The Folded Napkin Of Christ

And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
John 20:7

Reading the Gospel of John (20:7) before, I had never noticed this peculiar point brought out to me by a friend. In this version of the gospel it tells of the napkin. This particular napkin covered Jesus face, and was not discarded with the grave clothes. The napkin according to the Bible was neatly folded, and placed at the head of the stony place where He had lain.

That glorious Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb. Upon coming to the tomb, she found the stone rolled away. After seeing this, she ran to tell the others what had happened. At once she found Simon Peter and the other disciple, whom Jesus loved. With exhausted breath she exclaimed,"They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and I don't know where they have put him!" After hearing of this, Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see for themselves. The other disciple got there first after out running Peter. He stooped down and looked in. He saw the linen cloth lying there but did not go in. Simon Peter finally arrived, and after catching his breath went inside. He couldn't believe his eyes. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying to the side.

There is special meaning behind the folded napkin. In order to understand this, you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition back then. The tradition has to do with the Master and the servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition. The Master wanted his dinner table set up in a certain way. The servant understood to set it up exactly the way the master wanted it. The servant set the table up perfectly. The servant waited just out of sight until the master was done eating. The servant would not touch the table, until the Master was finished. Now if the master was done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table. This told the servant to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, "I'm done". But if instead the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because..........

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

He is Coming Back!