John 20

Joh 20:1-18.

MARY'S

VISIT TO THE

SEPULCHRE, AND

RETURN TO

IT WITH

PETER AND

JOHN--HER

RISEN

LORD

APPEARS TO

HER.

1, 2. The first day . . . cometh Mary Magdalene early,

&c.--(See on

Mr 16:1-4;

and

Mt 28:1, 2).

she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom

Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of

the sepulchre--Dear disciple! thy dead Lord is to thee "the Lord"

still.

3-10. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came

first to the sepulchre--These particulars have a singular air of

artless truth about them. Mary, in her grief, runs to the two apostles

who were soon to be so closely associated in proclaiming the Saviour's

resurrection, and they, followed by Mary, hasten to see with their own

eyes. The younger disciple outruns the older; love haply supplying

swifter wings. He stoops, he gazes in, but enters not the open

sepulchre, held back probably by a reverential fear. The bolder Peter,

coming up, goes in at once, and is rewarded with bright evidence of what

had happened.

6-7. seeth the linen clothes lie--lying.

And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen

clothes--not loosely, as if hastily thrown down, and indicative of a

hurried and disorderly removal.

but wrapped--folded.

together in a place by itself--showing with what grand tranquillity

"the Living One" had walked forth from "the dead"

(Lu 24:5).

"Doubtless the two attendant angels

(Joh 20:12)

did this service for the Rising One, the one disposing of the linen

clothes, the other of the napkin" [BENGEL].

8. Then went in . . . that other disciple which came first to the

sepulchre--The repetition of this, in connection with his not having

gone in till after Peter, seems to show that at the moment of penning

these words the advantage which each of these loving disciples had of

the other was present to his mind.

and he saw and believed--Probably he means, though he does not say,

that he believed in his Lord's resurrection more immediately and

certainly than Peter.

9. For as yet they knew--that is, understood.

not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead--In other

words, they believed in His resurrection at first, not because they were

prepared by Scripture to expect it; but facts carried resistless

conviction of it in the first instance to their minds, and furnished a

key to the Scripture predictions of it.

11-15. But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping,

&c.--Brief was the stay of those two men. But Mary, arriving perhaps by

another direction after they left, lingers at the spot, weeping for her

missing Lord. As she gazes through her tears on the open tomb, she also

ventures to stoop down and look into it, when lo! "two angels in white"

(as from the world of light, and see on

Mt 28:3)

appear to her in a "sitting" posture, "as having finished some

business, and awaiting some one to impart tidings to" [BENGEL].

12. one at the head, and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus

had lain--not merely proclaiming silently the entire charge they

had had of the body, of Christ [quoted in LUTHARDT], but rather,

possibly, calling mute attention to the narrow space within which the

Lord of glory had contracted Himself; as if they would say, Come, see

within what limits, marked off by the interval here between us two,

the Lord lay! But she is in tears, and these suit not the scene of

so glorious an Exit. They are going to point out to her the incongruity.

13. Woman, why weepest thou?--You would think the vision too much

for a lone woman. But absorbed in the one Object of her affection and

pursuit, she speaks out her grief without fear.

Because, &c.--that is, Can I choose but weep, when "they have

taken away," &c., repeating her very words to Peter and John. On this

she turned herself and saw Jesus Himself standing beside her, but took

Him for the gardener. Clad therefore in some such style He must have

been. But if any ask, as too curious interpreters do, whence He got

those habiliments, we answer [with OLSHAUSEN and

LUTHARDT] where the two angels got theirs. Nor did

the voice of His first words disclose Him to Mary--"Woman, why weepest

thou? whom seekest thou?" He will try her ere he tell

her. She answers not the stranger's question, but comes straight to her

point with him.

15. Sir, if thou have borne him hence--borne whom? She says not.

She can think only of One, and thinks others must understand her.

It reminds one of the question of the Spouse, "Saw ye him whom my soul

loveth?"

(So 3:3).

tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away--Wilt thou,

dear fragile woman? But it is the language of sublime affection, that

thinks itself fit for anything if once in possession of its Object. It

is enough. Like Joseph, He can no longer restrain Himself

(Ge 45:1).

16, 17. Jesus saith unto her, Mary--It is not now the distant, though

respectful, "Woman." It is the oft-repeated name, uttered, no doubt,

with all the wonted manner, and bringing a rush of unutterable and

overpowering associations with it.

She turned herself, and saith to him, Rabboni!--But that single word

of transported recognition was not enough for woman's full heart. Not

knowing the change which had passed upon Him, she hastens to express by

her action what words failed to clothe; but she is checked.

17. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to

my Father--Old familiarities must now give place to new and more awful

yet sweeter approaches; but for these the time has not come yet. This

seems the spirit, at least, of these mysterious words, on which much

difference of opinion has obtained, and not much that is satisfactory

said.

but go to my brethren--(Compare

Mt 28:10;

Heb 2:11, 17).

That He had still our Humanity, and therefore "is not ashamed to

call us brethren," is indeed grandly evidenced by these words. But

it is worthy of most reverential notice, that we nowhere read of

anyone who presumed to call Him Brother. "My brethren: Blessed

Jesus, who are these? Were they not Thy followers? yea, Thy forsakers?

How dost Thou raise these titles with Thyself! At first they were Thy

servants; then disciples; a little before Thy death, they

were Thy friends; now, after Thy resurrection, they were Thy

brethren. But oh, mercy without measure! how wilt Thou, how

canst Thou call them brethren whom, in Thy last parting, Thou

foundest fugitives? Did they not run from Thee? Did not one of them

rather leave his inmost coat behind him than not be quit of Thee? And

yet Thou sayest, 'Go, tell My brethren! It is not in the power of the

sins of our infirmity to unbrother us'" [BISHOP

HALL].

I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your

God--words of incomparable glory! Jesus had called God habitually

His Father, and on one occasion, in His darkest moment, His

God. But both are here united, expressing that full-orbed

relationship which

embraces in its vast sweep at once Himself and His redeemed. Yet, note

well, He says not, Our Father and our God. All the deepest of

the Church fathers were wont to call attention to this, as expressly

designed to distinguish between what God is to Him and to us--His Father

essentially, ours not so: our God essentially, His not so: His God only

in connection with us: our God only in connection with Him.

18. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the

Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her--To a woman

was this honor given to be the first that saw the risen R edeemer, and

that woman was not His mother. (See on

Mr 16:9).

Joh 20:19-23.

JESUS

APPEARS TO THE

ASSEMBLED

DISCIPLES.

19-23. the same day at evening, the first day of the week, the doors

being shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews,

came Jesus--plainly not by the ordinary way of entrance.

and saith unto them Peace be unto you--not the mere wish

that even His own exalted peace might be theirs

(Joh 14:27),

but conveying it into their hearts, even as He "opened their

understandings to understand the scriptures"

(Lu 24:45).

20. And when he had so said, he showed them his hands and his

side--not only as ocular and tangible evidence of the

reality of His resurrection (See on

Lu 24:37-43),

but as through "the power of that resurrection" dispensing all

His peace to men.

Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.

21. Then said Jesus--prepared now to listen to Him in a new character.

Peace be unto you. As my Father hath sent me, so send I

you--(See on

Joh 17:18).

22. he breathed on them--a symbolical conveyance to them of the Spirit.

and saith, Receive ye the Holy Ghost--an earnest and first-fruits of

the more copious Pentecostal effusion.

23. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them,

&c.--In any literal and authoritative sense this power

was never exercised by one of the apostles, and plainly was

never understood by themselves as possessed by them or conveyed to

them. (See on

Mt 16:19).

The power to intrude upon the relation between men and God cannot have

been given by Christ to His ministers in any but a ministerial

or declarative sense--as the authorized interpreters of His

word, while in the actings of His ministers, the real nature of

the power committed to them is seen in the exercise of church

discipline.

Joh 20:24-29.

JESUS

AGAIN

APPEARS TO THE

ASSEMBLED

DISCIPLES.

24, 25. But Thomas--(See on

Joh 11:16).

was not with them when Jesus came--why, we know not, though we are

loath to think (with STIER,

ALFORD and

LUTHARDT) it was intentional, from sullen despondency. The

fact merely is here stated, as a loving apology for his slowness of belief.

25. We have seen the Lord--This way of speaking of Jesus (as

Joh 20:20

and Joh 21:7),

so suited to His resurrection-state, was soon to become the prevailing

style.

Except I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my linger

into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will

not believe--The very form of this speech betokens the strength of

the unbelief. "It is not, If I shall see I shall believe, but,

Unless I shall see I will not believe; nor does he expect to

see, although the others tell him they had" [BENGEL]. How Christ Himself viewed this state of mind, we

know from

Mr 16:14,

"He upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart because

they believed not them which had seen Him after He was risen." But

whence sprang this pertinacity of resistance in such minds? Not

certainly from reluctance to believe, but as in Nathanael (see on

Joh 1:46)

from mere dread of mistake in so vital a matter.

26-29. And after eight days--that is, on the eighth, or first day of

the preceding week. They probably met every day during the preceding

week, but their Lord designedly reserved His second appearance among

them till the recurrence of His resurrection day, that He might thus

inaugurate the delightful sanctities of THE

LORD'S

DAY

(Re 1:10).

disciples were within, and Thomas with them . . . Jesus

. . . stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

27. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither . . . behold . . . put it

into my side, and be not faithless, but believing--"There is something

rhythmical in these words, and they are purposely couched in the words

of Thomas himself, to put him to shame" [LUTHARDT]. But wish what

condescension and gentleness is this done!

28. Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God--That Thomas

did not do what Jesus invited him to do, and what he had made the

condition of his believing, seems plain from

Joh 20:29

("Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed"). He is

overpowered, and the glory of Christ now breaks upon him in a flood.

His exclamation surpasses all that had been yet uttered, nor can it be

surpassed by anything that ever will be uttered in earth or heaven. On

the striking parallel in Nathanael, see on

Joh 1:49.

The Socinian invasion of the supreme divinity of Christ here manifestly

taught--as if it were a mere call upon God in a fit of astonishment--is

beneath notice, save for the profanity it charges upon this disciple,

and the straits to which it shows themselves reduced.

29. because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed--words of measured

commendation, but of indirect and doubtless painfully--felt rebuke: that

is, 'Thou hast indeed believed; it is well: it is only on the evidence

of thy senses, and after peremptorily refusing all evidence short of

that.'

blessed they that have not seen, and yet have believed--"Wonderful

indeed and rich in blessing for us who have not seen Him, is this

closing word of the Gospel" [ALFORD].

Joh 20:30, 31.

FIRST

CLOSE OF

THIS

GOSPEL.

The connection of these verses with the last words of

Joh 20:29

is beautiful: that is, And indeed, as the Lord pronounced them blessed

who not having seen Him have yet believed, so for that one end have the

whole contents of this Gospel been recorded, that all who read it may

believe on Him, and believing, have life in that blessed name.

30. many other signs--miracles.

31. But these are written--as sufficient specimens.

the Christ, the Son of God--the one His official, the other His

personal, title.

believing . . . may have life--(See on

Joh 6:51-54).