Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went off to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. (2) 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.”  (3) Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb.  (4) So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first.  (5) And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in.  (6) Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, (7) and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself.  (8) Then the  other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed.  (9) For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.

Our verses today are from the gospel of John – an eyewitness to both the crucifixion and the empty tomb of Christ Jesus – and they are the historical, verifiable witness to these events. The foundation of Christianity is the bodily resurrection of Christ Jesus. Without this everything crumbles and is meaningless.

When Christ was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane the night before He died, his disciples fled in fear for their own lives.  They still did not understand who Jesus was/is and the arrest and murder of their “Messiah” left them  in a complete panic.  John and Peter did enter Jerusalem with the arresting party and we know that Peter betrayed Jesus and as a result he too was completely distraught. These men were hardly the stuff of conspirators or capable of bold action by stealing the body of Christ from a sealed tomb in the middle of the night – With Roman guards at the tomb.

All the gospels tell us that women were the first to find the empty tomb. Women did not have standing under Jewish law – there were not even allowed to be witnesses. So, why would the story even mention the women?  Because it’s true would be my answer.

Who moved the stone?

The day AFTER the crucifixion the Jewish leaders asked Pilate to post a guard at the tomb. What happened to the Roman guard?  We do know that they reported to the Jewish leaders and were told by them to say the apostles stole the body.  (Please see the second paragraph).  At any time in these first years of Christianity the Jews could have stopped it cold by producing the body.

If the body had been moved why would the burial cloths have been removed from the mangled body. These cloths are mentioned three times in our verses day indicating their importance in telling this story.

The empty tomb was half an hour walk from the old city of Jerusalem and never becomes a place of veneration.  Christianity grew at an astounding rate in those early years in proximity to the empty tomb – implicitly and explicitly the tomb was known to be empty and had been since the resurrection of Christ Jesus. The Jews only had to produce a body to stop cold this belief

There were many post resurrection appearances of Jesus and in those early years many witnesses were still alive and able to contradict this testimony.  Those who saw the resurrected Jesus became changed men.  Our verses today tell us that John was a changed man when he saw and understood the folded burial cloths and the empty tomb.  These believers lived and died for their faith.  They were convinced that Christ was the Lord, the Messiah

If people don’t believe in the resurrection, they don’t want to believe.