Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Brokenness Isn’t the End | The Gospels | John 20:1-10

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

Can life really break through death? Can we trust that the resurrection actually happened? And what difference does an empty tomb make for our brokenness today? In today’s episode, Jeff explores John 20:1–10 and shows how the empty tomb changes the way we see both our broken world and our own lives. Read the Bible with us! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and it's never too late to join! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: John 20:1-10

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. Sometimes the greatest picture of beauty comes from the greatest places of brokenness and barrenness. In World War I, the landscape of Europe was devastated by the impact of artillery shelling and trench digging. If you look at images from then in the First World War, you can see the absolute desolation and the barrenness of the marred forests and mangled fields. The originally peaceful landscape was just smashed to pieces.

Now, given the tragic loss of human life in the fields of World War I, it's kind of hard to imagine any physical spaces that have been more broken and more barren. Amidst this broken and barren landscape, it seemed like beauty was buried for good. How could beauty possibly exist in a place like that? But in reality, something beautiful actually was breaking through the ground for all to see. There's this particular flower, the poppy, that can lie dormant in the ground for decades, even up to 100 years. Now, here's the thing. Poppy seeds only grow when disrupted from dormancy and showered with light, the light that begins the process of germination.

These seeds need to be disturbed. in order to grow. Now, during that chaotic destruction of World War I, portions of the broken and the barren landscape of Europe were actually being cultivated. The digging and the shelling woke up the dormant poppy seeds, exposing them to the light that would display life and beauty. And so in the midst of the brokenness and the barrenness of these fields,

the presence of beauty did erupt. as a canvas of red poppies blanketed the landscape. It's this amazing picture of life persisting in even the most lifeless places. When one soldier, John McCray, observed the beauty of these poppies blanketing the battlefields and the graves of World War I,

it inspired his famous poem in Flanders' fields. And as generations have gone by, many still remember the sacrifice of those who fought in World War I and other wars, by wearing poppies on Remembrance Day. Now that contrast between the poppies and the pervasive destruction is powerful, and it communicates something that digs into the heart of every one of us.

No matter how great the brokenness or the barrenness, beauty has a way of breaking through. Life really can flourish in even the most lifeless places. And if that's true, and it completely changes the way we see things that are broken and barren. Our passage today in the first 10 verses of John chapter 20 gives us a far more powerful depiction of how life and beauty can break through the brokenness and barrenness.

Because here, when it seems like the life and beauty of Jesus was buried for good, we witnessed something with far more life and far more beauty that we can possibly fathom, breaking through the ground. And as we approach the empty tomb of Jesus here in our time today, we will reconsider what his life means for the broken and the barren places within us. Now as we approach God's word together, let's pause and just ask for his grace, ask for his life-giving love to move through our time. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the gift of life and breath in this day, and we thank you for the gift of your word. we bring before you every part of our lives our joys and our sorrows our anxiety and our excitement our calendars and our contingencies every part of who we are we bring before you would you meet us in this space

jesus help us abide in you as we engage with your truth holy spirit we ask you to move in and through this time in john's gospel account and as we read your living word may it read us and restore us to new life with you. In Jesus' name, amen. So chapter 19 of John's gospel account ended with Nicodemus and Joseph of Hermithaea placing the dead body of Jesus in a new tomb in a garden. The one thing that is certain to this point is that his body has been broken. His life is barren. But just as a seed is buried in a garden to cultivate new life, there's something being cultivated here, and we start to see it shine through in our passage today. Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to read through our verses in John 20, verses 1 through 10. Then after doing so, we're going to reflect on two big aspects of Jesus' resurrection from the dead. First, we'll reflect on

the historical reality of his resurrection, and then in the personal reality of his resurrection. We need both of those things. All right, here's our amazing true passage from John 20. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark, and she saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb. We do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb.

Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.

Now when we look at this account of Mary, Peter, and the other unnamed apostle, most scholars view this as John himself, we can't help but notice that this is a historical account. There are details here that would be irrelevant, maybe even distracting, if this was just fabricated fiction. Notice verse 1 gives us the time of day when Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb, early while it was still dark. Verse 4 gives us this interesting detail that Peter is outrun by the other disciple in route to the tomb. And then there's the specific mention of Jesus' facecloth folded in place by itself in verse 7. Now, these are details that aren't unpacked with any great narrative consequence as we read on. It's just the way that things actually happened.

What John is recording here is a real historical account of a real event that we can really trust. Now, why does that matter? Why does the historicity of this matter? Well, it can be popular for some religious traditions and perspectives to chalk up the resurrection of Jesus as a merely metaphorical message. It's a vague hope that we shouldn't give up on the power of beauty in life. It's an inspirational legend that just stirs our hearts to live differently. The written accounts of Jesus' resurrection here cut down all of these suggestions and expose them as meaningless. The reason the resurrection matters is because it really happened. As the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1514,

If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. And get this, I love this, and your faith is in vain. None of this matters. Our hope is not rooted in a fairy tale, in a philosophical formulation, and a poetic quip. Our hope is rooted in an event. The historical event that Jesus Christ, the God man, the Messiah, the king, was really buried and the brokenness and the barreness of death, and that he really broke through death

to rise to new bodily resurrection life. It's true. And if that's true, it changes everything for you and me. Now, we can tell from our passage today that Mary, Peter, and John still didn't understand the fullness of the empty tomb, not here and now, not yet. Mary would understand first,

as she lingers at the tomb to meet angelic beings and encounter a glorious gardener, the one who embodies the glory of beauty and life coming from brokenness and barrenness. More on that to come in future episodes. But for now, our passage ends with the disciples Peter and John going to their homes. And while it seems like they just don't get it at all, we do get a hint here that there's more at play. we saw in verse 8. Here it is again. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in,

and he saw and believed. This other disciple, John himself, saw and believed. Now the text doesn't tell us exactly what he believed here and now. We know from verse 9 that he didn't fully understand the massive scriptural significance of Jesus' resurrection. but in some way he did see and he believed. This dynamic of seeing and believing has been a huge theme in John's gospel account so far, and it will continue to be one in the rest of this chapter in particular. And while we don't know the specific contours surrounding John's belief here,

it's hard to deny that at some level, he is starting to reckon with the reality that brokenness and barrenness are not the end of the story. The tomb is empty. The broken body is gone. The barren tomb is itself emptied, suggesting that the abundance of something new is breaking into the world. Like poppies breaking through the barren and broken ground of a battlefield, this first encounter with the empty tomb invites you,

and I to believe that beauty can and will break through what is most broken and barren. The rest of John's gospel account and the rest of the New Testament will unpack the redemptive, the cosmic, the community-wide implication of this living beauty in Jesus Christ. But for now, the question is this. Do you see that this historical reality is also a personal reality for you? Like John, is it personal? Do you see? Do you believe? Do you see and believe that no matter how great the brokenness and the barrenness is in your life right now, beauty can and will break through?

Do you see that life really can flourish in even the most lifeless places? You don't have to comprehend all of it to see it and believe it? You don't have to clean up your life to see it and believe it. You can see it and believe it because it is an event that really happened. Our lives and our world are being filled with the good news of an empty tomb. Yes, the brokenness is real. The barrenness is real.

But the truth of Jesus' resurrection, his new life, it is real. And it is breaking through to reveal something beautiful. see it believe it let it change everything father son holy spirit we stand in awe of the empty tomb make us a people who honestly confront the brokenness and the barrenness and at the same time form us into a people who see and believe who see and believe the beauty of life and the risen Jesus. We pray all of this because of your grace, for your glory, and in your story. In Jesus' name, amen.