The Empty Tomb
What kind of faith does the risen Jesus create?
John does not argue you into the resurrection — he shows the risen Jesus meeting four people in four different ways, and then tells you plainly, in the last two verses, that the fourth person is you.
This chapter reads John 20 slowly — the whole resurrection morning and the week that follows. You will watch four people arrive at faith in four different ways: a disciple who believed at the sight of folded grave cloths, a woman who recognized Jesus when he said her name, a man who refused to believe on anyone else’s report, and finally you, the reader, whom John addresses directly in his last two verses.
- 01
Retell John 20 in order and say what kind of faith each scene produces — the runner’s, Mary’s, Thomas’s, and the reader’s.
- 02
Quote John 20:30–31 accurately and show three places earlier in the Gospel where John was already doing what those verses claim.
- 03
Explain fairly why careful readers disagree about “believed” in verse 8, “do not hold me” in verse 17, and the blessing in verse 29.
- 01
Running to the tomb
John begins the resurrection with confusion, running, and a wrong conclusion, and the first believing in the chapter happens with no appearance of Jesus at all — only an empty tomb and a folded cloth.
- 02
Called by name
Mary stays at the tomb after everyone else has gone home, and the risen Jesus reveals himself to her not by an argument or a display but by saying a single word — her name.
- 03
Thomas and the biggest confession
The risen Jesus comes through locked doors to frightened people, shows them his wounds, sends them out, and a week later gives the man who missed it exactly what he asked for, without a word of shaming.
- 04
So that you may believe
John stops the story to tell you why he wrote it, and once you have read verses 30 and 31 you can look back and watch the whole book doing exactly what he says it is doing.