A Morning like This

One of the strongest arguments for Jesus’ resurrection is that His followers did not expect it.

Concordia Commentary: Luke 9:51–24:53 The Angels’ Announcement to the Women (23:56b–24:8)

The hearer of the gospel observes a transformation taking place in the women as they move through these events. Having kept the Sabbath according to the commandment, the women come to the tomb from the perspective of the old covenant of salvation. Note how the tomb is emphasized in this section: they are coming to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body because they think Jesus is dead. This is the attitude of those who are still living in the old covenant: they have confidence in resurrection on the Last Day, as Martha says in Jn 11:24 (see, e.g., Job 19:25–27; Is 25:6–9; Dan 12:2–3), but they certainly do not expect resurrection now.

Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Resurrection, Christ’s

Hugh Schonfield’s Passover Plot is one of the literary attempts to explain away the events of the crucifixion and the resurrection. But it, like all the others, relies on that ancient lie circulated in the very first century by the soldiers who were paid to say that the friends of Jesus had come and stolen his body away. But no one has ever been able to explain how that could happen.

Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. … through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Luke 24:1–12 ESV

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. … through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Luke 24:1–11 ESV

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

It was a morning like this. When you think about it, it has to be at least interesting that God sends angels to reveal what has happened to the women but not to the men. If nothing else, it speaks to the “Great Reversal” theme that Arthur A. Just, Jr discusses in the Concordia Commentary: Luke series. Jesus’ coming into the world is, itself, evidence of God’s intention to reverse our expectations and sympathies through His own divine intervention. We try to “put God in a box” of our expectations. We hope that way, to control the possibility of disappointment. A “tamed God” might not be able to do “above all we ask or think,” but at least He won’t disappoint us.

It was a morning like this. The disciples were filled with disappointment and confusion. A week ago, they were flush with the knowledge that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead! They experienced the excitement of Palm Sunday, watched as the crowds of Jerusalem proclaimed their leader and Rabbi to be “the Messiah.” They even saw Him challenge established but questionable money-changing practices of the religious establishment and come out unscathed! He was so special, that even Gentiles wanted to meet Him.

It was a morning like this. The disciples were filled with disappointment and confusion. A week ago, they were flush with the knowledge that Jesus could even raise the dead! They experienced the excitement of Palm Sunday, watched as the crowds of Jerusalem proclaimed their leader and rabbi to be “the Messiah.” They even saw Him challenge established but questionable practices of the religious establishment and come out unscathed! He was so special, that even Gentiles wanted to meet Him.

But somehow, the God whom He described as His Father allowed those same religious leaders to align with the hated Roman overlords to bring about Jesus’ arrest and execution. They knew that God could not die, and they were beginning to believe that His Son could not either, given the way that He was able to reverse the sickness and death of others, cast out demons with a word, and challenge the religious and political leadership with impunity!

Now, they have had three days to absorb the incredible terrible reversal of watching their Rabbi, their Messiah, reduced to an almost unrecognizable form of pain and wounding and hung up on a Roman cross to display before the world that He was no more powerful against them than anyone else had proved to be. Three days to try to figure out what they should do with their lives, now that He had been brutally ripped out of them. Instead of looking for a Kingdom not made with hands, they had watched brutal hands, sinful hands, hateful hands, destroy the promise and hope of the most loving Man they had ever met.

It was a morning like this, when it was sweet, but sad, to listen to the illogical babble of Jesus’ women followers and supporters, as they claimed that He was no longer dead, and that He would in fact meet them in Galilee. Of course, they must have simply went to the wrong tomb, or did not go in far enough to see His body - besides, who would have rolled away that stone for them? Of course, it was a woman that foolishly listened to the Serpent in the Garden that unleashed sin and death in the first place. Everyone knows that women are fragile and cannot be depended on when it comes to the grave matters of life. Two men in dazzling clothes? Angels or hallucinations, who knows? Meet Jesus in Galilee? If only!

Luke 24:12 ESV

But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

It was a morning like this. Can you see Peter, who ran away from the sight of Jesus’ holy, innocent, bitter suffering and death, now running to His final resting place? Why does Peter run; is it to confirm the women’s story, or to prove that it was all a mistake, a terrible, crushing mistake? Oh Peter, now returning with a strange story of unwrapped grave clothes and an empty tomb. Can it be? Can the women be right? Can it be that “HE IS RISEN?”

Jesus Christ is risen today, Hallelujah! There is no dead body to revere, no tomb to decorate, at least, not with a body in it. There is no heroic death to commemorate, at least, not as the end of a wonderful, inspiring life. For Jesus the Christ has done just what He said. He is risen from the dead! The God who cannot lie sent His Son, who did not lie, to hell and back! As the Apostle Paul would later write:

1 Corinthians 15:20 ESV

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

The Resurrection was not just a happy ending, Hallelujah! It was the New Beginning - the New Creation declared on the “first day of the week” which was also the first day of the Sabbath - the New Sabbath, the Sabbath that lasts, not for a day, but forever. By His resurrection, Jesus showed that His final words of “It is finished” - the debt is paid in full - “Τετέλεσται” - were not speaking of the end of His life, but of the defeat of death itself! Death is defeated, sin is conquered, the curse is broken! His resurrection ushers in a New Creation - the Church. He is present in the Church, and the Church is present in Him. What was told as a proverb is now eschatological reality - “In Him we live and move and have our being!”

This new reality is accessed by faith, not by sight; it “comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.”

Romans 10:8–9 ESV

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

It was a morning like this; the world saw only the evidence of death and defeat, because their eyes had not been opened by faith. As it was then, so it is now, faith comes by hearing and remembering what He promised. As on that first Easter morning, a messenger invites you to know that “He was raised!”

While the devil whispers that he’s “still got it goin’ on,” like an old club hopper whose best days are years and bottles ago, the Word of the Lord declares that “Satan is defeated and we are blessed!” Some will keep being seduced by that old tempter, but the Lord offers a New Feast, with the life giving Bread of His Body and the sin cleansing Cup of the New Covenant in His Blood. The world croaks “He is dead,” but the Spirit and the Bride says “Come! He is Risen - He is Risen, indeed, Hallelujah!

He is Risen!

He is Risen indeed, Hallelujah

He is Risen

And let all God’s people say,

Amen!