The Work Already Finished

John 20:1-10 ESV

1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes.

This morning, on Easter morning, we recognize something that changed everything; the resurrection of Jesus. But with the resurrection of Jesus, by the time that it had been discovered, those who discovered it realized that there was nothing to do and that the work had already been accomplished.

Most of us, but of course, on an infinitely lesser scale, have had experiences where we too have shown up somewhere to work only to realize that the work has already been done. Well, how did you react when you discovered that the work was done before you got there? Of course, you’re undoubtedly surprised, but you also may be relieved, you may be perplexed, or you may be confused on what to do next.

I remember that happening to me one time at my former church. We were planning on painting the Sunday school room and I asked two of the members of the church if they would help me paint it. They agreed, and we set a time and a day to meet together to paint the room. Well, I don’t know if I told them the wrong time, if they heard the wrong time, or if I forgot what time I told them, but what I do remember is showing up at the church, ready to work, and those who I asked to come and help were finishing up painting the last wall… apparently they had been there hours earlier, and by the time that I showed up, the work was already done. And my reaction? Let’s just say that I had no problem with missing out on the paint job!

Well, this morning, on Easter morning, we are going to begin a series of sermons from the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John that encompasses the entire month of April. And as we will see in this narrative, especially the part of the narrative from our reading for today, by the time that the characters in the drama arrived, all of the work had already been accomplished. And there were various ways that they all reacted when they saw that the work was already done.

Mary Magdalene and her companions do not arrive to witness the resurrection of Jesus. Peter and John do not arrive in time to assist or believe their way into a miracle. The resurrection has already taken place before any of them arrive.

They don’t come to help God accomplish anything. They don’t come with resurrection faith. They come after the fact, after God has already acted: The stone is already moved. The grave clothes are already lying there. Death has already been defeated. Christ is already risen before anyone understands, believers, or responds properly.

The Easter account is not a story about people who believed strongly enough to raise Jesus from the dead. It’s the account of people who arrived late to something that God had already finished. Even before they understood it, even before they believed it, even before they looked inside the tomb, God had already acted—and that alone is reason for quiet, reverent wonder this morning.

And that is good news—because it means that our hope does not rest on the strength of our faith, but on the finished work of the risen Christ.

We see all of this recounted for us by the apostle, John as he begins by telling us that “on the first day of the week”, what we know as Sunday, Mary Magdalene had come to the tomb that Jesus had been buried in.

Now, we know from the accounts found in the other gospels, particularly in the Gospel of Mark, that there were at least two other women with Mary Magdalene as she went to the tomb. So, you may wonder why Mary Magdalene alone is mentioned in thisaccount. And I think that that is because Mary Magdalene is representative of the collective group of women.

But she and the other women come to the tomb that the Lord had been buried in early; so early that we read that they came while “it was still dark”.

But when the women had arrived at the tomb, we read that they “saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb”. And seeing the stone rolled away from the tomb, before proceeding any farther, the women immediately believed that someone had come and stolen the Lord’s body.

And so, we read that Mary Magdalene, having saw the stone rolled away, and presuming that someone had stolen the Lord’s body, without going any further to the tomb, without looking inside the tomb, leaves the other women there and runs to tell Peter and who we presume is John what she already thinks has happened, saying to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him!”.

Now, this report that Mary Magdalene gives Peter and John is interesting, not because she thought that the tomb had been robbed, for unfortunately this was a rather common thing that had taken place in ancient times, but it is interesting because in the other gospels, we read that before Mary Magdalene had reached Peter and John, angels had already told “the women” about the resurrection of Jesus.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I had always just presumed that Mary Magdalene was one of those women who the angels told about the resurrection of the Lord, but as we see here in the text that John supplies, Mary Magdalene obviously had not been present when the angels appeared to the women at the tomb, for if she had, she would not have said that someone had stolen Jesus’ body.

So, what this then must signify is that at least Mary Magdalene fled the scene before fully approaching the tomb, with the belief that someone had broken into the tomb and stolen Jesus’ body. And while she fled, the other women went ahead to the tomb, were met by the angels, were told that Jesus had risen, and then fled the tomb themselves while Mary Magdalene sought out Peter and John.

And so, with Mary Magdalene having told Peter and John about what she believed to be a grave robbery, Peter and John head out to the tomb, with Mary Magdalene trailing behind them. And as they headed, they had done so with urgency as they ran to the tomb.

And as they travelled together, we read that John “outran Peter and reached the tomb first”. This can be accounted for as John is believed to be the youngest of the apostles.

But the more important detail this specific detail indicates is that the information supplied to us is information that could only be supplied by a firsthand witness. No other gospel account gives this information, for while Matthew, Mark, and Luke were all disciples of the Lord and thus gave accurate accounts, only John of the four gospel writers was actually present at the empty tomb.

We then read that when John arrived at the tomb, he did not immediately go in, likely indicating his own apprehension, but also revealing the deference and submission that he showed to Peter, who was already considered by his fellow apostles to be the chief apostle.

But when John arrived at the tomb, we read that he stooped to look in, and doing so, we read that “he saw the linen cloths lying there”.

Now, this might seem like an unnecessary detail, but it is in fact very significant. It is significant because seeing the linen cloth, the grave clothes lying there means that they remained in the exact shape that they had held when they were wrapped around the Lord’s body.

This detail given by John powerfully excludes grave robbery as an explanation for the empty tomb because a grave robber would not remove the body from the grave clothes and then wrap them back up to the shape that they were in when wrapped around the body and lay them in the same place that they had been in.

We then read that when Peter came to the tomb, unlike John, he didn’t linger, but he immediately entered the tomb, reminding us of Peter’s more impulsive nature.

And when Peter entered the tomb, he saw what John had already stooped in and saw: he saw “the linen cloths lying there”, but at this point, another important detail is mentioned as we read that Peter also saw “the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head”. But not only did he see the face cloth lying there, but the face cloth, we read, was “not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself”.

Now, like I said, this is another very important detail that only a firsthand witness could account because we read back in chapter nineteen and verses thirty-nine and forty of this same gospel that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had brought about 75 pounds of spices; myrrh and aloes, and they had bound those spices in the linen cloths while wrapping Jesus’ body.

Now, with this detail in mind when we read that the face cloth was “not lying with the linen cloths”, what it indicates is that when the Lord’s glorified body passed through the linen cloths that were wrapped around Him, the weight of the spices weighed down the linen cloths and caused them to collapse into a neat pile. The face cloth, though, behaved differently. Since it was not packed with spices, it retained its circular shape after the body of Jesus passed through the material.

And so, John, being emboldened by Peter, also walked into the tomb and beheld what Peter had also beheld. And after entering the tomb, we read yet another important detail as we read that when entering the tomb, John “saw and believed”. This means that John came to believe that the body of the Lord had not been robbed as they initially thought had happened after receiving Mary Magdalene’s report, but that He had indeed been resurrected.

But then, as we continue on to verse nine, we read something else interesting as it says that, “as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead”. Now, how do you reconcile that statement with what was written right before it, that John saw and believed?

It can be reconciled because what this statement in verse nine indicates is that even though John and the other apostles had not yet understood the scriptures themselves in regard to the resurrection of Jesus, he still believed that it had happened, because he had saw it with his own eyes. In other words, he had not yet understood as a result of studying the scriptures that Jesus was to be raised from the dead, but he believed it because he had seen with his own eyes that it clearly had happened.

And so, seeing that there was no body, Peter and John knew that there was no use in hanging around an empty tomb, and thus, they returned home, as they considered what might happen next and what they were to do now.

So how should we leave the empty tomb this morning? Not with instructions on how to finish what Christ began, but with faith in what Christ has already accomplished. Peter and John do not stay at the tomb to make something happen. They leave because there is nothing left to do there. The grave is empty. The work is finished.

And that is where Easter meets us. We do not come to Christ to complete His victory, to add to His work, or to secure our own resurrection by the strength of our faith. We come because He has already risen, already conquered death, already fulfilled the Scriptures, even before His disciples fully understood them.

The risen Christ is not waiting on our clarity, our maturity, or our readiness. He is risen whether we understand it or not. And because He lives, our hope is sure, our sins are forgiven, and our salvation rests not in us, but in Him.

Christ is risen indeed.

As we prepare to partake in the Lord’s Supper this morning, let us remember that, like the empty tomb, the work of Christ is already finished. We do not come to earn forgiveness, to secure His favor, or to complete what He began. We come in humility and gratitude, to remember His body broken for us and His blood poured out for our sins. The bread and cup proclaim that death has been defeated and salvation is complete.

And so now, as we approach this table, let us do so with hearts full of faith and eyes fixed on the risen Christ. Let us eat and drink, not as those who still hope in our own strength, but as those who rejoice in His finished work—proclaiming, in the breaking of bread and the sharing of the cup, that Christ is risen, and through Him, we have life everlasting.