Jesus's body was placed in a borrowed tomb before dusk on Friday evening. He had died around 3pm that day. Saturday was the sabbath, so his body laid there untouched and guarded in a sealed tomb so no one could have entered. Sunday morning just before dawn, Jesus rose from the dead and exited that sealed tomb.
When he rose and unsealed the tomb, he changed all the supernatural laws as people knew them. We all die, but our eternal death options had changed. Jesus' actual death caused some amazing supernatural things to happen, but his resurrection changed everything. Jesus' death was only the beginning, never the end.
The people closest to Jesus still had not put the pieces together. Their grief was too great to think straight. When the women arrived at the tomb before dawn on Sunday to finish caring for Jesus' body they found it empty. They could not grasp all the possibilities of what could have happened to the body. Did they go to the wrong tomb? No, there are the guards laying on the ground. Does that mean someone stole his body? I am sure that they had many thoughts, but him rising from the dead was not one of them.
When the women entered the tomb they found him funeral clothes folded where his head had laid. When they encountered him, they believed but they still did not understand. As Mary wept, she saw two angels. The first encounter with the resurrected Jesus, she thought he was a gardener. She asked him to bring Jesus' body back. When he spoke her name, she knew the gardener was actually Jesus. The fact that Jesus chose to appear first to women is remarkable. Women were not treated with respect in that time, so it showed just how much he loves and respects women.
The first day of Jesus' resurrection was chaos. That is why the stories overlap. To many things happened and emotions were running on overload. Time lines get confused, but it all still happened.
The women went to the apostles to tell them the good news. The apostles had not been with the women because they were in hiding. They still were afraid for their own lives and in mourning. They were hiding, but they were still together. Like Jesus said, they would never be alone, but it was a miserable atmosphere until the women changed everything.
All of a sudden they had hope again. Peter and John immediately took off for the tomb. They had to see for themselves. It also gave them time to deal with this information while actually doing something. Peter arrived just before John and entered the tomb to find it just as the women had. They had not touched anything. They still didn't understand what had happened.
Jesus appeared when most of them were together in a room. He appeared in a locked room. He said "peace be with you", so they could not have a heart attack or something similar. His words spoke the reality of peace into them. He breathed the Holy Spirit into them, just like God breathed life into Adam. He gave them a new life, a new supernatural life. He also commissioned them with the life long task of telling the world he is alive. Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Thomas was not present, so when they told him what happened, he did not believe. I don't think that he didn't want to, but he was a realist. That doesn't happen. Plus, if he believed and then found out it was a hoax, then it would destroy him. He rather play it safe and keep himself together emotionally and mentally. In his mind they had to have seen a ghost.
A week later, Jesus appeared to the apostles for the second time in a locked room. Jesus could not stay with the apostles like he did before the crucifixion. His time of teaching was more or less over. He now had to be seen and experienced by other people. He only had 40 days to reach as many people as he could. This time when Jesus arrived, Thomas was there. This time he believed after being called out as doubting Thomas by Jesus. Jesus said those that believe without seeing are more blessed than those that have to have proof.
Jesus continued to perform miracles and be the miracle. Many were never recorded because there were just too many. If we focus on the miracles, then we may forget the real reason why Jesus came: salvation. It was all done so that we can have faith. The truth has been laid out for all to see.
John 20
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