The Quiet Before Everything Changed

6 Apr

John 19:38-20:10

"He's Still Dead. Sorry. I'm Done."

As a kid who didn't grow up going to church, Brayden remembers asking his mum: "Which one is the one where we get chocolate? Oh, Sunday. Well, why is it called Good Friday if we get the chocolate on Sunday?"

Even more annoying: waking up Saturday going, "Okay, we've done the Friday bit. Chocolate? No? A whole other day?! You're telling me I still don't get anything?!"

It's hard not to treat Easter Saturday like the filler episode. The monster-of-the-week before the series finale.

But Easter Saturday isn't filler.

We sit with anticipation for Easter Sunday, as we should. But we need to remember: For the disciples, this moment isn't filled with anticipation. It's filled with devastation.

For them, the story's over.

Big Moments Happen in the Quiet

Life tends to happen like this. The moments that seem big and significant are often very quiet at the time. Or they just fly by.

Brayden remembers building up Christmas as a kid, then getting to Christmas Day and it was great, but still a regular day. His birthday: exciting all year, but again, just a regular day.

Recently, his wife was induced to give birth to their daughter. He had this weird moment where he had to go home overnight. All this anticipation as he sat in bed alone: "Okay, I need to go back to the hospital."

He woke at 5:00 am to get to the hospital by 6:00 am. Driving there, trying to distract himself with thoughts of getting all-day parking around Sutherland Hospital (a miracle in itself). All this anticipation, excitement, chaos; but everyone else around him was just going to work.

Big things feel like they're happening, but they actually happen in the quiet.

Quiet conversations. Decisions made in rooms with only a few people present. Moments that pass unnoticed by the world. We might not even notice them at the time, but later we realise: Everything changed there.

The Greatest Moment in Human History Begins Quietly

A garden. A tomb. A few confused followers trying to make sense of what happened.

Days before, Jerusalem had been alive. There'd been hope and expectation. Jesus had entered the city to crowds shouting "Hosanna!" People wondered if this might be the moment God would finally act.

But everything unravelled.

Jesus has been betrayed, arrested, tried, and crucified. From a human perspective, the story appears to end in defeat. The one claiming to bring life has been executed by Rome.

John 19 and 20 sit right at the turning point of John's Gospel, right at the turning point of human history.

It begins with the burial of Jesus, confirming He's truly dead. Then moves to the discovery of an empty tomb on the first day of the week.

The story of Jesus, and the story of the world changing, begins quietly. John tells this story carefully, slowly, inviting us to see three crucial truths.

Truth #1: Jesus Really Died

John begins with the burial. It's easy to skip past this because we know what happens next. But John slows down. He wants us to see everything clearly.

Jesus was not merely unconscious. He didn't just faint. He didn't somehow survive. Jesus died.

Verse 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."

Joseph of Arimathea is an unexpected character. He's not one of the 12 disciples. He was actually part of the Jewish council—, the same group that pushed for Jesus' execution. Yet John tells us he was a disciple. Secretly. He believed in Jesus, but quietly.

But now, after the crucifixion, something changes. Joseph steps forward. He goes to Pilate and asks for the body. This request would have taken great courage. Crucifixion victims were usually left exposed on crosses or thrown in common graves. But Joseph risks his position to give Jesus a proper burial.

And Joseph isn't alone.

Verse 39: "He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night."

Nicodemus, a Pharisee. Back in John 3, he came to Jesus at night asking questions about the kingdom of God. Now he appears again, this time not coming quietly in the dark.

Nicodemus brought "a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds." That's an enormous amount. About 35 kilos. This is the kind of honour normally given to a king.

There's beautiful irony here: Jesus is still fulfilling prophecies even through unexpected disciples. While Jesus was alive, many hesitated to follow Him publicly. But now in death, these two men step forward and honor Him with courage.

The public disciples have fled. But the secret disciples become courageous. God uses the quiet, the cautious, to step up and become bold.

Joseph and Nicodemus take the body and wrap it with spices and strips of linen according to Jewish burial customs. They place Him in a nearby tomb where no one has been laid.

John includes these details for a reason: Jesus was truly dead. The burial was public, witnessed. The body was wrapped and placed in a tomb. A stone was rolled over the entrance.

This matters. If Jesus did not truly die, the resurrection is meaningless.

Truth #2: The Tomb Really Was Empty

John 20:1: "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb."

Mary had been one of Jesus' devoted followers. She witnessed the crucifixion. She saw where Jesus was buried. Now she returns, perhaps to mourn, perhaps to finish burial customs.

But when she arrives, something is wrong. The stone has been moved.

Immediately Mary runs to Peter and John. "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put him." The assumption is grave robbery. Not resurrection.

This detail is important. The first followers of Jesus weren't expecting a resurrection. They were confused, grieving, trying to make sense of what happened.

Peter and John run to the tomb. John adds a wonderfully human detail: "Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first." Not a humble brag, but he had to throw that in there, didn't he? We can picture the scene—two men in the early morning, running in the dark, breathing hard, trying to understand what Mary said.

John arrives first. He bends down to look inside. Verse 5: "He saw the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in."

Then Peter arrives. Peter being Peter walks straight into the tomb. (Peter's that mate who walks into your house and starts eating stuff out of your fridge.)

Inside, verse 6: "He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen."

John is being very specific here. The head cloth is folded, lying separately.

These details are fascinating. If someone had stolen the body, they wouldn't have stopped to unwrap it and neatly arrange the burial clothes. Grave robbing would be hurried, chaotic, smash and grab whatever's valuable, leave the rest.

Why leave these things and take the body?

The scene inside the tomb isn't chaotic. It's orderly. The linen wrapping is there. The body is gone.

And at that moment, something clicks.

Verse 8: "Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed."

Something begins to shift. The evidence points to something extraordinary.

But verse 9 reminds us: "They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead."

Faith begins here: in the tension between confusion and belief.

They believe something has happened, but they don't fully understand what it means yet. In other words, their belief comes before full understanding.

This is a very human moment. Faith begins not with perfect understanding, but with the realization that the evidence points toward something extraordinary.

Truth #3: The Resurrection Transforms Everything

John leaves us with a question: The tomb is empty. Why?

History offers possibilities: The body was stolen? Doesn't explain the grave clothes. Why unwrap the body nicely and leave everything folded?

The disciples invented the story? The disciples in this story are confused and afraid. They're not bold conspirators. They're not organized. And there's the striking detail that the first witness is Mary Magdalene: a woman whose testimony wasn't highly valued in the first century. If you're inventing a story to make it believable, that's not the detail you include.

The simplest explanation: Jesus rose from the dead. And if that's true, we get the great reversal. Everything changes.

The cross wasn't defeat, it was victory. Our sin is dealt with. The brokenness of humanity, our rebellion against God, has been confronted and overcome.

The resurrection means death itself has been defeated.

Easter declares that death does not have the final word. Jesus walked out of the tomb alive.

If Jesus is alive, the story of the whole world has changed.

Hope is no longer wishful thinking. It's reality.

New Life Is Possible

The resurrection isn't just something that happened to Jesus. It's something that happens to us.

People who encounter the risen Christ are transformed. We see glimpses already: The fearful disciples becoming courageous witnesses. The power of the resurrection is already changing the world.