John 20 - CSB Tony Evans Study Bible

20:1 The first day of the week was Sunday.

20:7 One of the many theories concocted to explain away the resurrection is that Jesus was merely resuscitated. This theory proposes that after enduring the intense brutality of being beaten and crucified, Jesus was revived by the cool interior of the tomb. But this doesn’t explain why a half-dead man would remove his head cloth, neatly fold it, and place it separate from his intact linen wrappings! Nor does it explain how he could have had the strength to move the heavy stone blocking the entrance. Like other attempts to deny the resurrection, this one fails to adequately explain the evidence. One thing is clear: when the disciples saw Jesus later (see 20:19-23), he didn’t look like a man who had been merely resuscitated from a near death experience!

20:8 Previously John (the man in view here) had believed in Jesus’s identity. Now he believed in the resurrection that Jesus had predicted (see Luke 9:21-22; 18:31-34).

20:13 Mary couldn’t grasp what had happened. The only thing she could conclude was that someone had taken away Jesus’s body, and it broke her heart. Apparently resurrection was not an option she considered.

20:15 Perhaps she supposed he was the gardener since the tomb was in a garden (see 19:41).

20:17-18 Don’t overlook that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was first announced by a woman. In first-century Judaism, a woman’s testimony wasn’t considered credible. So if the disciples were going to invent a resurrection story, they wouldn’t choose women to be the first to see and declare it. The fact that the first witnesses were women (see Matt 28:1-10) provides evidence for the historicity of the resurrection. It also affirms the communication gifting of women as long as the gift is exercised under the legitimately authorized spiritual authority and covering of the home and the church (see 1 Cor 11:5, 10).

20:19 Clearly, Jesus had a physical body. Mary touched him (see 20:17); Thomas would touch him (see 20:27); later he would eat with his disciples (see 21:12-13). He was no mere phantom (see Luke 24:39). He had risen bodily from the grave. But his resurrected body no longer had material limitations. Apparently, he could pass through locked doors if he wanted. And later he would ascend on a cloud into heaven (see Acts 1:9). The apostles tell us that our resurrection bodies will be like his (see 1 Cor 15:45-57; Phil 3:21; 1 John 3:2).

20:20 Jesus’s scars will serve as eternal reminders of the cost of our redemption, and they will forever give us reason to praise him.

20:21 The Father had sent the Son on a kingdom mission to atone for the sins of the world so that all who believe would receive eternal life. Now the Son was sending his disciples on a kingdom mission to proclaim that message and make other disciples throughout the world (see Matt 28:16-20).

20:22 Most interpreters recognize this as an anticipatory act. The Holy Spirit would come to dwell within the apostles on the day of Pentecost (see Acts 2:1-21), enabling them to accomplish the mission on which Jesus was sending them. Jesus was visibly and physically preparing them for what was spiritually to come.

20:23 The Holy Spirit would enable them to authoritatively declare that God had indeed forgiven the sins of any who believe in Jesus.

20:24-25 In church history, Thomas earned the nickname “Doubting Thomas.” But this isn’t a fair appraisal of his character. Previously, Thomas was prepared to go into hostile territory and die with Jesus (see 11:7-8, 16). A believer can be spiritually strong one moment and spiritually deflated the next.

20:27 Jesus responded to Thomas’s unbelief with grace. He gave the struggling disciple the opportunity to do exactly what he had wanted: to touch the wounds of his risen Savior.

20:31 Here John gives us the evangelistic purpose for his book. He wrote it so that readers might believe that Jesus is the Messiah—the God-Man—who died as a substitutionary atonement for sins and that, by believing, they will receive eternal life—that is, an eternal relationship with God and an ever-expanding experience of his reality in our lives (see 17:3). That’s what salvation is all about.