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PROGRAM D-8338
For many years, I’ve been privileged to lead groups on a visit to Israel, the Holy Land. We’re going again this year in November and we’d love for you to join us.
The highlight of those ten days in Israel is the last day when we visit a site in Jerusalem that could well be the place where Jesus was crucified. There is a garden there next to it with an ancient tomb which dates back to the time of Jesus. There is much evidence to believe that this could be the garden where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took the body of Jesus and placed it in that tomb.
Each of us goes into that tomb and comes back out, always with this word on our lips: “It is empty; he is risen!” I always imagine what it must have been like for Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John as they discovered that empty tomb. In John 20 we read that Simon Peter went into the tomb where he saw the strips of linen lying there, “as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen” (John 20:7).
It’s an interesting little detail that John gives us, and you might wonder why he made sure it was recorded that the cloth was folded up by itself. In order to understand this, you must understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day. The folded napkin had to do with the master and servant, and every Jewish person knew this tradition. When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it. The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait just out of sight, until the master had finished eating. The servant would not dare touch that table until the master was finished.
When he finished, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table. The servant would then know to clear the table for, in those days, the wadded napkin meant, “I’m done.” But if the master got up from the table, folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table because the servant knew that the folded napkin meant, “I’m not finished yet.” The folded napkin meant, “I’m coming back!”
John is careful to record that the napkin was folded, because he knew that it would be very meaningful to the disciples! He’s coming back! He’s not dead; he’s alive!
You and I need to be just as thrilled and excited as Peter, John, and Mary Magdalene were the day they walked into that empty tomb. Celebrate it like never before this Easter.
