When reading the accounts of the Resurrection, it becomes clear that despite everything Jesus had told them during His earthly ministry, the apostles were completely unprepared to meet the Risen One. It is no accident that John mentions the burial garments, the “linen wrappings,” which first made the apostles wonder whether something unusual was happening (vv. 1–9). Indeed, according to Jewish custom, the body was wrapped in a shroud so tightly that it was practically impossible to unwrap it without damaging the cloth. Yet the apostles saw this shroud not only intact but apparently even undisturbed, so that the cloth usually tied around the dead person's head, the “face cloth” of v. 7, remained lying separately, apparently in the place where the Saviour's head had been before the Resurrection. What had happened could not be explained otherwise than as a miracle. But the apostles apparently still had no very clear idea of exactly what had occurred.

Mary Magdalene did, of course, see the risen Jesus while still in the garden and immediately reported it to the apostles (vv. 11–18), but her testimony was probably not enough for them. The real encounter took place that same evening (vv. 19–23), and then the apostles were finally able to convince themselves that their Teacher was truly alive. It is no accident that Jesus allows them to look at His hands, feet and ribs (v. 20). The marks of the wounds were to convince the apostles that what stood before them was not a ghost, not a shade that had emerged from the tomb, as they might have thought after hearing from Mary Magdalene that the Risen One had not allowed her to touch Him (v. 17). This was extremely important, for the matter concerned not only the Person of the Risen One, but also the nature of the Kingdom. If it differed in no way from the world of shades and spirits, its influence on the world would be no stronger than theirs. Shades and spirits may sometimes make their presence known, but they are unable to exert a serious influence on the existing order of things, much less to change it radically, as the world is changed when it becomes part of the Kingdom.

But despite all its objectivity and tangible reality, the Kingdom apparently differs substantially in some respects from our world, which has not yet been transformed. It is no accident that the Lord still places Thomas's desire to feel Jesus' wounds with his own hands below trust in testimony (vv. 24–29). For what matters most in the Kingdom is determined by trust: trust in God, trust in Jesus, trust in one another. Trust is the foundation of everything. Without it there is no Kingdom. And it cannot depend on whether one can touch with one's hands what one believes in or the person one trusts. Not because this is forbidden, but because what matters most in the Kingdom cannot be touched with the hands. It can be touched only with the heart. Everyone who wants to live the life of the Kingdom must be ready for this.

It is considered that the disciple of Christ of whom the Gospel says that "Jesus loved him" was the apostle John. These words puzzle many people: how can this be? Does Jesus not love everyone equally? Did He not die on the Cross and rise for each of us?

Of course, for each of us; of course, His love cannot be compared at all. He does not love one person more and another less, but neither does He love everyone in the same way. He loves each person separately, each as an independent person whom He created, to whom He gave a name, for whom He suffered and died, whom He forgave, and to whom He gave eternal life. But we can love more or less. The apostle John himself loved more, loved Jesus more strongly than anyone else. And the one who loves more can receive and contain more love. Christ gives each person as much love as that person can bear, because in our souls there are sometimes such dark corners that they simply cannot coexist with love, and the Lord does not wish to do violence to us.

Therefore John needs no proofs or assurances, because his immense love for the Teacher gives him hope in Christ's Resurrection, although he, like the other apostles, did not understand the prophecies about death and resurrection. And this same immense love gives him such faith that it is enough for him to see "the linen cloths lying there, and the cloth that had been on His head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself," to know that the Lord has risen. The Gospel does not even tell us precisely what the disciple believed, because the whole Gospel speaks of faith in the Resurrection.