John 20:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

When she came and told them this, the disciples, having heard her, hastened to the tomb and saw the linens lying there. This was a sign of the Resurrection. Notice here also how far the Evangelist is from boasting, and how he bears witness to Peter's careful investigation. He himself arrived before Peter and saw the linens lying there, yet investigated nothing further and withdrew. But the fervent Peter entered inside the tomb, examined everything carefully, and, seeing something more, invited him also to look.

Observe, if you will, the humility of the Evangelist, with which he bears witness to Peter's careful investigation. He himself came first, saw the linens lying there, and investigated nothing further, but waited for Peter.

Although they had not yet met Christ risen from the dead, they inferred the Resurrection from the gathered linens. At last they believed that He had broken even the bonds of death, which Holy Scripture had proclaimed of old. Therefore, having understood that the outcome of events occurred according to the true foretellings, they now receive the strongest faith.

Are we to suppose that this means nothing? I would not think so. But we hasten to other questions, on which we shall have to linger, because the need to understand them requires it, and because of a certain obscurity in them. To examine those things, asking what each signifies, which are obvious in themselves, is indeed a holy pleasure. Yet it is for those who are at leisure, and we are not such.

He who shares in the rest of God, which He appointed for our sake on the seventh day, also shares, by deification, in His activity for our sake on the eighth day, that is, in the mystical Resurrection. He left lying in the tomb the linen cloths and the napkin that had been on His head. Those who see these things, as Peter and John saw them, believe that the Lord has risen.

"And stooping down, he saw the linens lying there," that is, the burial linens. "Yet he did not enter," either because he was frightened, or because even this satisfied him.

"They both ran together; but the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first," yet he did not dare to enter it. But Peter came afterward and "went in." What, brethren, does this "running" mean? Should this account by so profound an Evangelist be thought to contain no mysteries? Certainly not. John would not have said that he both came first and did not enter, had he believed that there was no mystery in his very fear.

Yet even though he arrived earlier, he did not enter the tomb, but waited for the leader, so that, like a lamb, he might follow the shepherd. And this was exactly fitting. For it was said to Peter, "Peter, do you love Me? Then, if you will, feed My lambs" (Jn 21:15). To Peter it was said, "Blessed are you, Simon; I will give you the keys of the Kingdom" (Mt 16:19). To Peter He subjected the waves on which he had formerly walked, the Giver of resurrection to the fallen.

Frightened by this report, the Apostles ran to the cave. But John was younger and ran faster, and therefore arrived first. For some reason he was afraid to enter the cave alone, and so only looked into its opening and saw the linens lying there.

Stronger in legs than in courage, John only bent down toward the tomb, but did not enter it until Peter also arrived.

They both ran together, but John, being younger than Peter, ran faster. Therefore he reached the tomb before Peter, when the women were no longer there, but did not enter the tomb. Probably timidity and fearfulness, in the solitude of the garden and amid such extraordinary circumstances, took hold of his soul. Alone, he did not dare to enter the tomb, but only bent toward the opening from which the stone had been rolled away. There he saw the linen cloths lying.

Three testimonies to the Lord's Resurrection were given to the disciples Peter and John, so that, on their basis, they might rise on the wings of faith to understand the mystery accomplished. Mary Magdalene brings the news of the stone rolled away. They themselves see, first, the empty tomb. Second, they see the "garments," that is, the linen cloths, the napkin, and the shroud, not scattered in disorder, but laid in order; cf. Chrysostom, Homily 85 on John, pp. 507-508.

The garments lying inside, as it seems to me, at once become proof that the Body was not carried away by men, as Mary supposed. No one taking a body would leave the linen cloths behind. Nor would a thief remain until he had removed the linen cloths and risk being caught.

At that very moment they establish the fact of the body's resurrection from the dead. For God, who transforms the bodies of our humiliation so that they may be conformed to the body of Christ's glory, also transformed this Body into an organ, όργανον, of the power dwelling in Him, attaining to a certain greater divinity. He left the linen cloths as unnecessary and alien to the nature of this Body.