Luke 24:1-12 (NRSV)
24:1-12 Discovery of the Empty Tomb
Luke 24:1-12 (Mark 16:1-8, Matt 28:1-8) (Year C Easter Day) is a story of the discovery of the empty tomb. [1]The women who come to the tomb on Sunday at dawn are unconcerned about who will roll the stone away. The disciples are in Jerusalem, for his account of the outpouring of the Spirit will take place there. They have prepared spices to anoint the body. The stone was rolled away, but when they went in, they did not find the body. The tomb was empty. They are perplexed by the emptiness of the tomb, showing that the emptiness tomb did not lead to belief in the resurrection. It has the apologetic motive of verifying the fact of the resurrection of Jesus.[2] Jesus had to be entombed on Friday because it was against Jewish law to leave the body of a person who had been executed outside overnight.[3] In Mark and Luke, the women have to wait until Sunday to tend the body, not because it is prohibited to tend dead bodies on the Sabbath,[4] but because doing the work of rolling the stone away from the tomb is prohibited. This motive is puzzling, for it implies that the burial was incomplete or provisional, of which there is no indication of in the account provided.[5] Additionally, any person who goes to the tomb and is exposed to a dead body will be made ritually impure for seven days afterward.[6] This means that any man who might come with them on Sunday would render himself ritually impure for the rest of the Passover holiday. Typically, one would give up his state of ritual purity only for the death of one of his nearest kin.[7]Because the women themselves are not entitled to perform Passover sacrifices, becoming ritually impure is less of an issue for them. The separation of the emptiness of the tomb from the appearance of the risen Lord suggests the empty tomb as an isolated fact does not carry the weight of the message of the church. The empty tomb is the presupposition of the message regarding the risen Lord, but not its content. The empty tomb is a sign that points to the risen Lord. [8] Two men in dazzling white clothes stand beside them. They experience terror and bow with their faces to the ground. However, the men ask, in the words of a popular proverb, why they seek the living among the dead, for he is not here, but has risen. The men then express the heart of this scene, inviting them to recall that while still in Galilee, Luke modifying the pointing to an appearance of the risen Lord in Galilee that we find in Mark, he taught them that the Son of Man (τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου) must be handed over to sinners, crucified, and on the third day rise again (ἀναστῆναι). Luke has composed this reference to the Son of Man from the three passion predictions, this time including a reference to the cross, which shows the lateness of the saying.[9] Diverging from the account Mark, Luke says they went back to the eleven and all the rest. We now learn that the women involved were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, identified in 8:2-3 as the wife of Chuza, Mary the mother of James, and the other women. Because the women themselves are not entitled to perform Passover sacrifices, becoming ritually impure is less of an issue for them. These very women have been with Jesus for a long time. Two of the three women who come to the tomb on Sunday morning were among those who “saw where the body was laid” (15:47). These women observed the crucifixion “from a distance.” They were Jesus’ followers who “provided for him when he was in Galilee,” supporting and sponsoring (even financially) his ministry (15:40-41; cf. Luke 8:1-3). Unlike the disciples, the women do not “desert” Jesus (14:50), nor do they deny him (14:66-72). Instead, they are the most “faithful” of Jesus’ followers. At the same time, the women do not come expecting a risen Savior. These women can give eyewitness testimony to the grim reality of Jesus' death and the burial of his body. The desire to offer his poor dead body one final act of service caused the women to return to Jesus' tomb early that morning. They planned to anoint him with spices that would mask the odor of death and decay that they already expected to find permeating the tomb. Some suggest that the burial Joseph of Arimathea gave to Jesus was to fulfill the law detailed in Deut 21:22‑23‑‑a hanged man "under God's curse" was not to remain all night on the tree where he died. This would indicate that Joseph was convinced of Jesus' criminal status and that he rushed the burial to keep the law, not out of respect for Jesus or any concern for the approaching Sabbath. Since Jesus was a criminal, his body would not rate any special attention or anointing. One would simply entomb it as quickly as possible. In this case, the women's determination to supply spices and offer him an anointing would serve to bring honor back to Jesus' name. It is also no small irony that the very focus of the women's concern, Jesus' body is exactly what they find missing from the tomb. They tell the people gathered what they heard. The words seemed like an idle tale, which contrasts with the response of the women. We see further the difficulty involved in asking people to accept the apostolic witness, for at this point, the disciples do not come to faith through the witness of the women. They did not believe the witness of the women, which has a ring of truth to it, since it does not put the disciples in a good light.[10] In a brief, matter-of-fact account,[11] Peter does run to the tomb and cautiously and timidly stoops and looks in, he sees the linen cloths by themselves. In 24:24, the two on the road to Emmaus report that some of their friends, note the plural, went to the tomb and found everything as the women said. This tradition would be expanded in John 20:3-10. Peter returned to the gathering amazed and wondering what has happened.
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[3] (Deuteronomy 21:22-23).
[4] (Mishna Shabbat 23:5).
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[6] (Numbers 19:11-20).
[7] (Leviticus 21:1-3).
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Good point trying to understand Jesus in human terms. Don't we all! This is really good liked the 5 points. all true Again every Sunday should be a celebration of His resurrection and what ti means . He is risen changes everything .-Lyn Eastman
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