Hi everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. And today it's Easter Sunday. So happy Easter to all of you who are listening, this is the podcast where we look at the Gospel. Reading that is read at today's Catholic mass and we really dive into the text. What is the text trying to communicate to its original audience? So, we're doing an exegesis of it. And today for Easter Sunday, we are looking at John chapter 20, Verse 1 to 9.
It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark when Mary of magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. They have taken the Lord out of the Tomb. She said and we don't know where they have put him. So Peter said out with the other disciple to go to the tomb, they ran together but the other disciple running running faster than Peter reached the tomb.
First, he went down he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground but did not go in. Simon Peter, who was following now. Came up went right into the tomb saw. The linen cloths on the ground and also the cloth that had been over his head. This was not with a linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself, then the other disciple who had reached the
tomb. First also went in he saw and he believed Till this moment, they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture that he must rise from the dead. So that's our passage for today. Now, let's have a go at doing an exegesis of the text. The first thing, you always want to ask yourself when you're doing an exegesis is, what's the context? What has happened?
Just before this? Well, the main thing that's happened just before John chapter 20 is, Jesus has died on the cross in John chapter 19 and they have laid him in the Tomb. So now we get to verse 1 and it's the first day of the week, now, in Jewish Reckoning that Sunday. So, we're talking about Sunday, Day, two days after Jesus dies. So very early in the morning while it's still dark. And if we have our dating, right? This would be Sunday, April 5th, 33 ad, and Mary of magdala is
coming to the tomb. So, Mary of magdala, she appears in the gospels as one of Jesus, closest friends and followers and she was at the foot of the cross. So she comes to the tomb and we know from the gospel of Mark, if you compare this story with the version in the gospel of Mark that she's not alone here, she's with some other women. So Joanna, is there Mary Mary the wife of clopas and they've all come to anoint the body with spices.
If you read, Mark 16 the start of that chapter, you'll see that there's a group of women that have come here early in the morning to anoint the body with spices. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb now, according to the gospel of Matthew, Mary Magdalene and the other women, they actually see an angel descend from heaven, and they see the angel roll the stone away.
So, if we put these two gospels together, it appears that was soon as that happens, where the woman's see, the stone being rolled away. Mary of Magdalene now leaves and she runs back to Peter and John, which is what happens in Our Gospel. So she leaves the other women at the tomb. Mary Magdalene verse 2. Came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple.
So she's not going to all the apostles, although, later in the day, the other Possible's will be told, but she's going to, it appears to be the two leaders, basically, Simon Peter. And the other disciple. Those that she recognizes are the leaders of the Christian Community.
So Peter obviously, he's the head Apostle, and the last time we saw him, he had denied Jesus. And the other disciple is not named here as just called the one whom Jesus loved most Scholars. Would say the fact that he's not named in the Gospel of John, probably indicates that it's John himself. The author is the Apostle. John So, probably talking here about the author. Now, talking about himself in third person.
So Peter and John and she says to them, they have taken the Lord out of the Tomb and we don't know where they have put him. So who's that? They that she's talking about who's the who does she think is taken Jesus out of the Tomb. It appears that because Mary Magdalene at this stage, hasn't yet seen Jesus. So she doesn't believe he's been resurrected, all she knows is that the tomb is empty. That's all she knows for sure. So, she interprets this to mean that someone has taken his body.
That's who her fiery. Someone has taken his body and in that culture was quite common for robbers to break into Graves and to steal bodies. So that's what she thinks happened. Is that there's been a grave robber who's coming stolen Jesus, so the two disciples set out to find find out the truth. And it says that the other disciple, outran, Peter, So John outran, Peter and that's probably because John is younger than Peter. John is probably about 30 years old whereas Peter might be 50
something. Now it does sound a bit like a chica comment from the Apostle John year. He's kind of showing off a bit in saying that I run it. I outran, Peter. So they come to the tomb, and you've probably seen pictures of what the tomb looks like. It would have been a large carving in the wall, and for quite, it was quite common for wealthy people, like Joseph of Arimathea, who owned This tomb they would actually have private tombs set into the wall much like you do see in the pictures.
So they come to this large, carving in the wall and they go in and they see the linen cloths lying on the ground. And John now spends a bit of time. Describing what kind of cloths? They see. So there's something significant about these clots, the fact that the cloths are lying on the ground and these are the cloth that are used to wrap. The dead person that probably suggests a to the readers of John's original gospel.
It would have indicated to them that it wasn't robbers because robbers don't unwrap the corpse before stealing at. They just getting quickly. Grabbed the whole corpse with the cloths and then leave so they wouldn't Wrap the person first. So already John wants his readers to understand that his body has not been stolen. Apparently, around the time, John was writing his gospel. There was a theory among some that Jesus body had been stolen
and he didn't really resurrect. So John seems to be very careful here to show because he was there on the day. That it can't be grave robbers. This also contrasts with the resuscitation of Lazarus which is in the Gospel of John earlier because if You remember the recessed rust recess attention of Lazarus Lazarus walked out of the Tomb with his grave cloths. Still on John wants his readers to notice that something.
Radically different has happened to Jesus, his Jesus has apparently taken his own cloths off. So John, he peers into the tomb and he can see the cloths but he does not go in. Apparently, he recognizes Peter's Authority as the leader, and he doesn't want to go in until Peter arrives. So, Peter goes in verse 7, he sees the cloth that had been over his head. And John mentions, the Apostle John, the author mentions that this cloth that had been over his head was not sit down with
the other cloths. It had been rolled up in a place by itself. all of this suggests that this text has been written by an eyewitness, by John himself, it's very hard to explain how they would have known that otherwise So again, John is probably including all this information about the grave robber because there were some people who claim that the robbers had broken into the tomb and still on the body.
So John's point is that the head cloth in particular being rolled up neatly indicates that it wasn't robbers. It appears that someone has carefully and slowly wrapped up the cloth deliberately that's John's Point here. Verse 8, John goes in because Peters gone in now Sir, John thinks it's safe to go in and the text says he sees and believes. So there's some debate about how much John actually believes at this point, what does it mean?
When the text says he believes? Because the verb believe, can mean he began to believe and that would make sense because there's apparently, some things, the apostles don't yet fully understand. Now, notice what John believes in response to, he goes into the tomb and apparently he believes in response to seeing the head cloth rolled up. That's what makes him believe something about that makes John, believe that Jesus really has resurrected.
And that particular fact, is analyzed in the catechism, the catechism of the Catholic Church. Normally doesn't do a lot of apologetic, sort of stuff, but it does in one part of the catechism, talked a lot about the fact that these Cloths of rolled up and we'll talk about that. When we look at the catechism sections, the last verse here is verse 9. It says, till this moment, they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture that he must rise from the dead.
Now, John would know this, Jordan would know that the apostles hadn't understood. The Prophecies of scripture since he himself is one of the Apostles and he's the author who's writing this. So, John here, says that there's Parts when he says scripture, that means the Old Testament. So there's parts of the Old Testament, which apparently teach that the Messiah must rise from the dead.
Now, it's interesting that John says that because there's no specific really clear prophecies in the Old Testament, which say the Messiah is going to rise from the dead. There's nothing super clear about that and that's probably why the disciples didn't realize it straight away. So the disciple of do know the Old Testament but They don't perceive the meaning of some of these obscure prophecies perhaps in the Book of Daniel and Isaiah until Jesus is resurrected.
And then they realize that the Old Testament has been prophesying that the Messiah would resurrect. And in fact later if you read on the disciples, understand even more when they're enlightened by the Holy Spirit, Now there is one more verse that finishes this section which is verse 10. That's not included in today's election Airy but it's a versatile. Never actually read in the lectionary. So we'll finish off with verse
10 today. So verse 10 just says, then the disciples went back to their homes. So basically Peter and John after they've seen all this they go home, they're probably still a bit confused. Now, later in the day, Jesus would appear again to all of the disciples. But Peter and John for now they
go home. So it's just Just Mary Magdalene that's left at the tomb and that leads into what happens next and you can hear that next section that focuses on Mary Magdalene on the Feast of Mary Magdalene every year and it's also on Easter Tuesday a couple of days after this Easter Sunday reading. So that's our joyful text for today from John chapter 20. Let's have a look at where this appears in the catechism. So firstly in paragraph, 2 174,
that's in the section. We've been looking at a bit over the last few days in this podcast. So there's a commentary there on what the significance is of the fact that Jesus rose on the first day of the week. So that's in paragraph, 2, 174 on. I'll include that in the show notes. The one, which is most relevant for us. Today is paragraph. To e which is part of the discussion about the empty tomb where the Catholic church. And the catechism here, really tells us what to make of all
this business about the cloths. So paragraph 640 says, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen the first element. We encounter in the framework of the Easter events is the empty
tomb in itself. It is not a direct proof of the Resurrection, the absence of, Christ's body from the tomb could be explained otherwise nonetheless the empty tomb was still an essential sign for all its Discovery by the disciples was the first step towards recognizing the very fact of the Resurrection this was the case first with the Holy Women and then with Peter, The disciple whom Jesus loved affirmed that when he entered the empty tomb and discovered the linen cloths
lying there he saw and believed this suggests that he realized from the empty tombs condition that the absence of Jesus body could not have been of human doing.
And the Jesus had not simply return to Earthly life as had been the case with Lazarus. So it really striking paragraph and it covers all the things we've talked about today, the fact that they see the cloths rolled up in that way, suggest to Peter and John firstly that his body hasn't been stolen and secondly that his Jesus resurrection is not like Lazarus as Resurrection. So we have an apologetic argument here that the catechism is building towards to show that
the resurrection did really happen. And then we also have paragraph 515 in the section about Christ's whole life is Mystery. And it says, from the swaddling cloths of his birth, to the vinegar of his passion and the shroud of his resurrection, everything in Jesus life was a sign of his mystery, his deeds Miracles and words, all revealed that in him, the fullness of deity, dwells bodily and the
goes on from there. So, the catechism there sees a similarity between the clothes, a trap Jesus. When he was a baby and the clothes that wrapped the cloths or up, Jesus, when He was buried and of course this is where we get the Traditions about the Shroud of Turin from and the theory is that these cloths which John saw when he poked his head into the tomb on this day, one of them was the Shroud which is now being preserved, so that's worth looking into as well. That's the end of today's
podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Please keep this ministry in your prayers and I hope you have a really good Easter. We'll see you again tomorrow. That's the end of today's podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Please keep this ministry in your prayers and I hope you have a really good Easter. We'll see you again tomorrow.