What is Resurrection: A Journey of Discovering

“Peace be with you.”

“Let’s Pray. Father may your will be done. Jesus may your word be proclaimed. Spirit may your work be accomplished in us we pray. Amen.”

I. Introduction: The Unexpected.

This Easter sermon might not be what you expected.

You may have come here hoping for answers—hoping to hear the “why” and “how” of the Resurrection all spelled out. What it means. What happened. What to do with it. But I’ve got to be honest with you: this Gospel passage from Luke doesn’t really give us that.

Instead of explanations, we’re met with mystery.

Instead of certainty, we’re offered confusion.

If you find yourself perplexed by this whole idea of resurrection—if you’re not sure what it really means or what difference it makes—you’re not alone. The first witnesses to the resurrection didn’t understand it either. In fact, they were left standing at the tomb, just like we are this morning… unsure, confused, and wide-eyed.

But maybe that’s the point.

Maybe Easter doesn’t begin with answers. Maybe it begins with wonder. With questions. With the open space of curiosity. Because Luke doesn’t give us the meaning of the resurrection—not right away. He simply invites us to investigate it. To lean in. To be drawn into something deeper.

And that’s exactly what we’re going to do today.

II. The Open Grave.

Luke begins his resurrection account in a way that’s surprisingly quiet.

No earthquake. No flashes of light. Just a group of women arriving early in the morning to finish burying a dead friend.

They bring spices. They bring grief. They bring expectations of death.

But what they find is… nothing. No body. Just an empty tomb and two strangers in dazzling clothes asking them a question:

“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.”

Now let’s be honest—we know the end of the story. We know this is good news. But for them? This is disorienting.

They didn’t come to find a risen Savior. They came to find a sealed tomb and a lifeless body. Instead, they find the stone rolled away and the body missing. And that message—He is risen—it doesn’t register. Luke says they were “perplexed.” Stunned. Frozen. Baffled.

And when they go to tell the other disciples, they’re not believed. Their words are dismissed as idle talk, nonsense. Even though Jesus had told them he would rise, it didn’t fit into their world. It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t something they could grasp.

Why? Because resurrection wasn’t something they had ever seen before.

III. What They thought Resurrection was.

To understand their reaction, we have to understand what they thought resurrection meant.

Thankfully, we get a glimpse of that earlier in the Gospel of John—at the grave of another man: Lazarus.

Jesus arrives after Lazarus has died, and he’s met by Martha.

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’” (John 11:21–24)

That’s the key. Martha believed in resurrection—but only as something that would happen later, at the end of time. It was a future hope, not a present reality.

But Jesus flips the script.

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live…” (v. 25)

Jesus doesn’t point to a day. He points to himself.

Resurrection isn’t just something that happens. It’s something—someone—who has come.

The women at the tomb weren’t expecting that. The disciples weren’t expecting that. None of them were ready for resurrection to break into the middle of history. And so they’re confused. Dismayed. Suspicious.

Because what do you do when something entirely new breaks into your world?

IV. Uncharted Territory

What we see at the empty tomb is more than a surprise. It’s the birth of a new category of life.

This is not just a dead man walking again. This is a new creation stepping out of the grave. Jesus doesn’t just come back—he moves forward. He passes through death and into something we’ve never seen before.

That’s why they can’t wrap their minds around it. Resurrection isn’t just about survival—it’s about transformation. It’s not about going back to the way things were. It’s about moving forward into the way things should be.

And here’s the thing: Luke doesn’t give us much more detail. He doesn’t describe Jesus showing up just yet. He doesn’t let us hear his voice or see his wounds. He leaves us—like the disciples—with an open question.

What does this all mean?

That’s the invitation.

Luke gives us the space to be curious. To feel the tension. To follow the women in their trembling. To admit we don’t yet understand—but we want to.

And that’s where Peter comes in.

V. Captured by Curiosity.

When the women tell the others, most of them shrug it off. They think it’s nonsense. But Peter—Peter can’t leave it alone.

Luke says he ran to the tomb.

He stoops down. He peers inside. He sees the linen cloths. And then he leaves—not with clarity, but with wonder.

He goes home marveling at what had happened.

That’s the right response to resurrection.

Not having it all figured out. Not pretending to understand. But letting the mystery draw you in. Letting the possibility of a risen Christ lead you on a journey of discovery.

VI. An Open Investigation.

So no—I haven’t resolved all your questions this morning. Luke doesn’t try to either.

But what we are given is an invitation. An open door.

The tomb is empty and the linen wrappings are all folded. And that means something.

Over the next six weeks, during the Easter season, we’re going to explore what that something is. We’ll follow the risen Jesus as he walks with his disciples, breaks bread with them, calls them by name, and sends them out in resurrection power. We’ll learn what resurrection looks like in real life.

But today, the question is simple:

Will you be like those disciples who dismissed the report?

Or will you be like Peter—willing to run, to stoop low, to peer in, and to marvel?

Because resurrection life is not something you fully understand before you begin. It’s something you grow into as you follow the One who passed through death into life—and now calls you to do the same.

So come. Come and marvel. Come and investigate. Come and see.

Jesus is alive—and everything is different.