But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body.
Luke 24:1-7 RSV
While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; 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? Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise.”
This final chapter of Luke briefly summarizes the astonishment and perplexity of finding the empty tomb, giving the experience of the Galilean women (Luke 24:1-12), then giving a full and vivid account of an appearance of Christ to the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35).
Luke then recounted the appearance of Jesus to the Eleven and them that were with them, including the disciples returned from Emmaus (Luke 24:36-43), concluding with a summary statement of Jesus’ last words and a brief account of the ascension (Luke 24:44-53).
Sabbath day …
This was Saturday, the second of the back-to-back sabbaths intervening between the crucifixion and the first day of the week.
They came unto the tomb …
The antecedent of the pronoun “they” is “the women who had followed him from Galilee” (Luke 23:55); and, from a comparison with Luke 24:10, these seem to have been ANOTHER group of women, not necessarily the same as those mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels, though many of both groups were from Galilee.
The stone rolled away …
The seal on the grave, placed there by the Roman government, had obviously been broken, which would have required a deputation from the governor’s office to investigate it.
Furthermore, the military authorities would have thoroughly investigated the fantastic lie of the guard concerning what happened “while they were asleep”; and with the activities of the Lord’s followers beginning at the crack of dawn the same day, and increasing as the day progressed – all of these things, and may others of which we know nothing, made the day of Jesus’ resurrection one of the busiest in history.
The Sanhedrin, would they have not investigated?
They bribed the soldiers to lie about what had happened, for they had witnessed some of the phenomena attending the resurrection; but it may be counted certain that they made their own investigation, decided that they had no case against the soldiers, and attempted to cover up the truth with lies.
Something of the nature of the rock-hewn sepulchre is evident in the stone that closed it, the same having been a large wheel-like rock fitted into a groove parallel to the entrance.
It was so large that even a whole group of women would not have been able to move it.
And found not the body …
The empty grave of Jesus, along with the undisturbed grave clothes within, proved the resurrection of Jesus to be a fact; but to minds so long schooled against any possibility of a resurrection from the dead, it was a fact which they, at the time, could not fully believe.
The seal on the grave, placed there by the Roman government, had obviously been broken, which would have required a deputation from the governor’s office to investigate it.
The Sanhedrin, would they have not investigated?
They bribed the soldiers to lie about what had happened, for they had witnessed some of the phenomena attending the resurrection; but it may be counted certain that they made their own investigation, decided that they had no case against the soldiers, and attempted to cover up the truth with lies.
Something of the nature of the rock-hewn sepulchre is evident in the stone that closed it, the same having been a large wheel-like rock fitted into a groove parallel to the entrance. It was so large that even a whole group of women would not have been able to move it.
These were angels, as indicated by the dazzling raiment; and it is interesting that commentators generally set themselves in motion immediately to show that this does not contradict the other two synoptics’ mention of but “one” angel.
Matthew and Mark mention but one of these, for the reason, perhaps, that only one of them spoke. But in doing so he REPRESENTED both, and therefore it was virtually, as in our text the speech of both.
If indeed this episode is the same as that mentioned in Matthew and Mark, Lamar’s words are surely applicable; but the conviction maintained here is that this was a totally different episode, like the appearance to the disciples on the way to Emmaus.
As noted under Luke 24:3, the women here were those who “followed him” from Galilee; but of those women mentioned in Matthew and Mark (and also by Luke in Luke 24:10), it is evident that they ACCOMPANIED Jesus in the same manner as the Twelve.
See Luke 8:1-3, where this is plainly stated of Mary Magdalene, Joanna the wife of Herod’s steward, and Susanna, these being women of wealth who funded the travels of Jesus and the Twelve.
It is reasonable to suppose that this particular group of affluent women remained with the Twelve during the first day of the resurrection.
Certainly, there were OTHERS besides the Eleven present in that upper room when the disciples returned from Emmaus; for Luke says they “returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together and “them that were with them” (Luke 24:33)!
An element of conjecture is in such an interpretation, but certainly far less than in supposing that these women reported two angels, if in fact there had been only one.
During those two years of Paul’s imprisonment in Caesarea, Luke had ample opportunity to visit some of the women who were in that company; and it must be concluded that these were among the eyewitnesses mentioned in his introduction.
It is also significant that Mary Magdalene, blinded by grief and inattentive to anything else, was not impressed by the angel at all, but here the women were frightened and fell upon their faces.
If all of the intensive activities of that day were known, such problems would disappear; but it was part of the Father’s wisdom to give men just the amount of revelation which would leave them free to make their own moral decision.
Why seek ye the living with the dead?
These words particularly impressed Barclay who said:
There are many who still look for Jesus among the dead.
There are those who regard Jesus as the greatest man and the noblest hero who ever lived, who lived the loveliest life ever lived on earth and who then died.
That will not do!
Jesus is not dead!
He is alive!
He is not a hero of the past, but a living presence today!
Mark 16:1-3 RSV
|| Aretherra© 