Luke 24:12
Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.
Luke 24:12 belongs to the morning news of resurrection day, given early on the first day of the week, concerning the removal of Christ's body from the tomb and the report of the women who had seen the angels and had met Jesus. The disciples were mourning inconsolably because their Lord had been crucified, and they disbelieved the women's report that Jesus had risen. After hearing the women's report, Peter ran hastily to the sepulchre. At the tomb he found Jesus gone and the tomb empty, with only the linen burial clothes lying by themselves. He departed wondering, perplexed and amazed at what he had seen and at the women's report, without yet believing that Jesus had risen.
John, by contrast, believed that Jesus had risen because he remembered Jesus' own words, though the disciples as a whole had not yet understood the Old Testament scriptures that Christ would rise from the dead. By late in the afternoon the same news had left two earnest believing disciples, who had come to Jerusalem to keep the Passover and were walking eight miles to Emmaus to meditate and pray, greatly perplexed, sad, utterly disheartened, hopeless and faithless as they talked over the trial and the crucifixion. The verse belongs to the account of the disciples' response to the empty tomb and the reports of the resurrection, and Peter's later testimony about his encounter with the risen Jesus was given with great assurance, carried weight with the other disciples, and helped revive their faith.
The evidence of the empty tomb and the linen cloth supported the disciples' witness that Christ had risen and made the priests' falsehood ineffective. The chapter to which the verse belongs presents salvation as made possible by Jesus' suffering and death, in which those who repent, are converted, come to the Father through faith in Christ, and follow His example may receive forgiveness and be sanctified through belief in the truth.