The Gospel of Luke
Chapter 24
The previous chapter closed out in gloom with the grinding closed of a rock-cut tomb. Jesus had been crucified and hastily laid to rest; a new day would provide a new opportunity to minister to the remains. Yet the remains did not remain—Jesus rose from the dead and this whole chapter focuses on the stunning theme of resurrection. First is a report, then an explanation of the report and finally an appearance that makes the truth unassailable.
The Report—Luke 24:1-12
Even in their grief the women had prepared a mixture of spices suitable to prepare a body for decent burial. Now that daylight approached on the first day of the week, they set out for the cemetery to finish the job that Joseph of Arimathea had begun. At the tomb, of course, they discovered the stone—weighing from 400 to 1700 pounds—had been rolled away from the entrance. This would be upsetting enough, but when they entered, expecting to find the body on a bench immediately inside the door, they found the bench unoccupied.
Suddenly two men (angels) in radiant clothing stood beside them. Over and over in the Scriptures we see that the appearance of angels causes people to fall face down in fright. This is no exception; their nerves were probably already raw and the startling sight of angels would have set their hearts racing! The men announced Jesus to be alive and reminded them of the words of the Lord concerning His crucifixion and resurrection on the third day and with that, they remembered that He had, in fact, said that!
The returned from the tomb and told the Eleven remaining disciples and the others who were there with them. Luke identified the women involved as some of the same women mentioned much earlier in Luke 8:2-3—Mary Magdalene, Joanna (whose husband, Cuza, was a steward of Herod Antipas), Mary the mother of James, and some others. It may be that Luke identified these women because they furnished him information as eyewitnesses so that he could write accurately about this event. When the women returned, they made their report to the gathered disciples, but nobody believed them initially because it seemed beyond belief. In fact, Luke used a rare word that meant, “delirium,” the ramblings of a fevered mind! Remember that nobody expected a bodily resurrection of Jesus! And when Peter got to the tomb, he found it empty except for the strips of linen and he wondered what had happened . . .
The Explanation—Luke 24:13-35
Still on the first day of this week, two other disciples have concluded the Passover in Jerusalem and rested on the Sabbath, but now are ready to return to Emmaus, some several miles away. As they walked along the road, they naturally talked and their conversation centered on the strange events of Jesus’ execution and aftermath. It would be natural for travelers in the same direction to cluster together and even to visit with each other, and so Jesus, unrecognizable to them, asked the topic of their earnest conversation. They stopped and sad silence finally gave way to a question: Are you so brand-new to Jerusalem that you haven’t heard about all this?
When Jesus asked of what
they spoke, they told Him the story: a powerful prophet, killed by the
authorities although we hoped He was the One. This is the third day and we got a
very strange report by some of our women. They said He was missing from the tomb
and they saw angels who
said He was alive and some men also went to the tomb and they found the same thing and there was no body to be found there.
Jesus responded that they were unwise and untaught and unwilling to believe the full words of the prophets. He then explained to them how the Scriptures presaged the events of the Messiah. He explained from Moses and He explained from the prophets, which rather sounds as though He explained from each of the prophets individually what had been said about Himself!
When they arrived at Emmaus, He acted as if He’d continue on, but they asked Him to stay and they were very insistent. He came inside with them and an evening meal was prepared. When they gathered at the table, Jesus suddenly picked up the bread, gave thanks (as everyone would), and broke it for distribution. In that moment, His true identity was revealed to them and they recognized Him—and He vanished.
They looked at each other and suddenly everything was clear to them and it was no wonder that they were so excited and energized by His explanation of the Scriptures while they walked together on that brief journey. They immediately got up and hurried back the seven miles or so to Jerusalem to seek out the disciples and give their report, but when they finally arrived, the Eleven launched with their own report. By now, Jesus had also appeared to Peter and so he corroborated the story of the women. And these two disciples filled in their experience and detailed how they finally recognized Him in the breaking of bread.
The Appearance—Luke 24:36-53
This section opens within that same event-filled first day of the week. The hubbub was still in progress when Jesus suddenly appeared among these disciples. Even though they had the doors and windows closed and locked, He was not hindered from simply appearing to them. Naturally, they were alarmed at His sudden presence! He instantly tried to calm them and make sure they understood the resolution of their doubts. They presumed they saw a ghost (!), but He pointed out that their own observation would put paid to that idea. He showed them His hands and feet, to see the wounds, offered to let them touch Him, pointed out that “ghosts” don’t have flesh and bone as He does, and even demonstrated eating a piece of fish in an attempt to lay their fears to rest.
By this time in the gospel, Luke is actually running out of physical space in his scroll. The longest scrolls available would be about 28 feet long, and this telling of the gospel would approach that length. Because of his space constraints, he quickly summarized key words and ideas from the 40 days Jesus spent with His disciples. Luke was plainly aware of this extended period; he brought it up in the first few verses of Acts! Yet here, he had only a little space left, so he provided for us a very concise ending.
Jesus explained what was said about Himself in the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, corresponding to the entire Old Testament. He gave them the ability to understand the Scriptures and plainly told them that their responsibility was to move the message of the gospel outward to all the nations of the world, beginning from Jerusalem. They would serve as witnesses who would testify to the things they had heard and seen. Jesus further promised that He would send what had been promised by the Father (obviously meaning the Holy Spirit) and that they should wait within the city for the power that was coming to them.
With that, Luke told how Jesus went out to Bethany, a short distance from Jerusalem, and lifted up His hands and blessed His disciples—and continued lifting up into heaven itself! In their joy, they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem (Luke omits here the intervention of angels again, but he’ll include that in Acts, also!). They spent the next days in the Temple courts praising God—but what happened next was as amazing as what had gone before!