Bible Commentaries
John 20

Verses 1-5

25 Physical relationships are temporary, and will be superseded by spiritual ties. All lasting spiritual bonds are made at the foot of the cross.

28-30 Compare Mat_27:45-51 ; Mar_15:33-36 ; Luk_23:46 ; see Psa_22:15 ; Psa_69:21 .

28 Perhaps in no other circumstances could we realize the intense passion of Christ for the word of God. His work was accomplished. We may know a little of what He felt from the words of the Psalmist ( Psa_22:14-15 ).

I am poured out as water,

And all My bones are dissected.

My heart becomes as wax;

It Is melted In the midst of My bowels.

My vigor Is dry as earthenware,

And My tongue Is clinging to My jaws,

And on the soil of death,

Thou art setting Me as the hearth stones.

Death, at the hands of God,

not His enemies, was before Him.

Yet one passage of Scripture was not fulfilled. He had done His part, but men had not done theirs. The Psalmist had foretold

( Psa_69:21 ):

And they put poison In My repast;

And for My thirst they cause Me to drink vinegar.

So He prompts them, and they fill the sponge and fulfill the passage. Truly, not one letter of the law shall fail till all is fulfilled! If He could drink that bitter draught in the moment of His greatest weakness and deepest despair, that the Scripture may be perfected, what will He do in the day of His power and glory? He will surely see that not a single line of the Scriptures will fail of fulfillment.

30 The death of Christ was not due to the failure of His faculties, or to exhaustion. It was a deliberate act of His will. After having accomplished the work the Father set for Him to do, there was no need of further suffering. So He laid down His soul of His own volition; He gave up His Spirit to God.

31 There were many sabbaths in Israel beside the weekly one. This sabbath was the first day of the festival of Unleavened bread ( Lev_23:7 ). As it introduced the seven day festival when all leaven was excluded from their houses, it was considered afar greater day than a weekly sabbath. It may be that the Spirit of God is hinting also at its real greatness. Leaven is a type of sin. Now the great Sin Offering had been slain, and sin was indeed put away! It was the greatest day in the Jewish calendar.

32 The course of the narrative here clearly shows that there were four others crucified with Christ. There were two malefactors and two robbers. The soldiers crush the legs of two before they come to Christ, so there must have been two on each side. There were no "thieves". One of the malefactors believed on Him.

36 See Num_9:12 ; Exo_12:46 ; Psa_34:20 .

36 With His supernatural vitality He would have remained alive long after the others, and suffered the breaking of His bones if He had not laid down His soul of Himself. It is remarkable that, in all this, there is a divine intelligence behind the ignorance of man. They marred His flesh but did not break His bones. They poured out His blood, but did not mutilate His form. So that, in resurrection, His body is composed of flesh and bones and has no blood. The soul of the flesh is in the blood, but the spirit needs no blood. The wanton hands of His enemies were used to transform His body to the new condition needed in resurrection!

37 See Zec_12:10 .

38-42 Compare Mat_27:57-60 ; Mar_15:42-46 ; Luk_23:50-54 .

38 What a notable change the crucifixion makes in two of the secret disciples of our Lord! Joseph of Arimathea was afraid of the Jews, but now he has the courage to go to Pilate and he takes the body away before the eyes of those he once feared. Nicodemus, also, does not wait till dark to bring the spices for embalming the body. He comes forth in the light of day. It is the cross, the suffering and shame, the agony and the degradation, of the One Who had won their hearts which took their timidity away. And it is still the inspiration for brave deeds and noble acts free from the fear of man.

Compare Mat_28:1 ; Mar_16:1-4 ; Luk_24:1 .

1 "One of the sabbaths" is the true rendering. The usual "first day of the week" is absolutely devoid of scriptural evidence.

2-10 Compare Luk_24:12 .

Verses 6-26

6 There is a blessed contrast between the resurrection of Lazarus and the vivification of our Lord. Lazarus saw corruption. Christ saw none. Lazarus was raised bound foot and hand with grave clothes and his face was covered with a handkerchief. These are the signs of mortality and corruption. These are the symbols of weakness. Our Lord was raised in power. His feet were free, His hands untrammeled, His face uncovered. He had the power to take up His soul again. He had the strength to remove the grave clothes and roll aside the stone. He is not merely the Resurrection, but He is the Life!

8 How tragic is unbelief! Peter and John, His closest companions, refuse to credit His word when He tells them of His sufferings and death and resurrection. Now they had witnessed His shameful death, they had seen His empty tomb, and still they doubt His word!

11 Mary Magdalene, probably from the town of Magdala, had been possessed with seven demons. The Lord healed her and she became part of that elect company of women who dispensed to Him of their possessions ( Luk_8:2-3 ). She seems to have been among the last to leave the tomb, after witnessing where Joseph of Arimathea bad laid Him. Along with some of the other women she seems to have been at the tomb very early, in order to complete the preparation of His body for burial. Peter and John seem to have left her. She does not take a look and leave. She lingers, and her faith is rewarded by the unspeakable boon of being first to behold the risen Christ. Peter and John, when they looked, saw the grave clothes. She saw the messengers, but is not satisfied with anyone but her Lord.

11-18 Compare Mar_16:9-11 .

16 What a world of pathos lies within the range of the human voice! There was no need to tell Who He was, once He had caressed her name as He only could intone it. "Miriam!" And immediately she recognizes the voice of her beloved Lord and Teacher. She alone is told of

His victorious ascension to the Father, immediately after His resurrection. She carries the glorious news to the rest.

17 In the Scriptures, omissions are often of supreme significance. To accord with the character of the account, this ascension of our Lord is mentioned only here. The other narratives omit it entirely. But it is still more significant to note the silence as to the nature and object of this ascension. The reason is clear. John is not detailing the celestial glories of Christ. That belongs to Paul's later ministry. The conquest of the cross of Christ is not confined to earth. It places Him at the bead of the whole universe. Messengers and sovereignties and authorities and powers among the celestials are all made subject to the Crucified One. After His resurrection He was proclaimed throughout the universe as Lord of all. When was this proclamation made? When was His public investiture with the tokens of His universal sovereignty? Surely that could not wait for forty days, until after His public ascension. Doubtless it was done soon after He delegated Mary to carry the news to His disciples. Then He ascended, and the crucified King of the Jews is acclaimed the Conqueror over all the powers of evil and the universal Suzerain. How little did His disciples dream of His exalted honors!

19-20 Compare Mar_16:14 ; Luk_24:33-43 .

22 Here is where the disciples received the holy Spirit. Pentecost was an enduement with power. Spirit is the vital force in the universe. Adam became a living soul as soon as the breath of God entered his body. So here the breath of Christ imparted the vital spirit which He had promised them after His glorification. Our breath is poisonous, death-dealing. His is vital, life-giving.

23 In the proclamation of the kingdom the disciples certainly were given the right to forgive sins, or the opposite. Though the claims of priestcraft to this power at present are false, this should not blind us to the fact that such authority was given to His disciples by our Lord, and was exercised so long as the kingdom was proclaimed to Israel. This promise should make us hesitate in appropriating all in this account to ourselves, or to claim all its promises as our own.

Verses 27-31

27 While we hardly care to sympathize with doubting Thomas, yet we feel grateful for the unanswerable evidence his case called forth. The reality of our Lord's resurrection is put beyond all question by his lack of faith. The very body that was marred by the nails and the spear, which saw no corruption, was actually made alive and could be felt and handled, to the satisfaction of one who refused to believe on less evidence.

31 It is evident that the signs in this account are a selection, chosen to give a complete picture of Israel's failure and Israel's Saviour. They are intended to signify to all who have ears to hear that the One Who speaks and acts is no other than the Messiah foretold by the prophets of old, and the further fact that He is also the Son of God. Eonian life is for all who receive this testimony; As we have seen, His present exaltation, while Israel is apostate, is carefully overlooked. Hence we must not expect to find present truth in John's account. He never had a commission for the nations, not even for proselytes, as Peter had. Because his ministry seems especially intended for millennial days, when the nations will be blessed through Israel, his allusions to world-wide blessing are often mistaken for that which has come to us while Israel is apostate.

3 Peter had a commission to fish for men. But he returns to his old trade and takes his companions with him. They toil all night and net nothing. Undoubtedly there is a solemn lesson in obedience here. The path of self-will brings much labor but no results. The path of obedience is fraught with blessing. But there seems a deeper lesson here than this. Peter's failure is a dispensational forecast. Peter and the apostles labor much to proclaim the kingdom during the darkness which has fallen on Israel. But their efforts are unavailing. Israel is not recalled to repentance. But in the morning, when the Lord comes again, the kingdom will once more be proclaimed, Then the results will be miraculous. All Israel will be saved. The miracle will be repeated then, and the net will include the 144,000 as well as a throng innumerable. There are several methods of fishing from the shore in the day time. A baited hook was cast by Peter when he got the redemption money for himself and the Lord ( Mat_17:27 ). Simon and Andrew were using a purse net when they were called to become fishers of men ( Mar_1:16 ). A seine or drag net was also used ( Mat_13:47 ). The net here used was a large one let down from a ship. On one occasion, though the net broke, the haul filled two boats overfull ( Luk_5:4-6 ). Boat fishing was done at night. Seines were set and the fishermen, with flares and the beating of old metal pans, drove the fish toward the net. This cannot be done in the day time. After scouring the waters all night it must have seemed silly to lower the large net. It took faith to do that. And it was nothing less than a miracle that the net was not rent.

11 The night of futile fishing seems to correspond to the time typified in Israel's yearly calendar by the period between the festival of Unleavened Bread and the festival of Trumpets, which was about one hundred and fifty-three days. It may be that the number of fish caught is an allusion to this. The past labors of the twelve apostles seem to have netted nothing, yet when He appears in the future, there will be a rich harvest. At present their ministry is not in force.

12 A whole night of toil did not provide a breakfast for the faithless fishermen. Yet He makes manifest His care and provision by supplying their need. The meal is all ready and cooled.

They do not do anything to provide it. This is the gracious rebuke of the Lord to Peter's fishing expedition. We never hear that he went back to fishing again.

15 The rich pathos of this passage will be apparent only if we carefully keep the finer shades of meaning conveyed by the original, as "fond " and "love" , "graze" and "shepherd", "lambkins" and "sheep". This is the special commission given to Peter which he fulfills in the writing of his epistles. His humiliating experiences, in disowning the Lord and doubting His care and provision (of which the other apostles were not guilty) has chastened his spirit, so that he no longer boasts of his loyalty, though all the rest prove to be cowards. He knows that he loves his Lord, despite his craven heart, but he refuses to boast that he loves Him more than his fellows. He hides behind a weaker word, denoting the attractive force of friendship. But he does not put himself behind the assertion, but rather appeals to the Lord's omniscience. His humility is rewarded by the charge to provide sustenance for those weak in the faith. The Lord repeats His question, but without any reference to Peter's boast or failure. Peter again refuses to vouch for himself, and is given charge of the Lord's flock. The Lord now descends to Peter's profession of fondness, but questions even that. This touches Peter very sorely, but he refuses to vaunt. He feels full of love to the Lord but he is aware how dismally he had failed but a few days before. So he once more refers the Lord to

His own omniscience. He has learned his lesson well. So the Lord commissions him to provide food for the mature saints.