The Epistle to the Hebrews part CCVII

John 20:7
"And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself."
In other words, meticulously folded in a place by itself. This wasn’t just some ramshackle casting off of these grave clothes. They were neatly folded and laid in order. We have to ask for what purpose? Because the Light means order and when things are placed and here folded and neatly arranged must mean something that is not to be over looked. But what is it? Remember the Light that surrounded and engulfed Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus? That Light was brighter than the noon day sun and what was it that Saul heard when he encountered the Law in the person of that Light? What do You require of me, LORD! was his response.(Acts 9:3-6 and he later rehearses this event in 26:13-18) Saul was acting in an recalcitrate or recalcitrant manor he was resisting God in all that he was doing, even while believing that he was doing God's will. God is a God of order and that order was seen in the person of Jesus and more so after He resurrection into which we're to pass in order to become a son of God again. We get this from, "it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks". For this is what the churches of our day and time are doing in their blindness and ignorance to the Truth and the present day ministry of Christ, through those who have surrender their wills to His Divine Will. Their lives have been put in Order by the Light of Life, just as Paul's had been. For the sole purpose of being a witness or testimony of Christ in me. The answer to John's question of "Has Christ come in the flesh?" found in 1 John 4:2 because those who can't so answer are of the ones as described in verse 3.

John 20:8
"Then went in also that other disciple, (John) which came first to the sepulchre, (now watch this) and he saw, (the evidence and he, what?) and believed."
Now what does that tell you? He didn’t know anything of resurrection before this. He knew Who Jesus was, he was a believer, (but has he believed into (Greek ice) the Messiah or just believed Him?) but he had no concept of resurrection. Again that just tells us something. You see, to believe in the resurrection was not a prerequisite for salvation in the Kingdom Gospel that Jesus proclaimed. All they were required to believe was that Jesus of Nazareth was Who He said He was, the Messiah of Israel. And that He was the King of the Hebrews, the Promised Messiah, and that’s all. Just as Isaac was the son of promise to Abraham and Sarah. They didn’t have to believe in a death, burial and a resurrection, that they were part and parcel in it like we do for Salvation, as found in 1Corinthians 11:23-32, 15:1-4, Romans 10:9-10, Galatians 2:20 and Colossians 2:11-14 and 1Peter 2:24. So it wasn’t necessary for Peter and John to have believed in resurrection up to this point because it wasn’t expected of them. God had kept it secret from them, as you see in Luke 18:31-34, but now when they see the evidence, they believe. Remember Israel required some kind of sign and the Greeks were hung up on mans philosophy but we're to simply believe, that is take it into ourselves as a little child. Now look at the next verse.

John 20:9
"For as yet they (Peter and John and Mary Magdalene) knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead."
Plain English. They didn’t know, but they didn’t have to know to be saved in that Kingdom economy or administration, in which old Israelite system was about to be changed. Now verse 10:

John 20:10-11
"Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,"
I suppose her curiosity got the best of her. What in the world caused Peter and John to exit so quickly and go? And so she looks in. Now she sees something that Peter and John did not. And what is that? Angels.

John 20:12-15a
"And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, 'Woman, why weepest thou?' She saith unto them, 'Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.' And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, 'Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seeketh thou?' She, supposing him to be the gardener,…"
I have to stop right here. Why, first and foremost does not Mary recognize the resurrected Christ? Well, I have to feel the number one reason is found in Isaiah chapter 52. Why do you suppose Mary did not recognize Jesus, as He’s now standing there in human form, bodily? He didn’t have a ‘kooky’ look about Him. He looked very normal. But here in Isaiah is what she saw last before they took Christ down from the Cross.

Isaiah 52:13-14a
"Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. (so we know the prophet is speaking of the Messiah.) As many were astonied (astonished) at thee; his visage (or His appearance) was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men"
Listen, we know that the human beings especially the Romans were experts at torture. All the way up through human history, they have been able to torture men beyond human comprehension, but, nobody under the most extreme torture ever had their facial appearance so distorted and so marred as Christ’s was on the Cross. Now we have to realize that, yes, He was scourged. He took the beatings that the Romans administered before He went to the Cross, their usual method was to place a bag or cloth over the eyes and then struck the face with fists and open hands. On occasion they had stones or broken pot-sherds between their fingers in their fists and they pulled His beard, and the crown of thorns pushed into His skull but other than that, we have nothing in the record that they beat on His face, so we have to kind of put two and two together.

What caused His visage to make Him look so horrible that it was worse than any human being had ever appeared? The sins of mankind. All the sin of the world, the wrath of God were laid on Christ as He hung on that Cross. And you and I again, in the human realm as mere men, cannot comprehend that, but I can see that this would cause that physical deforming of His very appearance. And so "He was more marred than any man and his form more marred than the sons of men." Not so much because of what the Romans had done, but because of the sin that was laid on Him as He hung there on the Cross.

Alright, so now if you’ll come back to John, use just a little bit of human logic. So if the first thing that Mary would have thought of Christ coming back to life, she would have had to undertake seeing that marred face and all that went with it. But here stands someone looking perfectly whole. Not a scar. Not a mark, except in His hands, feet and His side. Looking at verse 15 again:

John 20:15
"Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away."