Why did Jesus fold the napkin?  

Posted by: Julie in

(my sister in law sent me this email today and I thought it was very interesting)


Why did Jesus fold the linen burial cloth after His resurrection? I never noticed this.......


John 20:7 tells us that the napkin, which was placed over the face of Jesus,was not thrown aside like the grave clothes. The Bible takes an entireverse to tell us that the napkin was neatly folded and was placed at thehead of that stony coffin.


Early that Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found thatthe stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found SimonPeter, and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, "They have taken the Lord's body and I don't know where they have taken Him!".


Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see. The other discipleoutran Peter and got there first. He stooped and looked in and saw thelinen cloth lying there, but he didn't go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the napkin that had covered Jesus face was folded up and lying to one side.


Is that important? Absolutely!


Is that really significant? Yes!


In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have tounderstand a little bit about the Hebrew tradition of that day. The foldednapkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew thistradition.


When the Servant set the dinner table for the Master, he made sure it wasexactly the way the Master wanted it. The table was furnished perfectly,and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the Master hadfinished eating. The Servant would not dare touch that table until theMaster was finished.


If the Master were done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe hisfingers, his mouth, and clean his beard and would w ad up that napkin andtoss it onto the table. The servant would then know to clear the table. Forin those days, the wadded napkin meant, "I'm finished".


I did not know this....


If the Master got up from the table, and folded his napkin beside his plate,the servant would not dare touch the table, because....


The folded napkin meant, "I'm coming back!".


He is coming back!


During this Holy season, I pray that you are blessed with peace and joy inthe knowledge that He IS coming back someday.

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3 comments

That is so awesome! I never knew that and I have been in church all of my life! I'm going to call my Mom, she'll like this, too:)

oh, sis. i check all of these forwards. this one isn't true :(.

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/f/folded-napkin.htm

Does it matter what the "world" thinks?

Not every story has to be "true" to have meaning.

Fact is, Jesus DID come and DIE on the cross for us, He DID rise again and He IS coming back!

HE'S NOT FINISHED!

Please realize that I'm not stupid enough to believe that every "forward" is fact. I'm very intelligent,thank you.

I felt that this story was very appropriate as we are going into the Easter season.

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