Witnesses of the Empty Grave Clothes
Dearly beloved of God, the Word of God informs us of the details concerning our Lord Jesus Christ’s resurrection appearances. It reveals when, who, what, and where the events occurred if we will read what is written. Watch for the details each record supplies. The Scriptures build up to give us a picture of what occurred.
John 20:1
The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
This is the first record of the first witnesses to view the open sepulchre containing the empty mummy lying there in the shape of Jesus’ dead body.
When did this occur? “The first day of the week…when it was yet dark….” The first day of the week is our Sunday. Mary saw that the stone was removed from the entrance of the sepulchre.
Mary ran and came to Peter and to the disciple whom Jesus loved. The two men ran to the sepulchre and saw the undeniable proof along with Mary. Verses 5, 6, 7, 8 inform us of what they saw. Three times we are told what they saw.
They saw the empty grave clothes [othonion]; the about a hundred pounds worth of linen cloth with a mixture of myrrh and aloes that had been wrapped around Jesus’ dead body by Nicodemus and his servants [John 19:39-42]. The spices had hardened and the “othonion” were still lying there intact; an empty mummy without a body in it.
After the two men left, “Mary stood without the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre, and saw two angels in white sitting, the one at he head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.”
They said, “Woman, why weepest thou? “ She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?” Mary turned around, and saw Jesus, but did not recognize him. She supposed that he was the gardener. Then Jesus spoke to Mary in the garden, “Mary.” She recognized him, and said, “Master.”
Mary was the first to have seen the risen Lord Jesus. Mark 16:9 confirms that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene.
Mary reported that she saw and spoke with the Lord, but they did not believe her.
Mark 16:2 informs us of the next event that occurred “very early in the morning the first day of the week…at the rising of the sun.”
The women were going to the sepulchre to anoint Jesus’ body because they had only seen Joseph of Arimathea wrap Jesus in a sheet. They did not see the burial by Nicodemus and his servants.
The women believed that the great stone had been rolled away from the entrance to the sepulchre, but they did not believe Mary’s report that Jesus had been raised from the dead.
The women could not have gained access to Jesus’ body any earlier because of the great stone that sealed the entrance, the Roman seal denying entry, and the guards that were posted to keep people from entering the sepulchre.
The women saw that the great stone had not just been slightly rolled from the entrance; it had been rolled a good distance away from it!
They entered the sepulchre, but did not find the dead body of Jesus. They saw “a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.” Mark 16:5
Matthew 28:5-7
5 And the angel said, “Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
6 He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, and see the place where the Lord lay [so they would have seen the empty mummy].
7 And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead; and behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
Luke 24:4- 7
4 And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
5 And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?
6 He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,
7 Saying, ‘The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’
8 And they remembered His words.
The women hurried to tell the eleven, and the rest what happened. The angels reminded the women what Jesus had told them previously.
When the women reported the incident to the eleven, and to the rest of the disciples, “their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.”
Their report stirred Peter to return to the sepulchre for a second look.
Luke 24:12
Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes [othonion] laid by themselves, and departed, wondering [marveling] in himself at that which was come to pass.
Having heard the women’s testimony, and having seen the evidence of the empty mummified grave clothes in the shape of Jesus dead body for the second time, Peter left marveling at what had occurred.
Sometime after that the Lord himself appeared to Peter, also.
What a morning! You would think that the disciples and the apostles would have rejoiced at the news that the Lord Jesus was risen from the dead, but that was not yet the case. They were overwhelmed with grief, and could not grasp the momentous reality of Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead.
God had raised His Son Jesus Christ out from among the dead! He was the first, and only man so far to be resurrected from the dead to die no more.
It’s only morning, what happened next?