Where to follow Jesus: His resurrection
Outline: Chapter 20 establishes the testimonies of eye witnesses as the evidence based on which Christians believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus and his divine power to give eternal life:
- The witnesses and their testimony
- The new body of Christ
- The late faith of Thomas
- The authorization to forgive and bind sins
Warm-up: If you are the last one in a group of people to understand a joke (or anything more complicated), does that bother you? Why or why not?
Read: John 20
1) Who is mentioned here to have witnessed the resurrection?
- Who was Mary Magdalene, and what do you think about her credibility as the very first eye witness? cf Lk 8:2
- Do differences of this account contradict the synoptic gospels? cf Mk 16:1-9?
- e.g. did John claim that Mary Magdalene visited the tomb alone, v2?
2) v2: John called himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. Why would he do that (assuming that it is not about bragging)?
- According to John’s report, which disciple believed first in the resurrection, v8?
- What made him believe?
- Did he think he should have understood earlier? How, v9?
3) vv2-10: Consider the testimony of John. Why such emphasis on details, and why on these?
- v2: What motivated Peter and John to run to the tomb? Did John run extra fast in the hope to be the first to see Jesus? cf Mk 16:11
- What did they intend to find out there?
- What makes it difficult to relegate this account to the realms of fiction or wishful thinking?
- Which hallmarks of fiction or fabrication are glaringly absent?
- Why did John explicitly mention that he ran faster than Peter, v4-6?
- vv5-10: Why is it important to know that John arrived at the scene first, yet did not immediately enter the tomb?
- Could he have tampered with evidence, e.g. to fold the cloths?
- How likely would a forger have invented such a detail that he arrived at the scene first and alone?
- Why would an invented story more likely feature several witnesses arriving at the same time?
- vv5-10: Why is it important to know that John arrived at the scene first, yet did not immediately enter the tomb?
4) vb11-20: What did John specifically mention about Jesus’ resurrection body?
- v12: Why was none of the angels mistaken for the risen Christ?
- vv14-15: Why did Mary Magdalene at first not recognize Jesus anymore?
- v16: How did she recognize him?
- v17: Why not cling to him?
- How compatible is this account with non-literal interpretations that Jesus was only resurrected spiritually in his teachings and not physically?
5) How did the risen Jesus address his disciples?
- vv13 & 15 why would he ask a question? What does that say about him?
- v17: Why did he want the disciples to know – about him and about themselves?
- Why would they (and us) need to hear this? Does peace as Jesus gives depend on hearing this?
- v21: What peace did he mean? Was more in this greeting than what meets the eye? How so?
- vv22-23: How would you describe in your own words what mission he gave to his disciples? cf Jn 13:14-15. Why ‘breathe’ on the disciples? cf Gen 2:7
6) vv24-31: How did Jesus overcome the unbelief of Thomas?
- vv24-25: Why was Thomas even slower than the others to believe? [To reveal himself, Jesus chose a Sunday where Thomas was not there]
- What defined his unbelief? cf Jn 2:18; 1Cor 1:22
- v27: How did Jesus overcome it? Did he present Thomas with a choice? Or did he ‘melt away’ his resistance? How? [walked through closed doors to come and say: “I heard you, Thomas – here I am”]
- v31: Among the things of first importance for saving faith, 1Cor 15:3 lists faith in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Why is any faith without this article unable to save anyone, cf 1Cor 15:45 with Jn 20:22+31? => Why would God’s work of salvation without a bodily risen Christ be no salvation at all, even if Thomas would have believed everything else?
- Once Thomas was convinced of the resurrection, how did it transform his understanding of the gospel?
- Did Thomas regard Jesus as his God before? What did it mean to call him God? cf Jud 1:25
- Peter (in 2Pet) consistently called Jesus ‘Lord and Savior’, never ‘Savior and Lord’. Do you think the meaning would change at all if Thomas had switched the order: “My god and my lord”?
- Will Jesus condemn false prophets for vain confession of faith in him as “Savior, savior,..” or for vain confession as “Lord, Lord…”? Why? cf Mt 7:22-23; Ro 10:9-10
- Where was Jesus during the eight days that he deemed necessary before meeting Thomas? Why is it not productive to try to find out? cf Jn 3:8
- Being delayed by one week, how did Thomas foreshadow what was about to happen to the Jewish nation?
- How will the Jewish nation eventually come to believe in Jesus? cf Zech 12:10
- vv20-21: John points out that Thomas was not yet present when Jesus sent the disciples out to evangelize the world. Why was the Jewish nation not tasked with this same mission as the disciples of Jesus? cf Ro 11:23
7) Personal and application
- At the verge of becoming a Christian, what did or did not convince you that Jesus was raised from the dead?
- Where would you see yourself described in this chapter: With whom would you identify yourself, and why?
- In your experience, how do you think is the church exercising this ministry of forgiving or retaining sins ? How should we apply this word?
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