Stooping and looking in, he (John) saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in

 Good morning. So Mary ran and came to Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved (John), and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we (there’s that “we” that indicates someone in addition to Mary was there) do not know where they have laid Him. So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together; and the other disciple ran faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. John was supposed to be one of, if not the youngest of the disciples, and of course he ran faster than the old dude. Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. In a few verses it will also mention that Mary stooped and looked into the tomb. We have this image of a huge opening and enormous stone in front of the opening. You should not have to stoop to look into the tomb if that were so. Remember that the tomb was carved out of stone; so the larger the tomb and opening, the greater the effort would’ve been to create it. Now it could have been much larger inside than the opening was, but remember that people were not going to be spending a lot of time inside – it didn’t need to be huge. In addition to the linen wrappings, John saw the face cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. That last part is amazing. If someone had stolen Jesus‘s body, they would not have been concerned about not leaving a mess. It would even seem unusual that Jesus, having just risen from the dead after three days, would taken the time to neatly roll it up by itself. If Jesus had not actually been dead but just passed out, He would not have done it either. Besides, the stone was over the opening and it would’ve been dark. His main concern would’ve been to get out. Father thank You that the tomb is empty! Jesus completely trusted You to raise Him from the dead; and so we should also trust You that You will raise us from the dead one day!

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