By James Riley Strange, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Religion, Samford University
He Is Risen
Luke 24:1–8; 36–40
Each Gospel tells a distinctive resurrection story. Luke gives us the famous story of the two disciples who meet Jesus while walking to a town called Emmaus.
Today we learn what happens on either end of the Emmaus road: the empty tomb and Jesus’ appearance to “the eleven” in Jerusalem. We will see for ourselves the first proclamation of the risen Lord, the first disbelief and the first time the eleven see Jesus alive after His crucifixion.
To put today’s lesson in its context, read Luke 23:50–24:53.
The empty tomb points to the resurrection of Jesus. (1–6a)
In the last part of Chapter 23 we learn the Jewish man Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body of Jesus, prepared it as best he could and buried it in a rock-cut tomb. In Jesus’ day, the entrance would have been quite low, requiring anyone entering to stoop or crawl (v. 12).
It was typical to seal a tomb like this with a large, wheel-shaped stone. This tomb was one of several that were cut into the sides of the limestone hills outside the walls of Jerusalem, probably to the west.
The women disciples who followed Jesus in Galilee and who came down to Jerusalem with Him (23:49; 24:5) take it upon themselves to return to the tomb after the Sabbath day to anoint the body with spices and ointments (23:56). We know this part of the story: they find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. They are terrified, naturally.
The question two men in white clothing ask points out a first century Jewish understanding: the dead do not belong among the living (they are buried outside the towns) and the living do not belong among the dead (think of the Gerasene demoniac). Even though the women witness Jesus’ burial, they are looking for Him in the wrong place.
Jesus foretold His resurrection. (6b–8)
It is the wrong place to look for Him because He is not there. Not only do the women have the empty tomb as evidence, they have Jesus’ prediction of the resurrection, which He spoke to them and the other disciples while they were still in Galilee (9:22).
That finally is enough for them but it isn’t enough for the eleven, all males. When they hear these women disciples proclaim the Lord risen, they treat the good news like “an idle tale” and they do not believe.
Do not let that escape you: with the possible exception of Peter, the eleven disciples are the first nonbelievers. They must see Jesus alive in order to believe.
The disciples saw Jesus after His resurrection. (36–40)
They get their chance when Jesus appears to them in Jerusalem after meeting the two on the road. Like the women, they are “startled and terrified,” despite what Jesus has predicted. Jesus must offer His resurrected body to them and eat some fish before they will believe.
Very few believers have had the luxury of encountering the risen Jesus like these disciples did.
As the risen Jesus says in John 20:29, “Blessed are those who have not seen and who have come to believe.” But think about this: because the women and the eleven did what Jesus told them to do in 24:49, we are here today.
Thank God for their faithfulness. Now we too proclaim so others may repent and receive forgiveness for their sins.
Christ is risen (let the reader respond, “He is risen indeed”).
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