Luke 24:1-12

Luke 24:1-12 (NRSV)

 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. ² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they went in, they did not find the body. ⁴ While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. ⁵ The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. ⁶ Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷ that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” ⁸ Then they remembered his words, ⁹ and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰ Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹ But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹² But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Luke 24:1-12 is the story of the discovery of the empty tomb. The source is Mark.

            The places Luke diverges from Mark I have put in red.[1]      

In the account of the discovery of the empty tomb by Luke, we find the women coming to the tomb, unconcerned about who will roll the stone away. Luke also has the disciples remain in Jerusalem, where his account of Pentecost will take place in the opening chapters of Acts. Luke stresses the emptiness of the tomb, as well as what others have done to the body of Jesus. His story will end in the temple with the disciples praising God, even as the Passion narrative began in the Temple.  Note the whole of Luke’s account occurs in one day.

As we read this story of the appearances in the context of the crime perpetrated by religious and political authorities, we must not fall prey to the well-intentioned effort of some preachers and theologians to make the scandal and the mystery comprehensible by suggesting that these events mirror the familiar. We may try to do so with illuminating analogies such as the rhythms of sleep and waking, death and birth, the change of seasons, life passages, and so on. We run the risk of domesticating the Easter victory over death as the supreme instance of generic immortality.  We can try to make the particular and unique event of Good Friday and Easter become a familiar universal that relates to some dimension of philosophical anthropology or cosmology. This event, however, is a new, unique, particular, and unrepeatable point time and space.[2]

However, on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they [The names of the women differ from Mark.  Luke has transported Joanna from 8:3, identified as the wife of Chuza.  He mentions other women, again transporting from 8:2-3.]  The women came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. [First, the women see the tomb of Jesus, prepared spices and oil the evening before, and then rested on the Sabbath.  In Mark, they saw from afar and bought spices to anoint the body after the Sabbath.  There is no mention of the intent to anoint the body.] [Third, the women do not worry about who will roll away the stone.]  ² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they went in, they did not find the body. [There is a stronger stress on the emptiness of the tomb by this reference.] ⁴ While they were perplexed, describing the effect of the Easter miracle. They are still trying to comprehend Jesus in death as they did in life, wholly in human terms.] Thus, while perplexed about this, that is, the emptiness of the tomb, suddenly they saw two men. [Two men, instead of one, who appear again in Acts 1:10.] This might be a reminder of the Mount of Transfiguration, as Jesus stood transfigured before then with Moses and Elijah on either side. That dialogue focused on the "exodus" or "departure" which Jesus would soon accomplish at Jerusalem.  The empty tomb offers mute evidence that such a departure has now taken place. The men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. ⁵ The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? This proverb had become well known. He is not here, but has risen. ⁶ Remember how he told you; here is the heart of the scene. The purpose is to present Jesus as victor over death. While he was still in Galilee, ⁷ that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” [The statement of the angels is slightly different from Mark.] ⁸ Then they remembered his words, the women have an immediately favorable response. [Verses 6b-8 differs considerably.  In Mark, they are told to go to Galilee with the disciples, while here they are reminded of a saying of Jesus made in Galilee to the effect that Jesus must suffer and die.] ⁹ Further, returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰ Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. [They share the message with others, while in Mark they remain silent.] ¹¹ However, these words seemed to them an idle tale, describing the response of the disciples, contrasting to that of the women. The testimony of the women does not engender faith. Further, they did not believe them. ¹² But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, this seems uncharacteristically cautious and timid, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; seeing the same thing as the women did, then he went home, amazed, where we can contrast this response to the believing response of the women. Thus, instead of running out with a word to proclaim, Peter slips away “wondering to himself” at what had happened.

In the account of the discovery of the empty tomb by Luke, we find the women coming to the tomb, unconcerned about who will roll the stone away. The disciples are in Jerusalem. This passage stresses the emptiness of the tomb. The women did not just peek timidly in the doorway.  They entered the tomb and proceeded to search high and low for Jesus.  Standing in the midst of this Easter miracle, the women are "at a loss" or "perplexed" about the whereabouts of Jesus' body.  They were still trying to comprehend Jesus in death as they did in life--in wholly human terms.  The empty tomb offers mute evidence that such a departure has now taken place.  'Why do you look for the living among the dead?" was a well-known proverbial saying.  Contrast Luke's favorable presentation of these women with the lukewarm response of Peter.  They just spoke idle tales. Once Peter arrives at the tomb, uncharacteristic caution and timidity restrict him.  Holding himself back, Peter gingerly "stoops down" or "peers in" to the darkened tomb.  He too witnesses its emptiness and the discarded grave clothes.  Nevertheless, unlike the women, he does not remember Jesus' words or believe a miracle has taken place.  Instead of running out with a word to proclaim, Peter slips away, “wondering to himself” about what he has witnessed. The disciples did not believe because of the report of the women. It is not so much that the disciples just did not believe. Rather, they believed something else. If people say they do not believe God raised Jesus from the dead, it means they believe something else more strongly. Easter challenges our certainties. Experience teaches us that death wins. Everyone succumbs to it. Easter raises the question of whether we can be so sure that death truly wins. It opens the door to the possibility that while death is real, death is not final. The resurrection of Jesus tells us that God has the final word. God says life will have the final word. [3]

When all we see is death, we search for life. We seek the living among the dead.

My childhood fascination with the results of the explorations of science has remained with me. Yes, the first efforts of launching into space in the 1960s and 1970s had me glued to the television. Whether a spacewalk or a moonwalk, such scientific accomplishments made my imagination soar. Of course, along with that is science fiction. Traveling through the galaxy or even to different galaxies always gets my imagination going. Yes, I like Star Trek and Star Wars. I imagine that as long as humans have been looking at the stars, they have wondered if there is life on distant planets.

We live in a world full of sin, darkness, and death. Think of the violence through a radical and militant Islam that we have seen again in Brussels. Think of the violence displayed by ISIS against all persons, but especially Christians, throughout the Middle East, where we witness a form of religious genocide. Yes, we live in a world of sin, death, and darkness. It seems overwhelming.

Yet, Easter changes everything. As followers of Jesus, we do not just lament the presence of darkness. We do our part bring the light of Christ into it.

First, Easter changes the way we look at Jesus. Easter is both the most powerful and the most challenging Sunday on which to preach each year. The church asks people to believe things difficult to believe. When Thomas says to the other disciples, 'Unless I see … I will not believe,” we can identify with him. I understand the difficulty. I have family and friends who will say to me, quite skeptically, almost as if they think I am stupid, “You do not really believe that, do you?” Behind the question is the modern skeptic that always wonders how we can “know” anything to be true. Behind it also is the post-modern question of authenticity. Do you really believe or are you just saying you do? Well, in I Corinthians 15, we have a list of witnesses to the appearances of Jesus after his death. These witnesses lived and died for what they believed. The first Easter changed their lives, and continues to change the lives of people – like you and me.

Second, Easter changes the way we look at God. The church makes the claim that if people are to know God, they will have to look to this Jewish man, Jesus of Nazareth. Everything Christians know about God, Christians discover there. In particular, we know that God is love because the Son died for us and received new life.

Third, Easter changes the way we look at what makes a human life whole. Even if one could “prove” it, it would not be enough. An historical event does not change your life. What does change your life is when you entrust yourself to its truth.[4] When we come to the resurrection, the church is not asking you to make a historical judgment. Deciding an event is historical does not change your life. The church is asking you to consider your core values and beliefs. The church is asking you to look at what gives your life its meaning and power. The church is asking you to become a disciple, a follower, of Jesus Christ to transform this world of sin, darkness, and death into a place that reflects our creation in the image of God, reflects light, and brings life.

People sometimes complain that human life is short. For some, of course, it may well be. That is what makes the death of young so tragic. We can imagine all that might have been. However, if we have the blessing of a long life, the problem with which life confronts us may not be that life is so short. Life may well be long enough. Beneath the concern for its brevity may well be that we have wasted a lot of it. If you are fortunate to have had a generous among of chronological time, the issue is how you have invested it. If we have spent our time on surface matters like gaining more stuff or on worthless activity, then the approach of death makes us realize that life has passed us by almost before we knew it was passing. We make our lives short by wasting it. With the exception of the death of the young, of course, life is sufficiently long, of course, if you know how to use it.[5]

Lloyd Douglas, in The Robe, has Marcelus, the Roman centurion who had the robe of Jesus become a Christian and tells his fiancée the story of Jesus.  She responds, "It's a beautiful story, Marcellus, but we don't have to do anything about it, do we?  Let's leave it just where it is."  Marcellus says, "That's just it, I cannot forget it.  Because it happened, things can never be the same for me again." 

Fourth, Easter changes the way we look at human destiny. After all, we live in a world where death is so final.  We live in a Good Friday sort of world.  The friend of these women had died Friday.  They must have experienced the same pain any of us feels when a loved dies. For many people, death is the end of the story. God had a different idea. The resurrection of Jesus means that the worst thing is never the last thing.[6] Part of the purpose of such a hope is that it invades our present world of sin, darkness, and death in a way that it gives us the courage to move forward in confronting the challenges of our lives.[7] Easter tells us that it is never too late to have hope.
Because of Easter, those who follow the living Christ are always seeing life where others see death. The world is not a cold, lifeless, rocky, death-like, dark place, but a world with a hope and future. We live and work in the present, no matter how darkness seems to rule for its “hour,” with that future in mind. Paul says to the Corinthians, "Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (I Corinthians 15:58). God turned over a rock and revealed life. That is the best news this planet has ever received!

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[1] Ludemann is helpful here.

[2] Alan E. Lewis, Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), 59-60.

[3] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=558 Gary R. Koester

[4] As Paul Tillich (Systematic Theology, Vol. Two, Part III. II. 6) puts it, memorably, I think, “A wrong faith can destroy the meaning of a life; a wrong historical judgment cannot.” The truth of the gospel is not just for the head. The truth of the gospel is for heart and life. Such truth and such change require people to look at their lives in a different way. One must now live life in reference to Jesus, and not just in reference to self.   

[5] It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury, and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death's final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: We are not given a short life, but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied, but wasteful of it ... Life is long if you know how to use it.--Seneca.

[6] Frederick Buechner: “Resurrection means the worst thing is never the last thing.”

[7] Hope gives us the courage to confront our circumstances and the capacity to surmount them. For all my patients, hope, true hope, has proved as important as any medication I might prescribe or any procedure I might perform.- Jerome Groopman, The Anatomy of Hope, 2004, xiv