What’s the Folded Napkin All About? (Part One)
(John 20:1-7)
Why did the writer of the Gospel According to John go to
the trouble to be so specific about the grave clothes in Jesus’
tomb when the Disciples first looked into the tomb?
Specifically, verse 7 tells us that the napkin or turban which was
placed over the head and face of Jesus was not just thrown aside
like the grave clothes. The writer of the Gospel According to
John takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly
folded and was placed separate from the grave clothes.
In the story we’re told that early Sunday morning, while it
was still dark Mary came to the tomb and found that the stone
had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found
Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved.
She said to them: They have taken the Lord’s body out of the
tomb and I don’t know where they have put him. Now later in
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the story, Mary will see Jesus, but will think that he is the
gardener. I fear that we, like Mary, know the dead Jesus but not
the resurrected Jesus. We know about the dead Jesus who died
on the cross so that our sins might be forgiven; but do we know
the resurrected Jesus who lives today? Of course, in the story,
Jesus calls Mary by her name and she then recognizes the
resurrected Jesus.
Has Jesus called you by name? Is Jesus calling you by
name at this very moment? Do you know the risen Jesus who
lives today? Or only about the dead Jesus on the cross?
But, getting back to the earlier part in the story. After Mary
discovers the empty tomb, Peter and the other disciple run to the
tomb to see what Mary was talking about. The other disciple
outruns Peter and gets there first. He stoops and looks in the
tomb and sees the linen cloth lying there, but does not go in.
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Then Simon Peter arrives and goes inside the tomb. He also
notices the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had
covered Jesus’ head and face was neatly folded up and lying to
the side.
Was that important?
Absolutely!
Is it really significant?
Yes, indeed.
There are two explanations and I think both are correct.
There is double meaning here. I’ll share with you the first
meaning now; but in order to understand the second meaning,
you will have to hear part two of the sermon in a few Sundays.
In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you
have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition in that day
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and time and place. First of all, cloth was very hard to come by.
You would never throw cloth away. When your clothes wore
out, you would save the cloth for various purposes. Two are
mentioned in Jesus’ life. They would cut the cloths in long strips
or short strips to wrap newborn babies in for warmth. In the
Christmas story from the Gospel According to Luke, we are told
that Baby Jesus was found wrapped in swaddling clothes and
lying in a manger. And at his death the same type of linen
wrappings were used to wrap the deceased’s body; and what the
Bible calls perfume would saturate those cloths to keep down the
stench of death because the dead were buried above ground.
Have any of you ever worked in a textile mill – in a cotton
mill? I’m thinking of Bob Talbert, a man whom I loved very
much and was a member of a church that I served a long time
ago. He was brought up in a mill village in Rutherford County,
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North Carolina. When he was a child and teen, and would go
into town, he was made fun of, because in those days (the
1920’s and 30’s), people who worked in the cotton mills and
lived in mill villages, were looked down upon. Bob told me one
day about being made fun of as a teenager. Once he answered
the bullies this way: I want you to think about this: what’s the
first thing that they do to you as soon as you’re born? They
clean you up and wrap you in cloth. What is your casket lined
with? It is lined with cloth. From birth to death, you are
surrounded by cloth, not to mention clothes, bed linens, wash
cloths, towels, etc.
I think about Bob when I think about these stories in the
Bible concerning Jesus and swaddling cloths and grave cloths.
Getting back to the folded napkin, if you were rich enough
in that day and time and place to have servants, meal time would
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feature the following tradition. The folded napkin had to do with
Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition.
When the Servant set the dinner table for the Master, he made
sure that it was exactly the way the Master wanted it. The table
was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just
out of sight, until the Master had finished eating. The Servant
would not dare touch that table, until his Master was finished.
Now, if the Master had finished eating, he would get himself up
from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard
with a napkin. When finished he would wad that napkin and toss
it onto the table. The servant would then know to clear the table.
The wadded napkin meant: I’m done. But if the Master got up
from the table and folded his napkin and laid it beside his plate,
the servant would not dare touch the table, because the folded
napkin meant I’m not through, I’m coming back!
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Jesus, only a few nights before said: Take, eat. This is my
body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you. Drink.
Jesus, at his resurrection, still describing himself as a feast—The
Gospel Feast that we were to take into ourselves, was not
finished. The resurrected Jesus folded that napkin to say to his
disciples, then and now, I’m not finished! I’m coming back!
HALLELUJAH! He’s coming back. He’s coming back for
you and for me. Hallelujah!
Amen.
Charles Lee Hutchens, D.Min.
Bethlehem United Methodist Church
Climax, NC
April 19, 2015
Source: Ben Burke, in a posting on Facebook during the Easter Season, 2015; Chattanooga,
Tennessee, student, Southern Baptist Seminary Extension.