Luke 24:1-8 (NIV) 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. 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, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you 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.
The Easter story has become so well-known among Christians that, for many, it has lost its wonder. But the events of that morning mark a profound break with “the way things always happen,” and have never allowed them to go back to the old way again.
Several of the women who had come to Jerusalem with Jesus had worked until sunset on Friday, the start of the Sabbath, in preparing herbs and spices, and then finalized their preparations as soon as the sun went down on Saturday, ending the day of rest. Their intent was to be back at Josephs tomb in the garden at first light on Sunday, somehow roll the immense stone away from the tomb’s opening, and then unwrap Jesus’ body, bathe it, anoint it properly with the scented oils that they had assembled, then rewrap it more carefully than the short time span had allowed for before the Sabbath had started. It was a final act of respect and devotion for the man that they had believed was the Messiah.
But imagine their surprise when they arrived and found the stone already rolled away from the mouth of the tomb. And imagine their dismay when they went in and found that Jesus’ body was gone. The grave clothes were still there (John 20:6-7), but they were collapsed, lying flat. They ran their hands quickly over them, but all they could feel was the cold stone slab beneath. The body was completely gone!
While they were still wondering, before they had even had time to do more than to cry out in dismay, the tomb was suddenly filled with a brilliant light that threw their shadows onto the wall in stark outline. They turned and saw two men behind them whose faces and clothes shone like the sun, and instantly they recognized them as angels, and fell with their faces to the ground in terror.
But the angels were not there as agents of God’s judgment; they were there as messengers of good news: Jesus was not there because He had risen from the dead, just as He had told them that He would. The fact that they were stunned and troubled by this, the fact that their minds had gone everywhere EXCEPT resurrection when they found the tomb empty, actually caused God Himself to be a little bemused. They so honored and respected Jesus, so honored His teachings, but they completely dismissed His prophecy that He would rise on the third day. God’s messengers accurately communicated that divine bemusement by their question and announcement: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!”
Father, unfortunately, I can absolutely understand exactly where those women were in their thinking, because we are still there today. We believe Your word right up to the point where we cease to see how Your promises can be fulfilled in our own strength, or by our own technology or modern science. But we rarely believe You beyond that. We believe that You can heal people from the things that we can treat medically. We believe You can help us to be successful in our calling if we work and strive at it. We believe You can transform lives through education and good Christian counseling. And we believe that You can raise the dead if EMTs are on the scene with defibrillators and it hasn’t been too long. But Your abilities are neither defined nor limited by our knowledge, our skills, or our technology. If You make a promise or tell us that You want to do something, the only thing that can stop it is our unwillingness to believe and act on Your direction (cf. Matthew 17:19-21). Forgive us, Lord, for our small faith. Help us, help me, to believe Your word completely, and to follow Your lead wherever You send us, so that Your supernatural power can work all around and through us. Amen.