Gospel

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Jesus, The Risen Savior

     One early Sunday morning Mary Magdalene came to pay her respects to Jesus. To her shocking surprise, she discovered the tomb opened! She ran and told a couple of disciples, assuming that someone had stolen the body. The two disciples peered inside the tomb, but found only the linens and face cloth folded up in a place by itself (20:1-7).
     
     Let me interject something here. The face covering folded up by itself is very significant. United Methodist Pastor Tim McConnell posted the following in reference to the Hebrew master/servant culture of that time: “When the servant set the dinner table for the master...the servant would wait...until the master had finished eating. A wadded up napkin tossed on the table meant the master was finished eating, but a folded napkin laid to one side meant the master was coming back.” So, Jesus prophesied his resurrection with the folded up face cloth. 

     Now back to the narrative. Mary was crying because she didn’t know what happened to Jesus. She turned around and saw a man who said, “Mary, why are you weeping?” At first she thought he might be the gardener, until he called her by name. She went and told some disciples that she had seen Jesus (20:12-18). 

     Later that day the disciples were meeting in a room with the door locked out of fear of the Jews. Jesus just appeared and stood among them. He showed them the nail prints in his hands and where the spear had been thrust in his side.

     One week later when the disciples were meeting with locked doors, Jesus showed up again. This time, the disciple named Thomas, after seeing the nail prints in his hand, said, “My Lord, and my God.”

     Jesus made many more public appearances, one time appearing to 500 people at once. He lived upon the earth for another 40 days interacting with people until he ascended back to the Father. 

     One of the closing verses in John’s Gospel is 20:31. “Now these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” 

     The big question is, as we end this series on THE REAL JESUS, are you going to say to Jesus, as the disciple Thomas did, “My Lord and my God?” He is coming back to earth again very soon. Will you be ready and looking for him? 

     

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