John 20:1-9
Strips of Linen
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
John 2:18-22
Jesus Will Rise After His Death
18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Mary Magdalene went to the tomb of Jesus after His death, and saw that the stone had been removed for the tomb's entrance...So she quickly ran to the disciples to tell them what she had just seen...Seeing Peter and John she told them that someone had taken the LORD out of the tomb, and she did not know where they had put His deceased Body...John and Peter ran to the tomb to see for themselves...John reached the tomb first, did not go in the tomb...But He did bend over and look and saw the strips of linen (that had been wrapped around Jesus' Body) just lying in the empty tomb...Peter went in the tomb and saw the strips of linen there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head...Many things were probably going through Peter and John's mind at this moment...They had been told by Mary Magdalene that someone had taken their LORD's body from the tomb...But as they saw the linen, that was wrapped around Him after His death, why was it still there in His tomb?...Why was the burial cloth that had been wrapped around His head removed and better yet, why was it folded?...
If Jesus' body had been taken away and moved by someone, why would those moving Him taken the time to unwrap the linen that was around His dead body?...Why would the ones moving His Body take the time to neatly fold His head shroud?...It must looked like Jesus disappeared into thin air...John, who had reached the tomb first, does go inside...He saw all these things inside the empty tomb and now it came to him...He believed...He understood now that Jesus had to rise from the dead...(However, Peter and John, at this time, still did not understand that the Messiah had to rise from the dead, according to Scripture)...Even without relating the empty tomb to Scriptures, John thought about what He was seeing and now believed...
John did not have to write that he could not relate Jesus' death on the cross and being raised from the dead with the Scriptures...This gives the Gospel of St. John more credibility...St. John wrote the Truth and about Truth...John believed the Truth, not because of Scripture, but on the evidence that he had seen in the tomb (plus all the things that Jesus had done while He was with the Twelve)...
Later, and probably as the events unfolded around Jesus in the next forty days, all the disciples would recall what He had said about being raised from the dead in three days....