Grave clothes seen
Christ & Evidence
the word for “lying” at an emphatic position in the sentence. We might translate, “He saw, lying there, the graveclothes” (v. 5). Furthermore, the clothes were undisturbed. The word that John uses (keimena) occurs in the Greek papyrii of things that have been carefully placed in order. One document speaks of legal documents, saying, “I have not yet obtained the documents, but they are lying collated.” Another speaks of clothes that are “lying (in order) until you send me word.” Certainly John noticed that there had been no disturbance at the tomb.
Women at tomb (4 or more)
point John entered, saw what Peter had seen (this time the word is oraō, meaning “to see with understanding”), and believed in Jesus’ resurrection (v. 8).
John believed, what?
There are a few lessons that arise out of this narrative. The first is that God has provided perfectly adequate evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The evidence consists of the claims of those who saw Jesus between the day of his resurrection and the day of his ascension into heaven, the empty tomb, the changed character of the disciples, the authenticity of the records, and the evidence of the undisturbed burial garments. The evidence is there, and the evidence of the graveclothes alone was sufficient to quicken faith in John. We conclude that if men fail to believe, it is because they will not believe, not because the evidence is lacking
deepest disillusionment and gloom
When Jesus died, their faith died, and they began to demonstrate the death of faith by scattering back to where they had been before Jesus had called them to discipleship. The women went home. Cleopas and Mary returned to their village. The others would have returned to Galilee eventually, for they did this anyway even after they had been convinced of Christ’s resurrection. In earlier days they had given good testimonies—“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16), “We believe and are sure that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:69)—but in the period between the crucifixion and the resurrection this had become past tense. They had believed once, but it was over.
Alexander Maclaren has written, “Flat, frank, dogged disbelief, and not hesitation or doubt, was his attitude.
