If This Is True: April 5, 2015

John 19:30-20:23 New International Version (NIV)

^30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

^31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. ^32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. ^33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ^34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. ^35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. ^36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”^{[a] 37Â} and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”^[b]

The Burial of Jesus

^38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. ^39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.^{[c] 40Â} Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. ^41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. ^42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

The Empty Tomb

20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalenewent 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 came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ^7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, 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.) ^10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

^11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ^12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

^13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” ^14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

^15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

^16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

^17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

^18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

^19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ^20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

^21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ^22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ^23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

New International Version (NIV)

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