John 20:1

Here John outlined the evidence upon which he himself accepted the resurrection of Christ as a historical fact.

For the greater part of a century, the church had been in possession of oral traditions and the synoptic Gospels, the earliest going back as far as 44 A.D.; and, added to all this, were the remarkable writings of the apostle Paul and others. But John did not begin his witness of the resurrection with any of the documentary proof which was abundantly available, but he went back to the very moment when he himself first believed, and recounted in the most amazing detail exactly the evidences he had seen and which first overwhelmed his soul with the certainty that Jesus was risen from the dead. That dawn of belief in his heart is recorded in John 20:1-10.

He next appealed to the testimony of Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18), out of whom Jesus had cast seven devils; and the allegation that any falsarius would ever have ascribed such a choice of witness to him whom the Lord made the guardian of his mother transgresses the bounds of credibility.

Other testimonies offered in this chapter are the appearance to the eleven, Thomas absent (John 20:19-25), and the appearance to the eleven, Thomas present (John 20:26-29). The last two verses give the statement of John's purpose in writing the Gospel, and the added comment that the things recorded are but a fragment of the massive mountain of evidence that might have been presented but was omitted.

If this Gospel had ended with John 19, there would have been no gospel. Christ in the grave was not good news; and had he remained in the grave, there could have been no Christianity. As Paul declared, absolutely everything depended upon the physical resurrection of Christ. IF the resurrection did not occur:

The preaching of the apostles is vain; The faith of all Christians is vain; The apostles are false witnesses; All men are still in their sins; The dead in Christ have perished.

- 1 Corinthians 15:12-19

Regarding the somber impact of the dead Saviour, Morgan wrote:

He was dead. His enemies thought they had done him in, and they were glad. His friends thought he was done for, and they were sad. But heaven watching was preparing the music that should ring around the world declaring the defeat of evil, the mastery of sin, and the ransom of the race.[1]

There is a repeated threefold motif in this chapter: (1) John's faith was inspired by three things: the stone's removal, the empty tomb, and the undisturbed grave clothes (John 20:1-10). (2) The testimony of three individuals is given: that of John, of Mary Magdalene, and of Thomas. (3) Three appearances of Christ are noted: his appearances to Mary Magdalene, to the eleven (Thomas absent), and to the eleven (Thomas present).