THROUGH THE BIBLE IN THREE YEARS
When one is over 60, how can he/she avoid seeing wrinkles every time he/she is passing a mirror?
The next time you're passing a mirror, take off your glasses!
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________SCRIPTURE____________________________________________________________________
John 20:1-7
1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
2 Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
3 Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.
4 So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.
5 And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.
6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,
7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
KJV
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_______THOUGHT______________________________________________________________________
A friend of mine sent an e-mail yesterday concerning the "napkin" which was folded and left in the tomb of Jesus (John 20:7). That e-mail spurred my mind to thinking about other significant factors concerning the "napkin."
First, as the e-mail stated, the "napkin" might have symbolized the napkin used by a person at the dinner table. If the person had servants, they would know that if the master left the table, and the napkin was crumpled up, he was finished. He had wiped his mouth and hands, and was not coming back to the table. But if the napkin was folded, it meant that the master was returning to the table!!
Jesus IS coming back!
Second, the folded napkin showed a deliberate, time-taking act. Mary had indicated in John 20:2 that Jesus' body might have been stolen. Perhaps she thought the Romans or the Jewish Sanhedrin had stolen Jesus' body away during the night. However, if that had been the case, the napkin and the graveclothes would have been askew from haste. This fact being known, helps to dispell the rumor later circulated by the Jews that the disciples had stolen Jesus' body!
Third, the folded napkin and the graveclothes indicate a leaving of this physical life. Remember the story of Lazarus coming from the tomb when Jesus called? It says there that Lazarus exited "bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go." (John 11:44)
In 1Corinthians 15:42, Paul writes, "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:" Man cannot dispose of the corruption of the flesh by himself! We are "bound" by the graveclothes because of sin! The only way we can rise to a life of "righteousness" is if Christ says, "LOOSE HIM and let him go!"
Jesus took our sins upon Himself, "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;" (1Cor 15:3). That's the reason He died at Calvary. But Jesus also "by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;" (Heb 1:3).
Jesus "layed aside" the corruptions of the flesh for you and me.
He has said, "LOOSE HIM, and let him go!"
Let us live in the knowledge that when we die, before the corruption of the flesh takes place in our bodies, we will be raised to "incorruptible" by the Master!
Love ya,
Bruce