John 20: Eternal Life, a Living Relationship With God

Introduction

Chihiro Kinoshita, pastor of Kibougaoka Christian Church in Kumejima, Okinawa, is almost at the end of the Gospel of John. Chapter 20 tells of the resurrection, and chapter 21 of the meeting with the disciples in Galilee. After that will come Acts, then the epistles, and finally Revelation: "we still have a few more years ahead of us," he says with a smile.

In this account of the resurrection, he focuses on one theme: the eternal life that Jesus Christ gives. The chapter falls into two main parts. Verses 1 to 18 tell of the morning, when the risen Lord shows himself to the women. From verse 19 on, it is the evening of the same day, and then eight days later: he shows himself to the disciples.

All through the text, the pastor keeps coming back to one conviction: believing is not enough to stand firm. Faith needs to be connected to the Word by the Holy Spirit to become certainty, and eternal life is not an idea but a living relationship with God.

Outline of the Message

1. The Morning of the First Day: An Empty Tomb Like No Other

"Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark" (verse 1). For a Japanese person, the week starts on Monday. But in Hebrew, Sunday is called "the first day," Monday "the second day," and so on. More precisely, the first day runs from sunset on Saturday to sunset on Sunday.
The pastor shows how he prepared this message: he keeps his Bible open with clips at Luke 24, Mark 16 and Matthew 28, so he can move from one account to another. The Gospels tell the same events from different angles. Read carefully, they complete each other and the story "holds together."
Luke points out that other women were with Mary. In verse 2, in fact, she says "we don't know." Yet John chooses to put Mary Magdalene in the foreground, because the risen Lord will appear to her first. According to Matthew, an angel had rolled away the stone and there had been a great earthquake.
Mary does not announce the resurrection to the disciples. She says: "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb." Like the others, she was not expecting Jesus to rise on the third day.
Peter and the other disciple, probably John, run to the tomb. John gets there first: "Did he really have to write that down? Did he want it to stay on record for eternity?" the pastor jokes. John stoops to look in without going inside. Peter, for his part, goes in without hesitating. You can recognize their characters.
They see the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on his head rolled up in a place by itself. This is not a body that was carried off with the cloths thrown aside. The cloths stayed in their shape, as if the body had vanished from within. Then the disciple "saw, and believed" (verse 8).

2. Seeing and Believing Is Not Enough: Connecting Faith to the Word

What did they believe? Probably that Mary was telling the truth, and probably also that Jesus had risen, or at least they were beginning to believe it. Yet verse 9 adds: "For as yet they didn't know the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead."
The pastor distinguishes two Greek words. Ginosko means to know by experience, as in Paul's prayer that the Ephesians would know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge (Ephesians 3:19). Oida, the word in verse 9, means to understand intuitively and objectively: "Ah, so that's it!" The dots connect. It is a knowledge that leaves no room for doubt.
The disciples had seen and believed, but what they saw was not yet connected to God's promise in Scripture.
Faith believes without seeing. It grows through experience, but it also needs that moment when you say to yourself: "What I am living right now is exactly what the Word says." That the Spirit is given to us, that Jesus helps us in distress, that the Spirit gives us strength to follow Jesus even when facing a difficult person.
Without studying the Word, faith stays vague: "we tell ourselves it must be true, and leave it at that." If you believe without reading the Bible or going where it is explained, your faith struggles to grow because it is too poorly fed. Reading alone is important but not enough: that is why fellowship and studying together are necessary.
This process does not depend on our intellectual abilities: it is the Holy Spirit who connects the Word to our lives and turns faith into certainty.

3. Mary Magdalene: Jesus Shows Himself to the One Who Needs Him Most

Mary weeps near the tomb. She sees two angels in white and speaks to them as she would to anyone: "Who talks normally with angels?" She is so shaken by the missing body that the supernatural no longer even reaches her.
She turns around, sees Jesus, and takes him for the gardener. She even offers to carry the body away herself, though a woman alone could not lift it. She is completely lost.
Jesus simply says: "Mary!" He calls her by name. She answers: "Rabboni!", which means "my teacher."
Mark 16:9 confirms it: the risen Lord appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. Being under the grip of even one demon already makes it impossible to live in society. The pastor compares: today, such a person would be shut away in a closed ward, on medication, unable to hold a conversation, with medicine able to do nothing for her, since her illness was spiritual. Her neighbors feared her and pointed at her. She was no longer treated as a human being.
The risen Lord could choose whom to appear to: Peter, the disciple he loved. He showed himself to Mary, probably the most panicked of them all. "Jesus Christ reveals himself to the one who needs him most, to the one who calls on him with all her heart."
In society, you are treated well according to what you are worth and what you do. With Jesus it is different: no one is worthy to receive his help, his comfort and his love, and yet he gave his life for us. "If you look for the reason in yourself, you will never reach him." What you need is to believe that he is full of compassion and grace.

4. "My Brothers": Grace for Disciples Who Ran Away

Jesus sends Mary: "Go to my brothers, and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’" (verse 17). Mary goes to announce: "I have seen the Lord."
The pastor pauses on two words: "my brothers." These disciples had abandoned him. Peter had denied him three times. They no longer remembered the promise of the resurrection, or else they doubted it.
Jesus does not call them "you people." Those who left him alone, who denied him and who tremble before the Jews, he calls "my brothers."
Like Mary, we are declared righteous before God by faith. Not by our good works, not because we would be worthy: God counts as righteous the faith that believes in his love and grace, even though we do not deserve it.

5. "Peace Be to You": The Peace of Being Forgiven

When evening comes, the disciples are shut in for fear of the Jews. Peter and probably John had nevertheless seen the empty tomb and believed. They are still afraid, because their faith has not yet become certainty. Faith and fear are opposites.
Jesus appears among them, though the doors are locked. His glorified body is not subject to physical limits. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul reports that he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once. This is not a body that was simply revived.
The risen Lord's first word is not a reproach. It is shalom: "Peace be to you!" The pastor explains that this word speaks of fullness, peace, and even "it is settled, it is paid." Jesus does not blame them and does not abandon them.
What they need most at that moment is neither Bible explanations nor strength: it is peace. The peace of knowing they are forgiven, welcomed as brothers despite their failure.
When we are afraid, it is often because we have not obeyed, we have sinned, and we tell ourselves "with who I am…". Without this peace, reading the Bible and praying ring false, and we end up condemning ourselves. What we need then is to receive the peace of being forgiven in Jesus Christ.
Jesus shows them his hands and his side. His glorified body will never age, and yet it keeps the marks of the nails and the spear. When we see him, we will see those scars, and each time we will tell ourselves: "It is thanks to him, because he was wounded and died, that I am here."
"Jesus does not stand there with his arms crossed, shaking his head: ‘You again, Chihiro?’" He shows you his pierced hands and his side: "You didn't manage? I knew it. I bore the punishment for that sin. Look at me and believe. Come to me, and I will give you rest."

6. Sent by the Breath of the Spirit

Jesus repeats: "Peace be to you! As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." Then he breathes on them: "Receive the Holy Spirit" (verses 21-22).
The first peace answered their fear. The second concerns their relationship with God. Without peace with Jesus, being sent is impossible: how can you say "your sins are forgiven" if you have not received that forgiveness? How can you speak of eternal life if you do not taste this peace and joy in the middle of your difficult days?
In Hebrew, the word ruach means both breath and spirit. God breathed into man's nostrils and he became a living being (Genesis 2:7). He created the animals by his word, but man alone by his breath. If the one who created the world breathes on the disciples, they cannot fail to receive the Spirit.
Until then, the disciples followed Jesus out of feeling, a sense of justice, admiration, enthusiasm. That leads to failure. From now on, they will follow him by the Spirit. This is what being born again means: dying to the life that relies on our own strength, our duty or our guilt, in order to live for God by the Holy Spirit.
You received the Spirit when you believed. But without fellowship with him, he cannot lead you: prayer, meditating on the Word ("What do you want to tell me through this passage?"), gatherings of believers where the Spirit who lives in each of us encourages us.
Forgiving or retaining sins (verse 23) does not mean "I don't love you, your sin will not be forgiven." It is the authority to discern, by the Spirit, whether a person has truly believed in Jesus Christ or whether their faith is only apparent.

7. Thomas, Faith Without Seeing and Life in His Name

Thomas, called Didymus, meaning "twin," was absent. Some think he looked like Jesus, but we do not know. He rejects the testimony of the others: "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails […] I will not believe."
Yet he had a privilege: believing without seeing. He hardened his heart. Believing or not believing is a choice that is given to us as well.
Eight days later, Jesus comes back: "Reach your finger here […] and don't be unbelieving, but believing." It is a grace for Thomas. Without this appearance, he would have stayed in unbelief. Jesus wants the same for you: that you believe with certainty, the Word and your faith firmly connected by the Spirit.
For a whole week, the others had joy and peace. Thomas did not receive them. "Not believing is a waste": it is refusing the help and blessing that God wants to give you.
Thomas cries out: "My Lord and my God!" Jesus does not correct him. Then he adds: "Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed!" We are among them. The disciples had Jesus at their side. We do not see him: our faith needs all the more to be connected to the Word by the Spirit. And the Spirit is given to those who ask.
Then 1 Peter 1:8-9 comes true: you love him without having seen him, you rejoice "with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory." "Are you dancing for joy?" asks the pastor. Even in a busy life, in Kumejima as anywhere else, God wants to give you those moments when you understand: "I am loved this much, he welcomed me, he made me his child."
John did not write everything (John 21:25). He chose these accounts "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in his name" (verse 31). This life is eternal life: a living relationship with God, concrete and practical, that changes the way you think and the way you receive events.
The pastor admits: "If you ask me whether it is already this concrete in my life, I have to answer no." There is still more to know, and for eternity. Eternal life is not reduced to "I received eternal life, I will rise after my death": it is far more concrete. As Jesus rose, we will rise; as he lives forever, we will live forever. And the power that raised Jesus is at work in us so that we die to the flesh and live for God by the Spirit. Jesus' resurrection is the guarantee of it.

Key Takeaways

Seeing and believing is not enough: faith becomes certainty when the Holy Spirit connects it to the Word. Hence the need to study the Bible, alone and together.
The risen Jesus showed himself first to Mary Magdalene. He comes to those who need him, without waiting for them to be worthy.
The risen Lord's first word to his disciples who had abandoned him is not a reproach but "peace be to you." He calls them "my brothers."
We do not follow Jesus lastingly out of duty or enthusiasm, but by the Holy Spirit whom he breathed on his disciples.
Eternal life is not an abstract idea: it is a living, concrete relationship with God, founded on Jesus' resurrection.

Personal Application

Is your faith fed by the Word, or does it remain a vague impression that "it must be true"?
Do you look within yourself for a reason to be worthy before asking Jesus for help?
Have you received the peace of being forgiven, or do fear and guilt make your prayer and Bible reading heavy?
Do you follow Jesus out of duty, moral sense or the impulse of the moment, or through fellowship with the Holy Spirit?
Is eternal life for you a concrete relationship with God in your days, or only a promise for after death?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does John 20:9 say the disciples did not yet understand the Scripture?

Peter and John saw the empty tomb and believed, but what they saw was not yet connected to the promise of Scripture. The Greek word used, oida, refers to an intuitive and objective understanding, when the dots connect. For Chihiro Kinoshita, faith becomes certainty when the Holy Spirit connects the Word to what we live.

Why did the risen Jesus appear first to Mary Magdalene?

Mary Magdalene had been possessed by seven demons and rejected by those around her. Jesus could have shown himself first to Peter or John. He showed himself to her, the one most shaken by the absence of his body. The preacher draws this from it: Jesus reveals himself to those who need him most, without requiring them to be worthy.

What is eternal life according to John 20?

John 20:31 explains that these things were written so that you may believe and that, believing, you may have life in his name. For Chihiro Kinoshita, eternal life is not an abstract idea: it is a living, concrete and practical relationship with God, founded on Jesus' resurrection and lived each day through the Holy Spirit.