Folded napkin

Sorry I haven't posted lately. Having huge computer problems. Computer is so old that putting money into it is pointless, so had to try to solve whatever was ailing the computer myself. Spent two days just backing everything up, cleaning up files as best I could, deleting things that weren't used...all to prep for the reinstallation. I am loathe to have to reinstall everything and managed to reload some utilities and fix some of the problem. Hard to know what to do when you don't know what the problem is, just the symptoms. Managed to get things working, although not perfectly so I feel like things are a bit precarious at the moment. A friend is giving us one of his computers (that's a corporal act of mercy...provide computers to those with dead computers).
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Just in time for Easter. This was sent to me and I found it intriguing.


Why did Jesus fold the napkin?
Why did Jesus fold the linen burial cloth after His resurrection?


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

In our text, Mary comes first to the empty tomb. She sees the stone rolled away and it frightens her. And so she runs to get Peter and John, and they run together to the tomb as fast as they could. John outran Peter, and when he got there, he looked inside, and saw those grave clothes lying there in disarray. Then Peter arrived and, just as we’d expect of him, went right in. He also saw the linen clothes lying there, but there was something unusual in that scene. Something caught their eye that was very interesting.

The Gospel of John tells us that the napkin, which was placed over the face of Jesus, was not just thrown aside like the grave clothes. The Bible takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly folded, and was placed at the head of that stony coffin. Is that important? You’d better believe it! Is that significant? Absolutely! Is it really significant? Yes!

In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day. The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition. When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it. The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the master was finished.

Now if the master were 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. The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, “I’m done”. But if the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it aside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because...

The folded napkin meant, “I’m coming back!”