Yesterday we began to think together about people Jesus encountered after his resurrection.

We know that John was among them and I want to think about him today. But I want to go back a little in time to the garden where Jesus had been buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

You remember that when Mary Magdalene told Peter and John that the body of Jesus had been moved,

they both ran to the garden.

And there's a delightful little human touch in John's Gospel at this point.

John tells us he beat Peter there.

And he looked in and saw the linen grave cloths.

And Peter, who is always mentioned first in the gospel stories, came second in the race.

But still, he was first to go right into the tomb, perhaps breathlessly running past his friend.

And it seems he saw something that John hadn't at first noticed.

He saw the linen cloths lying there.

Those same words are used to describe what John had seen, but then Peter saw something

else and the face cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths,

but folded up in a place by itself.

Did Peter say something to John?

Or stay in the tomb, staring, or come out to let John in?

Well, we don't know what Peter did, but we do know what John did when he went in.

It's at this point that John's Gospel makes the comment, and he saw and believed.

But he had seen before.

Why did he only believe now?

Why was that? John says they didn't yet understand the scriptures that said

Jesus would rise from the dead. Up to this point, they hadn't fully understood the prophecies

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