Rev. Cecil Van Niejenhuis
Apr 5, 2026
John 20:1-9
John chapter 20 begins at quite a pace…
Mary Magdalene was up early that day---and out the door---while it was still dark.
I don’t think she had a big breakfast…
I don’t think she showered and did her makeup
Read through any version of the Jerusalem morning paper…
No snooze button to gradually gather her wits and clear the cobwebs…
While it was still dark, says John.
She woke from a light sleep…a troubled sleep.
We’re not sure what she had in mind---if she was intent on going to the tomb to mourn more fully…. Or to take along extra perfume for Jesus, as some think…
John doesn’t let us know exactly…just that very, very first thing---while it was still dark, Mary needed to make her way to that tomb…
There was something she needed to do…
Because there was something very wrong in her world.
Jesus.
Jesus was dead.
And so. While it was still dark…and in John’s gospel---whenever he mentions darkness, he means it in the fullest, deepest sense of that word.
The light was gone.
Jesus was dead.
So in Mary’s world, it was still dark: literally and figuratively.
When things are all wrong like that…and you’re discombobulated…
…things speed up. People tend to hurry…rush…
And when she gets to the tomb, and sees the stone removed from the entrance
Well—she saw that one thing, and she jumped/rushed to a conclusion.
Her heart was in a hurry
Her legs were in a hurry----and so too was her mind.
That stone having been moved—could mean only one dreadful thing. One more dreadful thing…
She didn’t have any evidence, really…no pictures…
She hadn’t even checked inside to look!
But she knew. And hurried some more.
Went running to find Simon Peter and that other disciple with him
--and she announced: they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and where they’ve put him??? Who knows?
Oh…we want to say—Mary, Mary…slow down…whoa…
---but she can’t. she’s still in the dark about what’s happened.
She can think only that the grave has been robbed…the body stolen
She can think only of a dead Jesus.
She saw him crucified, died, buried…
Saw it with her own eyes.
Resurrection is not even the vaguest possibility for her.
Can you blame her?
Well, when Peter and the other disciples heard what Mary said…
They started for the tomb. Running.
Those two disciples were in a hurry as well!
The one still faster than the other. One hurried…and the other hurried hard.
He outran Peter, got to the tomb first—and looked in at the strips of linen lying there…
--but he didn’t enter the tomb…
I see him bent over there, catching his breath….trying to absorb things….
And behind him, you can hear the sounds of Peter’s feet hitting the ground, still running…
Peter may be slower to get there, but once he does….
---he’s all over it.
Peter being Peter, he pushes past the entrance, steps, hurries inside.
And then…only then---when Peter steps inside the tomb, does the pace slow down.
Peter saw those strips of linen lying there…
And…
Peter saw the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head—by itself, separate.
And then, when the heart rate had slowed a little.
And the legs had slowed to a walk…
…then the mind was able to start processing.
Because something, something didn’t add up.
--the body of Jesus stolen?
Then, what are these cloths doing here???
If the tomb was really the scene of a crime, a robbery…
If someone had come to remove the body of Jesus…
--then you should have expected to see in that tomb---nothing at all!!
I mean, why would anyone unwrap the body, and leave the graveclothes behind?
--it was a neatly wrapped package as it was…
And to take the clothes off and deal with the body???
Even if the thieves had removed some of the graveclothes to make sure it was Jesus’ body they were taking…
You might expect them to be ripped or torn, scattered here and there…
You would expect that the thieves themselves might have been in a hurry…
But that’s not what the disciples found when they entered the tomb
All signs of running, hurrying
All signs of panic, confusion—are absent.
Inside, the tomb is a picture of calmness.
There lie the graveclothes, and there neatly rolled up…neatly folded…
The burial cloth for Jesus’ head.
Neatly folded.
Jesus apparently, had not been in a hurry that morning.
Jesus apparently, had not been in a rush.
It seems as though Jesus very calmly got up
Just the way anyone might get up on a given morning.
He was not in a state of panic.
His heart was not pounding.
And he didn’t just rip off those graveclothes, throw them down and run for it.
(the way we sometimes begin our day!!)
When that other disciple, the one who had reached the tomb first, but hung back at the entrance –when he finally went inside to join Peter
…and saw those strips of linen not only, but the burial cloth for Jesus’ head by itself, rolled up…neatly folded…
That’s when, even there inside that tomb—where you would expect it to be dark.
--in every sense of that word “dark”
---that’s when the light dawned.
He saw, and believed.
You know, it’s just one little detail in John’s gospel…but it’s a remarkable detail.
…because it suggests the resurrection of Jesus was no tight-necked struggle.
It was not stealth on Jesus’ part
--so that he had to sneak away from the tomb
Slip past the guards after first defeating the enemy named death
It was no mad dash to get out of the tomb before the devil caught him by his shirttail and pulled him back inside…
---there was nothing hurried or confusing or anxious about it.
Jesus simply got up…folded his graveclothes and left the tomb.
It was getting to be morning on the third day…and it was time.
It was time for Jesus to get up…to arise…so he did.
But where was the power of death on Easter morning?
Where was the devil---sleeping on the job?
---these are the great enemies of God and all that he has created…
We sometimes give the devil such credit---too much!!
He is so sneaky and so strong…we say…
But look into that tomb---not even the hint of a struggle.
That’s how sure the victory is
That’s how much more powerful the Lord God is
That’s how weak, really, in contrast, is God’s enemy!
Death where is your sting?
Grave—where is your victory?
Where???
On Easter morning, death and the grave are unmasked.
It makes me think of Daniel, in the lion’s den.
---walking unharmed among those considered ferocious.
Well, just so, Jesus, in the den of death—home court of the enemy
Jesus gets up unharmed, calmly folds up his clothes
He lays aside the garments of death…
The signs of the devil’s power.
And just as his face cloth is folded…so the grand designs of evil…symbolically, fold.
There is such a quiet majesty to this record of the resurrection.
A simplicity tailormade for children of all ages…
When it was morning, Jesus simply got up.
Jesus has conquered and is Lord, not by a hair…
Not just by the skin of his teeth
But overwhelmingly, completely, the one who will ascend the throne!!!
And whose Spirit will carry the day.
The devil knows it. Do you? Do I?
This, dear friends, is the grand story which the Scripture tells…
It’s the story which is the framework for life…the great surround sound which is such good news…it’s the Story which anchors the stories of our own lives, and the stories of cultures through the ages…
It’s the Story within which we find our purpose and meaning and callings…
John’s telling of the Easter moment---this core, decisive moment in the Scripture story…
John’s telling of the Easter moment—encourages us to trust! To be hopeful…to lean in and to lean forward…
Which –these days—is an essential posture.
In this world---says John in this same gospel…
In this world, you have many tribulations.
Jesus said that.
And he’s spot on: There are enough worries and problems and wickedness to still call it dark…
In this world you have many tribulations.
But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.
Jesus said that too.
It’s an Easter pronouncement. The darkness is being pushed. A new day is dawning…
…the light of the sun…literally…
Sonlight…figuratively
Over there…can you see it?
A burial cloth, folded.
Christ has risen!! Indeed.
Alleluia!