The Napkin - Dianne McQueen

The gospel of John 20:7 tells us that the napkin which was placed over the face of Jesus was not just thrown aside like the other grave clothes. The Bible takes the entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly folded and was placed separately from the grave clothes. Early Sunday morning while it was still dark Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone was rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciples ,John,the one whom Jesus loved. She said they have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb and I don't know where they have put him. Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see ...the other disciple, John, got there first. He stooped and looked in and saw that the linen cloth laying there but he didn't go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrapping's lying there while the cloth that had covered Jesus's face was neatly folded up and lying to the side. Was that important ..absolutely ,it is really significant.

It had to do with the Hebrew tradition of that day. The folded napkin had to do with the master and servant and every Jewish boy knew this tradition.

The servant set the dinner table the way the master wanted it.

The table was furnished perfectly and then the servant would wait just outside of sight until the master had finished eating .The servant would not dare touch the table until the master was finished .Now if the master were done eating, he would rise from the table wipe his fingers, his mouth and clean his beard and would wad up the napkin and toss it on the plate. The servant would then know to clean the table for in those days the wadded up napkin mean't 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 napkin because the folded napkin meant I'm coming back.

Praise God we know he's coming back and we look for his coming. Not even the angels in heaven know that day or hour, only God knows.

We don't have those Hebrew traditions but the next time you're done eating, consider where you put your napkin .Will you wad it up and put it on your plate because you're done serving your Sunday school class, your bus route, working in the nursery ,whatever ministry you have or will you fold it neatly, you're coming back to because we haven't finished our course ,let's get busy on our next course for the Lord