John 20 | What's a lesson for the original audience?

Jesus is alive! This is the lesson of lessons! Let's look at the conclusion that John gives at the end of this chapter.

30 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
-John 20:30-31

The heart behind all of this is that the reader may believe. This both applies to the modern reader and the reader of the day. And what is it that we are believing on? We are believing on the life that Jesus had lived. We are believing in the miracles He performed. We are believing in the death that He died. And we are believing in the resurrection that is testified of. The lesson is one that has been given all throughout the book. Believe.

The structure of the resurrection account in John is one that gives further credence as to why one would believe. To begin, the testimony of a woman was not well accepted, if at all. The fact that it was a woman that found the empty tomb first would have been a ding against the account, not for it. In the original day, that would have halted the telling of the account. But the account was not trying to be a movement. The account was being honest. Additionally, all of the physical touch we see reveals that Jesus did not just become some spirit. He actually physically raised from the dead. This combats the popular heresy of gnosticism. There were no tricks. He appeared to those who knew Him. And then He appeared beyond them. But the evidence is given by eyewitness accounts of those who saw Him die, saw Him get buried, and then saw Him alive after the fact. Especially to those of the day, the lesson to then believe would be a convincing one.

What lesson are you seeing?