49 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
49 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Luke 24:1–12"
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date = "2023-02-23"
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### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Lk24.1-12)
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It's kind of funny how each of the Gospels includes different details, when
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they share an event in common. I would have liked to discuss the soldiers
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guarding the tomb of Jesus, and the seal that had been placed on the stone that
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closed off the tomb. But it's not in our text today, so I shall refrain.
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Instead we will focus as Luke does on the women who have come to finish the
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hasty burial preparations for Jesus now that the Sabbath is over. Since Sabbath
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ended at sundown, they may have worked through the night in order to get things
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ready as early as they did. Their love for Jesus was so strong that they wanted
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to honor Him in death as well as they could as soon as they could.
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Having a stone to close the tomb was a common practice, and Mark's account
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tells us they saw it put in place and also that they wondered who would roll it
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out of the way for them. When they reached the tomb, however, they find the
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stone in front of it has been rolled away, and Jesus's body is not there.
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Instead, two men in dazzling clothes appear before them and remind them of the
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things Jesus said about rising again after He would be crucified.
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Note how the women react to seeing these two angels (as John and Matthew call
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them). They bow their faces to the ground in fear. Angels can be incognito and
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appear as normal men, but when they reveal themselves for what they are, this
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is how everyone reacts when they see them, if they don't faint outright. If
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anyone tells you they met an angel, and it wasn't the scariest thing they've
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ever seen, then they are lying or deceived.
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The veil of forgetfulness has now been lifted from the women, and they remember
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that Jesus did say He would rise again, so they do as the angels instruct them
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and go tell the other disciples about it. For first-century Jews, this is
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radical that women are the ones who get to tell everyone else what's been going
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on. The disciples didn't believe them at first not because these women are
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prone to telling tales, but because they were from a culture that didn't value
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anything women had to say. Court cases required two witnesses to provide ample
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evidence of an accusation, but only if they were men.
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Peter may not have believed everything they said, but it was enough to get him
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to go to the tomb to see for himself. He runs to the tomb, anxious to know what
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he will find. And it's just as the women said: Jesus isn't there, but the
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burial clothes are. He still doesn't know what to make of it as he heads home.
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* * *
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Keep Your words ever in our minds, so that we may live according to them, and
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give You the honor and praise You deserve.
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