Mary went as early as she could to the tomb. She was not alone, as the other Gospels tell us. These women took spices with them to anoint the body of their beloved Lord, and to honour him. Here is a demonstration of love. This is how love for Jesus reveals itself. Love wants to do all that it can to serve its Lord. Like all who love Jesus, Mary of Magdala loved much because she appreciated how much she had been loved by Jesus. The Christian is one who has great love for Jesus. What is the source of this love? It is a deep sense of being loved by Jesus, which stems from a full appreciation of how much Jesus has done for us to save us from our sins, specially as we know our sin and unworthiness.

Great has been the efforts of the world and Satan to rubbish the fact that Jesus rose from death. Satan knows that if he can make the denial of the resurrection of Jesus credible, he has won the battle. Christ risen is the corner stone of our faith. All would be lost if the rising of Jesus from death could be proved to be false. This simple narrative, the history of the empty tomb, makes any idea that Jesus did not rise to life, a complete denial of the truth.

The first assault on the fact of the resurrection of Jesus came from the Jewish authorities. We read it in Matthew’s Gospel chapter 28, and verses 11-15. It is the lie that the disciples of Jesus stole the body of Jesus to bolster a story of resurrection. This lie has occurred again and again in history. The account of the empty tomb given here by John shows one thing clearly - it shows how unprepared the disciples and the women were when they found the tomb empty. They never thought of such a thing. There would have been no such surprise if they had stolen the body. The woman plainly thought the body of Jesus had been stolen by someone else. This shows that they had no thought of resurrection, and had resigned themselves to Jesus being gone for ever. This is amazing because Jesus had told them several times he would rise from the dead; but it does confirm that the disciples did not steal the body to pretend he had risen. The fact that the women came with spices to anoint a dead body, proves they expected to see the dead body of Jesus.

What is so wonderful is the unshakableness of the historical truth that Jesus rose from the dead. There is another assurance in these verses before us. It is in the grave clothes. They had been removed from the body. The head piece folded separately from the rest. Nobody stealing the body would have done this. If Jesus had only fainted on the cross and revived in the tomb, in no way could he have freed himself of the grace clothes. It is impossible to imagine that Joseph and Nicodemus would have not have noticed Jesus was still alive when they went to bury him, if he had only fainted on the cross. No! Jesus rose from the dead after he had truly died, and it was the power of God which raised him, and God declared by this act that Jesus had brought life and immortality back, and death was finally defeated in Jesus.

The other disciple, which most understand to be John himself, went into the tomb, and we are told “he saw and believed”. What did he believe by seeing the tomb empty, and the grave clothes discarded? From the comment which follows that the disciples still did not understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead, we can assume that this disciple had at last begun to understand and believe Jesus had risen. There is a powerful symbolism in the discarded grave clothes. They speak of grave clothes becoming redundant and unnecessary, because death was no more and ended.

The disciples slowness to believe the truth that Jesus had risen illustrates how difficult faith is to maintain. None would believe unto salvation if faith was not a gift of God, given in sovereign grace. But after possessing faith, the strengthening and maintaining of faith is not always easy. Satan assaults our faith in all sorts of ways, whether it is our assurance of salvation, or whether it is some problem concerning creation or God’s providence, or whether it is one of the many areas which we live by faith. The resurrection of Jesus is our firm anchor for faith. It is the pivot point and foundation of faith. I have found the fact of the resurrection the place I can return to when faith is shaken, and by God’s grace and power build faith again. Everything else in religion can be built from the fact of the resurrection. On it hangs the existence of God, the mercy, grace and love of God. Wherever my faith is faltering, I can return to the resurrection of Jesus and see truth built up to assurance.

Notice lastly, that the resurrection of Jesus was always at the centre of God’s plan and therefore sure. It was always and constantly foretold in Scripture.