But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” 8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened..
Luke 24:1-12
The Resurrection of Jesus
The women rested on the Sabbath according to the Law and having prepared some spices and ointments they went to anoint Jesus’ body. They were not expecting to ever see Jesus again in this life. They held Jesus in high respect, and their persistence in caring for Him shows their devotion and love. But their view was too small. They went to the tomb expecting to find a dead teacher – what they would find is a risen Saviour.
Arriving to the tomb, they find the stone rolled away. Immediately they must have thought someone has stolen Jesus’ body, perhaps the work of grave robbers, or even the chief priests. They searched through the tomb, certain that this was the right one – after all they watched Joseph of Arimathea place Jesus’ body there personally. The women were obviously confused and perhaps a little frightened, but nothing would prepare them for what they were about to see.
Two men approached them in dazzling apparel. Immediately fear overtook the women, a common experience for anyone who has ever encountered an angel in the Bible. The angels inform the women that their view of Jesus is too small, their trust in Him too little, their perspective too narrow. They ask, ‘why do you seek the living among the dead?’ They were looking for Jesus in all the wrong places – the grave they saw Him buried in was a good place to look if you wanted to see His dead body. It’s a terrible place to look for a risen King. ‘He is not here, but has risen.’
They call to remembrance everything Jesus has taught them when He was in Galilee, and how He had spoken very plainly to them about rising again from the dead. So, why didn’t they expect Jesus to rise on the third? The Jews were not expecting the Messiah to die, that was far outside their perspective. While they believed in a final resurrection of the dead at the end of time, to think of an individual resurrection of the dead beforehand was well out of the question. Neither of those two were a possibility, so at the very least, the women were expecting Jesus to rise again in the age to come. To think anything different was going to require their worldview to radically shift.
It suddenly clicked to all the women. It was being to make sense. Jesus had to die because the Son of Man had to suffered at the hands of sinful men and be crucified. He also had to rise again from the dead, not in the age to come, but on the third day. It’s hard to convey the shattering impact that this would have on the worldview of a Jewish man or woman. They would have been indoctrinated from a very young age to believe these things, growing up in a culture steeped in Messianic teaching for centuries. It was so deeply embedded in their culture that to question these doctrines was not a possibility. And yet, they changed their worldview. Why? Because Jesus really did rise again from the dead.
They immediately returned to tell the remaining eleven disciples what they had seen. Now, we are understandably hard on the disciples for not believing the women and thinking they were telling idle tales. But hear it from their perspective. They are hearing a tale about a guarded tomb having no guards and being empty – something that surely couldn’t be the case. Even more fanciful, angels had appeared to them and told them that Jesus had risen. It must be crazy, don’t the women know that the resurrection is at the end of the age? The women weren’t enough of a catalyst to shift the disciples worldview in such a large way. They needed to see it for themselves.
Peter decides to do that. He runs down to the tomb and what did he see? It was just as the women had reported. They weren’t lying. The tomb was empty, not only that but the linen cloths were lying in the tomb. There should be a body there, but it’s as if the body has just disappeared. Well… Peter is absolutely perplexed. What had scared the guards away? What could have rolled away the stone from the door? If it was grave robbers, why were the expensive linens left in the tomb? So many questions, with little answers. Could the women really have seen the two angels?
Every one of the Gospel accounts records women being the first to visit the empty tomb and discover that Jesus had risen again from the dead. This was problematic for the early Christians. Firstly, none of the Jews would have believed the testimony of women – why? The Talmud, a Jewish law, states that “Any evidence which a woman [gives] is not valid…” The first century had some shameful views on the reliability of women, something which was exploited by adversaries to the church. Celsus, a second century critic of Christianity, referred to Mary who had seen Jesus first, as a “hysterical female . . . deluded by . . . sorcery.” If you were inventing clever myths, you would never put women as your key witnesses. So why are they here? The only plausible explanation of why they are in this account is because they really were the first to see Him.
If you were a Gospel writer aiming to write a convincing story that would deceive the minds of the ancient world, this was a lesson in how not to achieve that. The only reason they would do so is because the women really were the first to see the tomb and meet the risen Christ. Why would God have it this way if it provided a stumbling block for so many small-minded men? Because God couldn’t care less about human categories. Just as the Resurrection shattered many worldview assumptions the Jews held, so also did it challenge this assumption. God considered their testimony valid and chose them to be His witnesses and messengers and that’s all that matters
There are many more arguments for the historicity of the resurrection – but nevertheless two compelling points to summarize. (1) The only way the worldview could shift so radically for so many Jewish Christians is if Jesus really rose again from the dead, and (2) the only logical reason women would be the first witnesses in the first century, is if they actually did witness these events.
Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James and others went to the tomb expecting to find their beloved teacher dead. They left with news of a risen Saviour. How is our view of Jesus small like this? Do we consider Jesus the dead founder of an ethical religion, or as a living saviour of an eternal kingdom? In what ways might we live as if the former is true, while pretending to believe the latter?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we praise you for the work you have done in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. How broken, messy, sinful people like us can avoid the death we so richly deserve and participate in the resurrection of Jesus. Thank you that Jesus did not turn His back on us, but endured the cross for the joy. Help us live in that joy. In Jesus Name, Amen.
What now?
I hope you have enjoyed these two weeks of devotions in the lead up to Resurrection Sunday. On this Lord’s Day it has been my great pleasure and joy to explore the Gospel of Luke with you all. Tomorrow I will finish the Gospel of Luke, with an ‘aftermath’ devotion that will help us with how we should live in the here and now. My intention is to continue writing a devotional series for anyone who is interested, sporadically interspersed with blog posts on interesting and controversial topics. If you’ve been reading along this far and were encouraged and blessed, send me an email (cody@gospelchurch.org.au) and I’d love to chat and pray with you. Until then, I hope you had a blessed Easter and have grown in your appreciation and adoration of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God bless,
Cody