John 20 - An empty tomb and face to face encounters with the Risen Lord

We're almost finished with the Book of John.  In two weeks, we'll begin reading through Acts, and continue on through the rest of the New Testament. 

Chapter 20 of John is the part of the story that the entire Bible and its validity hinges on.  In his book, The Reason for God, Pastor Tim Keller wrote something to the effect of "If Jesus rose from the dead, we have to accept everything He said.  If He didn't, why worry about anything he said?"

There is considerable evidence for the bodily resurrection from the dead of Jesus, and some of the most convincing pieces of evidence are found in John 20.  First, there would be no reason to make up a story of a resurrection and then report that a woman was the first person to discover the empty tomb and see the resurrected Jesus.  This was a time when women were not considered trustworthy sources, and their testimony wasn't even admissable in court.  The only logical reason for having a woman revealed as the discoverer of the empty tomb would be if that's how it actually happened.  Secondly, every time I read the last part of verse 7, "The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen", I think, wow, who cares?  This detail adds nothing to the story, it's basically useless information.  The kind of useless information that would be mentioned by an eyewitness giving a detailed account some event. 

I also love verses 30-31, in which John gives us an explanation of his rationale for writing this account of the life of Jesus, "these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."

May you believe and have life in his name as well.