Day 1: John 20:1-18
Stories: Jesus rises from the dead!
Curiosities:
1) Because of the laws regarding Sabbaths and especially the Passover, no one was allowed to touch Jesus until Sunday morning. He wasn’t dead for 3 whole days. Rising on the third day carried a different meaning for the Jews. He died before sundown on Friday, lay dead all Saturday and rose early Sunday morning. He rose on the third day, but not necessarily after 72 hours as we would think of three days today.
2) Here again John seems to introduce a little humor and friendly ribbing into his book. He and Peter ran to the tomb from where they were, but John outran him. I can see the smile on John’s face as he retold this in Peter’s presence for years to come and I can see Peter rolling his eyes and saying “but…” It looks like John stopped short of entering the tomb because it would have ceremonially defiled him, but Peter bounded straight in, unconcerned with that. That might have been Peter’s comeback to John.
3) Mary thought someone had taken Jesus’ body. Keep in mind that there were a lot of people who hated Jesus, so this wasn’t beyond reason. She didn’t care about conspiracy theories at this point, she just wanted to find Jesus’ body. When she met the “gardener,” she just wanted to know where He was. Something about hearing her name from His mouth opened her eyes to see Him. What a tender moment.
4) Why couldn’t Mary touch Jesus? What was it about Him at this moment and about “ascending to His Father” that he didn’t want her to touch Him?
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