How Do We Know Jesus' Body Wasn't Stolen?

Tom: We’re continuing in the gospel, we’re in the Gospel of John:20:1The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
See All...: “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher, and then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid him.”

Dave: Well, it must have been quite a shocking announcement that someone has stolen the body, apparently, of Jesus. And yet, Jesus had told them He would rise from the dead—He made that very clear. Of course, He told them He would be crucified—they didn’t believe that, and the Scriptures made it clear that He would rise from the dead. Didn’t they know that?

Tom: The first day of the week, it says very clearly.

Dave: Tom, it’s staggering and, I mean, what blindness do I have? I think I understand the Scriptures—well, I realize that I don’t even begin to come close to understanding much from the Bible, even though I’ve been saved…what? 64…65 years coming up, and I’ve been studying the Bible all my life. But we understand so little.

But for these people to be…

Tom: Dave, is that because it’s incomprehensible? You know, some people would say you can’t know this…experience—you need to experience it.

Dave: On one hand, Tom, you could say it has depths that go on and on and on. On the other hand, you could say, we’re just not quite up to it. What pitiful creatures we are. Paul says, “Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face.” So…

Tom: But we’ve been given the Holy Spirit.

Dave: Yeah, but, Tom, there’s still so much that is obscure to us, just because we see from an earthly perspective. We don’t give the diligence to the Word of God as we should. Part of it is the world in which we live, too. You know, when I read some of the writings of these old-timers back there, centuries ago, they didn’t have computers. And the books they wrote—seven…eight hundred pages! Not just one—they wrote many of them! How did they do it? And they lived short lives! Maybe we don’t give the diligence that we ought to, but, Tom, we’re so busy with all of our gadgets and so forth. Maybe we spend a little too much time watching sports on TV or whatever it is, you know?

I think there are a number of reasons, but, Tom, I understand so little. I realize that, but one day we’ll know as we’re known. But when you think of these disciples, they spent a number of years with Christ—Christ himself! He’s been expounding the Scriptures to them. He’s been teaching them, plainly, and they still didn’t get it. And that’s why in Luke 24, He says to the two on the road to Emmaus—pretty harsh language—“You fools, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things to enter into His glory?” And then it says, “Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures of things concerning himself.”

I’ve had the opportunity—the privilege—of speaking at conferences a number of times with maybe a Jewish man from Jerusalem. In fact, we offer some tapes, I think, by one of these dear brothers. And just the Jewish perspective—the understanding. We have a series of tapes, I think, Tom, “Christ in the Old Testament.” Wow! The Scriptures are opened up in a way that somehow we Gentiles don’t quite understand, although we have the Holy Spirit. But there’s, you know, we’re blinded in certain ways.

But these men—the body has been stolen? They didn’t expect Him to rise from the dead. They were shattered when He was crucified even though the prophets said the Messiah had to be crucified. If He were not crucified, He wasn’t the Messiah. It’s staggering, Tom, but anyway, she runs. She doesn’t know what to think. And she finds Simon, and then the other disciple whom Jesus loved—that’s an interesting expression. Obviously, that’s John. He—somehow he doesn’t like to use his own name or say “I,” which is normal when you’re writing something.

And she says, “They’ve taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher. We know not where they’ve laid him.” Somebody has stolen His body. She is really shaken.

Well, that shakes the apostles, and Peter, he goes forth and the other disciple, that’s John, they ran both together, and “the other disciple did outrun Peter and came first to the sepulcher.” Now, somebody could say, “Well, is John bragging that he’s a faster runner than Peter?” And you know, after all…

Tom: Or is he bragging that Jesus loved him?

Dave: Ye-e-s. “The disciple whom Jesus loved.” Well, but Paul said, “The Son of God who loved me, gave himself for me…” So we could all put ourselves in that place.

Well, he’s saying this for a reason. First of all, he’s younger. You know, he was the last of the disciples to die many years after the others. But he’s also showing that he was younger, and he could run faster, but he didn’t quite have the courage to go in. Peter is more impulsive. It says, “He, stooping down, looking in, he saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in.”

There’s a hesitancy on the part of John, a young man. “Then cometh Simon Peter, following him.” He went into the sepulcher. He doesn’t hesitate at all.

Tom: But that certainly fits the character of Peter. (Laughing)…

Dave: It certainly does.

Tom: He said things, he did things, that you could just chalk them up to impulsiveness, you’d have to say.

Dave: As we often say, “Like a bull in a china shop.” That’s Peter. And he just bulls his way right in, and he went into the sepulcher, “seeth the linen clothes lie.” Now, I would take it to mean, you know, if He was wrapped in—I think it’s like a cocoon. The linen clothes are still—how did that body get out of there? And then, the napkin that was about His head, it’s wrapped together. Someone has folded this up nicely and just set it down, and grave robbers wouldn’t do that. First of all, grave robbers couldn’t take a body out like that. Why would they even stop to do that? They’d take everything. And they certainly wouldn’t fold up the napkin, and that gives him something to think about. But he’s still…he sees it, but he doesn’t understand.

“Then went in also that other disciple which came first to the sepulcher, he saw and believed.” He knows now that Jesus is risen. Of course, he was at the foot of the cross with Mary, so he was known of the chief priest, the high priest, and he went in. And then he invited—got Peter ushered in, who’d been following afar.

John was an interesting man. We will find in the next chapter that Jesus had an interesting prophecy to make about him as well.

Tom: “For as yet, they knew not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead.” Now, Dave, you just mentioned that. Here they are with Jesus…

Dave: …years…

Tom: …as you said, they heard these things from Jesus’ own mouth. Yet…

Dave: He expounded the scriptures to them.

Tom: Right. “Yet they knew not the scriptures that he must rise again from the dead.”

Dave: Now, Tom…

Tom: How can that be?

Dave: That relates to what you were just saying. You know, I’m saying I understand, I think I understand almost nothing from the Bible. And you say “why?” Why didn’t they? I mean, blinded by, not prejudice, but say, preconceived ideas. And we come to the Bible with certain thoughts, you know, ideas, so we can’t really see what it says.

Tom: Dave, again, what do we do? We fall back on God’s Word. We lean upon His Holy Spirit to teach us. God has raised up great teachers. You know, the Word tells us that there are many given the gift of teaching, yet at the same time, we have to rely on the Lord; we have to come to it with no mind of our own—that is no biases, no prejudices, and so on—let the Word of God speak to us, and we’re going to grow. We’re going to grow in our relationship with Him and understand what He wants us to know.

Dave: Amen.