those who believe into Him, and that those who believe into Him are His brothers (v. 17 see note John 20:17^2a and note John 20:17³). Peter and John only knew of the discovery; Mary obtained the experience. The brothers were satisfied with having faith in the fact of the Lord's resurrection, but the sister went further and sought the resurrected Lord Himself, i.e., the personal experience of the Lord. The Lord was there all the time, but He was not manifested until v. 16.

After His resurrection the Lord came to meet with His disciples, beginning from the evening of this first day. Thus, in the Lord's resurrection the matter of meeting with the saints is crucial. Mary the Magdalene met the Lord personally in the morning and obtained the blessing (vv. 16-18), but she still needed to be in the meeting with the saints in the evening to meet the Lord in a corporate way to obtain more and greater blessings (vv. 19-23). Thomas missed the first meeting that the Lord held with His disciples after His resurrection, and he missed all the blessings as well. However, he compensated for it by attending the second meeting (vv. 25-28).

I.e., Twin.

This was the Spirit expected in John 7:39 and promised in John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26 and John 16:7-8, 13. Hence, the Lord's breathing of the Holy Spirit into the disciples was the fulfillment of His promise of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. This fulfillment differs from the one in Acts 2:1-4, which was the fulfillment of the Father's promise in Luke 24:49. (See note John 14:17^1a.) In Acts 2 the Spirit as a rushing, violent wind came as power upon the disciples for their work (Acts 1:8). Here the Spirit as breath was breathed as life into the disciples for their life. By breathing the Spirit into the disciples, the Lord imparted Himself into them as life and everything. Thus, all that He had spoken in chs. 14—16 could be fulfilled.

As falling into the ground to die and growing out of the ground transform the grain of wheat into another form, one that is new and living, so the death and resurrection of the Lord transfigured Him from the flesh into the Spirit. As the last Adam in the flesh, through the process of death and resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As He is the embodiment of the Father, so the Spirit is the realization, the reality, of Him. It is as the Spirit that He was breathed into the disciples. It is as the Spirit that He is received into His believers and flows out of them as rivers of living water (John 7:38-39). It is as the Spirit that through His death and resurrection He came back to the disciples, entered into them as their Comforter, and began to abide in them (John 14:16-17). It is as the Spirit that He can live in the disciples and enable them to live by and with Him (John 14:19). It is as the Spirit that He can abide in the disciples and enable them to abide in Him (John 14:20; 15:4-5). It is as the Spirit that He can come with the Father to His lover and make an abode with him (John 14:23). It is as the Spirit that He can cause all that He is and has to be fully realized by the disciples (John 16:13-16). It is as the Spirit that He came to meet with His brothers as the church to declare the Father's name to them and to praise the Father in their midst (Heb. 2:11-12). It is as the Spirit that He can send His disciples for His commission, with Himself as life and everything to them, in the same way that the Father sent Him (v. 21). They are thus qualified to represent Him with His authority in the fellowship of His Body (v. 23) for the carrying out of His commission.

The Lord was the Word, and the Word is the eternal God (John 1:1). For the accomplishing of God's eternal purpose, He took two steps. First, He took the step of incarnation to become a man in the flesh (John 1:14), to be the Lamb of God to accomplish redemption for man (John 1:29), to declare God to man (John 1:18), and to manifest the Father to His believers (John 14:9-11). Second, He took the step of death and resurrection to be transfigured into the Spirit that He might impart Himself into His believers as their life and their everything, and that He might bring forth many sons of God, His many brothers, for the building of His Body, the church, the habitation of God, to express the Triune God for eternity. Hence, originally He was the eternal Word; then, through His incarnation He became flesh to accomplish God's redemption, and through His death and resurrection He became the Spirit to be everything and do everything for the completion of God's building.

This Gospel testifies that the Lord is
1) God (John 1:1-2; 5:17-18; 10:30-33; 14:9-11; 20:28),
2) the life (John 1:4; 10:10; 11:25; 14:6),
3) the resurrection (John 11:25). Chapters 1—17 prove that He is God among men.
  Men are in contrast to Him as God. Chapters 18—19 prove that He is life in the environment of death. Death, or the environment of death, is in contrast to Him as life. Chapters 20—21 prove that He is the resurrection in the midst of the old creation, the natural life. The old creation, the natural life, is in contrast to Him as the resurrection, of which the Spirit is the reality. As the resurrection, He can be realized only in the Spirit. Hence, eventually He is the Spirit in resurrection. He is God among men (chs. 1—17), He is life in death (chs. 18—19), and He is the Spirit in resurrection (chs. 20—21).

The Lord sent His disciples with Himself as life and everything to them. (See note John 17:18^1b.) This is why, immediately after He said, "I also send you," He breathed the Holy Spirit into them. By His breathing into them He entered as the Spirit into the disciples to abide in them forever (John 14:16-17). Hence, wherever His disciples were sent, He was always with them. He was one with them.

See note John 1:6¹.

This was a fulfillment of the Lord's promise in John 16:22. Now they rejoiced because they saw the newborn child (John 16:21), who was the resurrected Lord, born in His resurrection as the Son of God (Acts 13:33). The Lord fulfilled His promise and came back to His disciples, bringing them five blessings:
1) His presence,
2) His peace,
3) His sending, His commission (v. 21),
4) the Holy Spirit (v. 22),
5) His authority, with which they could represent Him (v. 23).

Though the doors were shut, the Lord came with His resurrected body (Luke 24:37-40; 1 Cor. 15:44) into the room where the disciples were. How could He have entered, having bones and flesh? Our limited mind cannot comprehend it, but it is a fact! We must receive it according to the divine revelation. This was a fulfillment of His promise in John 16:16, 19, 22.

This was on the second first day of the week, the second Lord's Day after the Lord's resurrection.

The gathering of the disciples here may be considered the second meeting of the church held with the Lord's presence before Pentecost.

After the Lord came in v. 19, eight days before, there is no plain word or hint in John's record that the Lord left the disciples. Actually, He stayed with them, though they were not conscious of His presence. Hence, His coming in v. 26 was actually His manifestation, His appearing (see note John 21:1^2a). Before His death the Lord was in the flesh, and His presence was visible. After His resurrection the Lord became the Spirit, and His presence was invisible. His manifestations, or appearings, after His resurrection were to train the disciples to realize, to enjoy, and to practice His invisible presence, which is more available, prevailing, precious, rich, and real than His visible presence. In His resurrection this dear presence of His was just the Spirit, whom He had breathed into them and who would be with them all the time.

This Gospel proves strongly and purposely that the man Jesus is the very God (John 1:1-2; 5:17-18; 10:30-33; 14:9-11).

The Christ is the title of the Lord according to His office, His mission. The Son of God is His title according to His person. His person is a matter of God's life, and His mission is a matter of God's work. He is the Son of God to be the Christ of God. He works for God by the life of God that man, by believing in Him, may have God's life to become God's many sons and work by God's life to build the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12), thus fulfilling God's purpose concerning His eternal building.