Jesus' followers, due to the imminent Passover Sabbath, were unable to completely prepare his lifeless body for proper burial immediately after He was taken down from the cross that Friday afternoon. So they "wrapped Him in linen cloth and placed Him in a tomb cut in rock in which no one had yet been laid. ... Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes [for the coming proper burial]. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment" [Luke 23:53, 56]. The light in the souls of these poor Galilean women had just been extinguished; their souls were covered with sackcloth. They were depressed, exhausted, mourning and utterly hopeless. They expected nothing following the Passover except more sorrow. They certainly never expected to find an empty tomb awaiting them.
"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus" [24:1-3]. Now they were completely confused and bewildered! The apostle John tells us that Mary Magdalene thought Jesus' body had been stolen and, rather than providing joy and relief, the empty tomb only intensified their distress.
"While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground" [vv. 4-5]. Suddenly everything changed and the women were overcome with fear. While they bowed, one of the angels voice the immortal rebuke, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?" [v. 5]. They stood accused by God's messengers of coming to anoint a lifeless Jesus when they should have known He would rise from the dead. Sadly, too many post-modern churches today "look for Jesus among the dead." They love the example of the dead Jesus as they preach about His courage, His love and compassion for the downtrodden, His willingness to challenge the religious establishment of His day, His unwavering convictions and even His faith. Their sermons are filled with vain sentimentality as they speak of hope springing eternal, the caterpillar morphing into the butterfly with true success occurring only after one battles his own chrysalis, etc. But the word resurrection is never used ... except perhaps metaphorically.
The angels them proclaimed, "He is not here, he has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' Then they remembered His words" [vv. 6-8]. The light now had begun to come on...and it has been gaining in intensity as the centuries have marched on. We must not forget, however, that the significance of the Resurrection is inseparable from Jesus' prophetic word about both His death and resurrection. It is the Word of God that makes sense of everything. Luke 24 recounts three separate episodes [this encounter between Jesus' female followers and the angels; the encounter on the road to Emmaus; and lastly Jesus' appearance to His disciples in Jerusalem] where Jesus' followers all begin in a state of bewilderment and end up becoming witnesses to what they had seen and heard. It is highly significant to note that each of these episodes begin with a call to remember God's Word!
The prophetic word both from Jesus as well as the rest of Scripture is central to the Gospel. The atoning death of Christ is only fully understood in the light of the whole revealed Word of God. It is also significant to note that those who rejected the prophetic word also rejected the Resurrection, just as Jesus had taught they would, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead" [16:31]. The challenge for us is to be people of the Word. We must be diligent in our study, as our hearts and minds can only grasp the immensity of Christ through the light of Scriptural revelation.
Then something remarkable happened ... these bewildered, then rebuked, then instructed women actually became witnesses! They forcefully and repeatedly spoke the good news to the Eleven. Sadly, however, the men were not too impressed! "But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense" [v. 11]. They basically discounted the resurrection story they were hearing as just so much female hysteria. Would we have done any differently??? Yet these are the very same men over whom Jesus had prayed for an entire night before calling them to be His disciples [6:12, 13]. And again over whom He had just extendedly prayed on the night of His betrayal. Their faith would become the very foundation of the Church. Like so many of us, they had heard but not heard God's Word. It somehow never occurred to them think that Jesus meant exactly what He said. We would do well to remember that 99 percent of Scripture is intelligible. It was Mark Twain who once said, "It's not what I don't understand about the Bible that bothers me. It's what I do understand!" The apostles failed to put into practice what they did understand. Jesus had earlier prayed, "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth!" [John 17:17]. Like the Eleven our growth toward spiritual maturity begins only by heeding the Word.
No comments:
Post a Comment