Faithful, Yet Forgetful
“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
During the Lenten Season, we journeyed together through the third and the longest canonical Gospel, the Gospel according to Luke. Then, on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, we read and reflected upon Luke’s account of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. Now, today, on Easter Sunday, let us be led by Luke with “the women” to the tomb in which Jesus’ body was laid by Joseph of Arimathea, a tomb “in which no one had previously been laid” (Luke 24:53).
Luke recounts that it was on the first day of the week (i.e., Sunday), very early in the morning, when “the women” carrying spices and perfumes came to the tomb where Jesus had been laid on that harrowing Friday evening, a mere day and a half earlier (v. 1; cf. Luke 23:56). “The women” in view are spoken of more fully in v. 10. Seemingly, these are at least some of the same women who accompanied Jesus over the sweep of his earthly ministry (8:1-3) and who stuck with him to the grisly end, mourning and wailing along the way (23:26-31).
Upon arrival at the tomb, they found that the stone had been rolled away, but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus (24:2- 3). Their perplexity at this discovery gives way to unbridled fear when “two men in dazzling clothes” suddenly appear (24:4-5a). The two men not only appear to the women out of nowhere, but they also speak to the women. They ask them a probing, leading question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” (24:5b).
On the heels of this question, they declare, “He is not here, but is risen!” (24:6a). Furthermore, these men call upon the women to remember that Jesus had spoken regularly (since the time they were together in Galilee) about that which had recently transpired before their very eyes. If unprecedented, Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection should not have been unanticipated (24:6b-7).
Subsequently, Luke reports that the women went and told the Eleven and “all the others” what they had seen and heard. With the partial exception of Peter, however, their words, which were received and regarded as “an idle tale,” fell on deaf ears and hard hearts (24:9-12).
In concluding this devotional, we will do well to note and to linger upon the five words (in both Greek and English) that comprise 24:8, lest they fall through the textual cracks. Between the two men speaking and the women returning home from the tomb, Luke adds, “Then they remembered his words.” Their recollection of Jesus’ words amid their sorrow and shock gave them both the ability and capacity to continue to follow and to be faithful to the one who was faithful unto death and who was raised—and lives—by the power of God (see 2 Corinthians 13:4). This Easter may we also remember and rejoice in “this Jesus God raised up” (Acts 2:32).
Our all-loving and all-powerful God, we are so grateful on this Easter Sunday morning that you did not allow your Holy One to undergo decay (Acts 2:27, 31) and that you continue by the power of the Holy Spirit to give us life, both in the here and the hereafter, through the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25), even Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
TODD D. STILL, PHD
DeLancey Chair of the Dean and Hinson Professor of Christian Scriptures
Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary