·         Jesus Face Cloth in the Empty Tomb

        It is significant that John 20.7 pays particular attention to fact that when Peter and John raced to the empty tomb on that first Easter morning they found the cloth used to cover Jesus' face in burial, carefully folded folded and left aside.   A friend asked me what are we to make of this fact?  Here is my reply:

• Two men saw it – Peter and John – which would make the fact admissible in a Jewish court
• Some scholars have suggested that the scripture implies that Jesus’ resurrection body simply passed through the cloth – as if He were a ghost, leaving the cloth folded.  However that is saying more than the scripture warrants. Also, why would the facecloth be left when the body cloths were left separately?  It doesn’t make too much sense.
• The best explanation is that the scene the disciple discovered was an orderly scene, not a chaotic scene.  What is the significance of this?
• If grave robbers had stolen the body of Christ, they would either have taken the body still wrapped – in which case there would be no cloths left or
• They would have cast the cloths aside to steal the naked body
• In no case would they have paused to take the time to carefully fold the face cloth up
• The suggestion is that the grave was empty – but not because of grave robbers
• Most powerfully the scene is contrasted with John 11.4 – the raising of Lazarus – when Lazarus came out of the grave still wrapped in cloth – so that others had to unwrap his body.  The clear implication is that Jesus was raised from the dead, had time to unwrap Himself (or be unwrapped by angels?) and left the tomb in an orderly fashion. 
• Personally, I can imagine Him being touched by the care that His buriers had taken to wrap His body – a loving act – and Jesus wanted to reciprocate that little token of love.