John 20:7 Commentary and Bible Study

What a gentle intimation the disciples receive of the resurrection! It comes so gradually to them. How beautifully it is put. They do not see the risen Lord. They see the grave clothes. The significance of the grave clothes is that the body has not been removed by others. Any officials or grave robbers would have taken everything; they would take the body as it was. No, something mysterious and extraordinary has happened. The person in those grave clothes has taken them off, like you might undress in the evening, and laid them carefully aside with the headband laid in a separate place. It is described and it is described again because it is significant. What they saw were the sure marks of one who had risen from the dead.It is going to be introduced to them step by step. It is not going to bowl them over and shock them, it is going to be done gently because they are going to be made to think. Think, think – should you not expect this? Is this not the Lord of glory? Is this not the one who would live forever? The One who is predicted in the Old Testament as suffering and dying, and yet at the same time seeing of the fruit of the travail of his soul, and living to see the result and the triumph of his work. It is a call to think. It is a gentle preparation for the greatest miracle in the history of the world. And it is a call to think and to be mentally prepared for what they see and what will happen, and there is to be not just one stage, but another preparatory stage also.