Tuesday 10 July 2012
- Bible Book:
- Luke
"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.'" (v. 5)
Background
Dusk on Friday until dusk on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath day ofrest gave an important gap of time between the Friday when Jesusdied and the early morning of the Sunday, when the women found thatthe stone had been rolled away and there was no body. This periodof time when Jesus was buried is spiritually important for us.Empathetically, we can lie buried with Jesus through our ownexperiences of despair and death, and then after a period of time,the right time, God's time, we can find ourselves raised to lifewith Jesus and moving through our grief to new life.
The women were full of awe at the discovery of the empty tomb.They are amazed. It is beyond their rational comprehension. The twomen in dazzling clothes, almost chide them, asking why they areseeking the living among the dead? Some of our experiences of life,and of following Jesus, are very painful, but there comes a pointwhere God challenges us to move on in faith, and believe in thepossibility of a new beginning.
The power to move on and through the experience comes withremembering the words of Jesus. The two men in dazzling clothes say"remember how he told you" (v. 5), and then they remembered hiswords. We too need to 'remember the words of Jesus' to draw insightfrom them.
The women then went back to tell the apostles (verse 10). Whenwe experience the surprise of resurrection, we too are filled witha desire to tell others, and it is not easy. But the apostles didnot believe the women (verse 11). Peter had to go and see forhimself, and he found it as the women said and was amazed (verse12). The experience of resurrection in the aftermath of death isunexpected gift and utterly awesome.
To Ponder
- Why do you think the two men in dazzling clothes were almostsharp with the women asking why they sought the living among thedead?
- In what ways have you experienced a sense of resurrection inyour life or life coming out of death (or someone known to you, ora community known to you)?
- Why do you think it was important for the women to tell theapostles?