The Gospel of John - Outline Part 47 - Seeing Is Believing

TITLE

John 20:1-18 – Seeing Is Believing

EXPLANATION

Three days after the crucifixion, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb.  She saw that the stone had been taken away.  Mary immediately ran and told Peter and John.  They both visited the tomb, and saw that the burial cloths were still there, but Jesus’s body was not.  Typical, thick-headed humans, just like the rest of us, they did not understand nor did they believe.

Mary also struggled to have faith.  She went back to the tomb to look again, weeping.  This time there were angels present.  They asked her why she was crying, and she responded that someone had taken away her Lord.  Turning, she saw Jesus, but did not recognize Him.  He also asked why she was crying.  But then, when He called Mary by name, recognition suddenly dawned on her.  Jesus advised her not to hold onto Him, because He would only be with them for a short time longer.  And, He instructed her to go and tell His disciples that she had seen Him.

APPLICATION

Human beings are visual creatures.  We typically insist upon seeing something with our eyes before we will believe it.  In spite of the repeated explanations before Jesus’s death that He would suffer, die, and rise, His followers still had a hard time accepting this as truth.  We will see this represented again in the next section with Thomas’s doubt.  Remember, some of these had actually watched their Lord die on the cross just a few days before.  We can perhaps understand how difficult it was for them to grasp the reality of His resurrection.

Yet, we ought not to cut either Mary and the disciples or ourselves too much slack.  The simple fact of the matter is that God has made promises to us.  He has revealed Himself in Scripture.  The 64-thousand dollar question we must ask is “Do we believe Him?”  Not only about Christ’s resurrection, but about the thousands of other promises and guarantees scattered across Scripture.

God has promised that we have an inheritance waiting for us in Heaven (1^st Pet. 1:4).  He has promised that nothing in all of Creation can separate us from His love (Rom. 8:38-39).  He has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us (Heb. 13:5).  He has promised that He will give us a peace that surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:6-7).  He has promised that He will never give us a trial that we cannot bear (1^st Cor. 10:13).  Again, the question is, do we believe Him?  Well, do you?