Open Your Eyes and See! | Sunday, April 4, 2021

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him."... Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. (John 20:1-9)

On Easter morning three people looked at the same empty tomb—but how each one saw it made all the difference.

The Most Important Event in History

Today is a holiday we are all familiar with, even those who do not routinely attend church. They know something about Easter beyond bunnies and eggs and candies. So I want to look back at a passage you may know well, one set on Easter Sunday morning, from the Gospel of John chapter 20.

If you grew up going to church, then just about every spring you've heard messages about the sun rising on the Sunday following the cross and crucifixion of Good Friday, the sun rising to reveal an empty tomb. You remember how Mary Magdalene and a small group of Jesus's female followers went early to the tomb to properly deal with the burial of His lifeless remains. But it was not as they had expected. The Roman soldiers were not there. The stone that sealed the tomb had been rolled away. Instead of a sealed tomb guarded by soldiers, they found an empty tomb attended by angels.

The story of the resurrection on that Easter Sunday morning is the most important story of all human history. It has been said that the resurrection of Christ is the pivotal event of all human history. If the story of Easter Sunday is true—and I believe that it is—then it is no stretch at all to say it is the pivotal event in all human history. Today, we and 2.3 billion Christians throughout the world celebrate it together, because among other reasons this event signals that this life we have is not all there is. There is much more to life than we can see or perceive with our senses.

Three Witnesses, Three Ways of Seeing

On that point of seeing and perceiving, I want to consider how three individuals in this story interacted with the events of the first Easter morning: Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter, and the disciple whom Jesus loved. You have to love the humility of John, the author. He was so humble he doesn't want to write his name into the account; he simply calls himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved"—who was no doubt younger, and as we'll see, faster than Peter, and maybe even better looking. Who knows.

These three were among the first to come in contact with the facts of the resurrection. Everything you and I know about the resurrection has much to do with these three individuals and what they saw on that first day of the week.

I want to key in on the word saw in verse 1. If you look carefully through John 20:1-9, you'll see that word appears four times. On that first Easter morning, three people saw something important—and what they saw transformed not only them but the entire world. But what fascinates me is not only what they saw, but how they saw.

What and How We See

Have you ever noticed that none of us see exactly the same way? This occurred to me again this week as my family was driving home. The full moon was rising, and one of my kids said, "It looks like I see a cat in the moon." Then another said, "No, no, I see a dragon in the moon." What we see may be the same, but how we see it isn't.

You may remember January 2019, when a massive gathering of saints was decimated by a herd of rams. The New Orleans Saints were playing the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL semifinals, tied 20 to 20 with less than two minutes left. Drew Brees rolled back on third down and threw a solid pass to Tommy Lee Lewis—but Lewis had no chance to make the catch, because he was slammed well before the ball arrived in a very clear pass interference violation. It was clear to everybody who saw it, even people rooting for the Rams. But seven very important individuals on the field in black-and-white referee uniforms didn't see it as pass interference, or at least didn't call it. What they saw was the same, but how they saw it was different.

Every one of us has had a situation where what and how we see something differs from others. Maybe you've heard someone say, "That's not how I see it." So how can we see the same thing but not see the same thing? It's not always what you see, but how you see it. In this story, three individuals looked at the very same event, the very same data—but how they saw it differed, and it has much to do with how they perceived what they were looking at.

The Help of the Greek

Many of you know the Bible we read was not originally written in English. Your New Testament was written in Greek. The English translations we have are really good, and you can trust they are translated well, but there are circumstances where the original Greek is helpful—and this is one of them. The English word saw appears four times in these nine verses, but the Greek words translated saw are different. They help us recognize that sometimes how we see is more important than what we see.

Mary Saw: A Brief Glance

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter... and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him."

The other gospels give us more details. It wasn't only Mary Magdalene who went, but also Mary the mother of James, and another woman named Salome. They had bought spices so they might properly anoint Jesus's body. When He was crucified on Good Friday and taken down by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, sundown was coming and it was the preparation for the Passover and the Sabbath, so they had to bury Him very quickly. He wasn't properly anointed.

So they go to the tomb early, wondering, "How on earth are we going to roll away the stone?" But Mark 16:4 says, "When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, for it was very large." That's when Mary ran to Peter and John.

Mary saw the evidence—the large stone taken away—and her conclusion was, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb." That's the only thing she could fathom. Her observation led her to conclude that someone had stolen the crucified body of Jesus. It's a seemingly logical conclusion. She had seen Him on the cross, seen His dead body placed in the tomb, seen the tomb closed. Dead men don't open tombs and leave them, so she concluded somebody had taken the body.

Mary's was a brief, inattentive consideration of the empty tomb. Some of you watching today have also casually considered the biblical story of the empty tomb and concluded the same thing—living people stole the body of the dead Jesus. That makes sense to a lot of people. But at the very least, the empty tomb requires a response, just as it prompted Mary to run and tell Peter and John.

Peter Investigates

Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first.

Peter went out to investigate the evidence himself. He wants to see for himself—which is a good and proper response. The testimony of the empty tomb demands further investigation. You cannot be casual in your response to the story of the empty tomb, though many people are. The testimony requires more than an apathetic, indifferent response, because the New Testament presents individuals like Peter, James, and John as eyewitnesses of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

He, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in.

John gets there first. He stoops down and sees the empty tomb, but he sees more than Mary—he also sees the linen cloths Jesus had been wrapped in lying there. Yet he doesn't go in.

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself.

I love Peter in this whole situation, because I see myself reflected in him. Peter could never be accused of being reserved or delicate. He's that proverbial bull in a china shop. John carefully looks inside, but Peter blows right past him and goes straight into the tomb. I look forward to meeting Peter someday. Peter moves closer. Mary saw at a distance. John saw from the door. Now Peter enters and sees the empty grave clothes—and that curious handkerchief folded by itself, off to the side.

Three Greek Words for Seeing

At this point it's worth noting a shift in the language that is invisible in English. When Mary "saw" the stone taken away, and when John "saw" the linen cloths lying there, the Greek word is blepō, which simply means to clearly see a material object, to consider it with your eyes. They just see that the tomb is open and the grave clothes are empty.

But when Peter went into the tomb and "saw" the linen cloths and the handkerchief folded by itself, the Greek word is theōreō—from which we get the English word theorize. Peter saw all the same things John did, but he's trying to put it together, to understand and process what he is seeing.

The investigation of the empty tomb compels deeper consideration. You can have questions about the empty tomb—many people do. You can even have doubts, because we look at it and say, "This would be abnormal, that a man who died on a cross would no longer be there." You can have theories. The body was stolen—that's one theory. The so-called swoon theory says Jesus wasn't really dead, came back to life, freed Himself from the grave clothes, rolled the stone away, and ran off—after being beaten and crucified. People have questions, doubts, theories, and objections. Even in the first century, when Paul talked about the resurrection in the last chapters of Acts, there were people who simply said, "I don't believe in that sort of thing." But you cannot just passively move on from the testimony of the resurrection. Peter wasn't about to. He's trying to put all the puzzle pieces together.

John Saw and Believed

Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.

This fourth time, the Greek word is different again—eidō, which means to perceive, to discover, to pay attention, to know and to understand. It's the idea of gathering all the data, putting it together, and understanding the significance of what is going on. John saw the significance. He saw and believed.

This is the very purpose John writes his gospel. The message of Jesus and the miracles of Jesus—healing the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, turning water into wine at Cana of Galilee, rising from the dead—these "are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name."

John had seen Jesus crucified just a few days before on Good Friday. Now he sees the empty tomb, the grave clothes, the folded handkerchief, and it all comes together with everything he had already seen and heard from Jesus. The understanding of the empty tomb begs for a decision. For John, the decision was to trust and to believe.

The Evidence Demands a Verdict

You believe or don't believe, but you have to decide. There is no in between, no passivity, no dispassionate, apathetic indifference to the evidence of the empty tomb or the testimony of the eyewitnesses. You are like a juror looking at the evidence.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul talks about this. He declares the gospel he preached, by which they are saved: "that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." Not only do the Scriptures say He would die and rise, and record that He did—Paul adds, "He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present"—they were still alive when Paul wrote—"After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also."

The evidence and the testimony—what's your verdict? I suggest the most logical decision is trust and faith in the risen Christ, faith that God raised Him from the dead. That is the decision the testimony of the empty tomb brings you and me to. You'll have to decide what you do with it, but you can't not do something with it.

Some people casually look at these things—blepō. Some think more deeply and theorize—theōreō. And then there are those who come to an understanding that leads to a decision to put their trust in Jesus. On this Easter Sunday, 2,000 years after these events, I hope you will not just casually glance with apathetic indifference, nor merely theorize, but that you will look into it and comprehend the evidence and the testimony of more than five hundred witnesses whose lives were radically transformed by the fact that Jesus died on the cross, was buried in a tomb, and three days later rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will one day return. I hope you'll take time to ponder these things.

Closing Prayer

Father God, we thank You for this celebration, for this great opportunity we have annually not just to celebrate and rejoice in the good work You did on the cross 2,000 years ago, but to share this good news with others. Every one of us interacts with friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family members who don't yet have hope in You for a future resurrection. If these things are true, as we believe they are, then this life is not all there is, and there is a future resurrection unto life to be with You for eternity.

So God, I pray You would compel us who know and believe these things to share them with others. And Lord, I pray You would draw people to You, that as they think on these things, look into them, theorize about them, and come to an understanding of what the evidence and testimony point to, they would believe that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Would You draw people to faith in You on this Easter Sunday? We ask it in Jesus's name. Amen.