So have you been forwarded the story of Jesus’ folded napkin yet?
If not, click here to read the typical forward.
I must admit, it’s an interesting story and when I first got it, I thought it was pretty cool. I love it when you hear things about the Bible that reveal new layers of meaning. I love it when people dig into the culture of Biblical times and learn new things. I’m all for that. But after reading it through a little later, I started to wonder about it, so I did some searching around (web and in some of my books) and it seems that while this is a cool story, it’s probably not altogether true.
The word this forward likes to translate as napkin generally means facecloth or handkerchief, one meant for wiping swear and also used within burial contexts. So the cloth that is folded and placed aside nicely is not really a table napkin, but probably one that was part of a normal burial or at least part of Jesus’. In addition, the web resources seemed to have trouble finding any Jewish scholars who could back up the tradition of the servant watching his master’s napkin as laid out in this forward.
So what do you do when a cool email like this is deflated?
Well, in this case I’d simply push people to think, what kind of cool stuff is still going on in this text. Think about the whole John 20:1-9. The women and the disciples go to the tomb and the scene is shocking. No body! But it’s more than that, and this is why these specific little notes about the cloths is important. The body is gone, but the graveclothes are still there. And the little facecloth is actually sitting there nicely folded.
What does this mean? It means that Jesus wasn’t stolen in some grave robbery. It means that he hasn’t been moved to another tomb, or that they’ve simply gone to the wrong one. Jesus isn’t there, but the cloths are and that means that what happened in that tomb was miraculous. He is alive again, and has no more need for these old burial cloths! When the disciples see the scene, they believe. They’re not exactly sure what’s all going on yet, but they believe.
In the same way, we are amazed by the resurrection today. Even though we can’t see it and touch it, even though we can’t grasp it fully, we believe that one day we’re going to have a new heavenly body just like Jesus when he set aside those rags.
What significance do you get out of this story? Any other forwards you’d like to analyze?
My comment isn’t necessarily about a particular forward, but rather a common addition to forwards. “If you love Jesus forward this to everyone you know” or something to that effect. I’ll admit, whenever I see that at the end of a nice story I rebel and automatically don’t want to send it on. It’s the same reaction I have to any forward ending with an admonition to send a forward to receive good luck or receive bad luck for not sending it. So, is our faith really reflected in whether or not we send a particular forward on? I’d say no.