The Empty Tomb
 

The death of a messianic hopeful leading a kingdom of God on a Roman cross meant the end of the movement. This is ‘what happened’ in over a dozen such first century movements. But this opening story reveals that the cross was not the end of Jesus.   

But this was difficult for the disciples to believe, even though they were told over and over again. The two angels tell the women how Jesus had told them that he would be delivered over to sinful men, be crucified and then rise from the dead on the third day (Luke 24:6-7). Jesus had told his disciples that he must die and rise again on numerous occasions (Mark 8:31, 9:9, 10:33-34)  Jesus ‘told them so’ but his disciples simply did not hear what Jesus was trying to tell them.

For most Jews in Jesus’ day ‘the resurrection’ was something that God would do for all the ‘righteous’ at the ‘last day’ (John 11:23-24). So it wasn’t just a lack of faith that kept them believing what Jesus had said. One isolated individual being resurrected to a new bodily life, while the rest of the world continued as is was not in their thinking.

The women carried spices to the tomb expecting to find the dead body of Jesus (Luke 24:1). The Apostles didn't expect Jesus to die or rise again from the dead. When the women told the Apostles that they found the tomb empty and how the angels said Jesus was alive their words seemed like nonsense (Luke 24:11-12). Such a wild story might be expected from women overwhelmed with grief over the death of a loved one.

That this was hard for the women and the Apostles to believe actually makes this story more believable. In the ancient world women were not considered credible witnesses. Also the story portrays the apostles not as models of faith; but full of doubt and unbelief. You see this is not the kind of account someone would make up if they were trying to start a religion.

Like many moderns, the Apostles found the story of the empty tomb and the testimony of the angels that Jesus had risen from the dead to be nonsense. They knew just as much as people today know that ‘dead people stay dead’. They were not inclined to believe it even though Jesus ‘told them in advance!’ Let’s be clear, the gospel of the ‘resurrected Messiah’ is not something man would make up (Gal. 1:11). The empty tomb and the testimony of the angels is the beginning of the good news that turns the over wise tragic death of Jesus on a Roman cross. But it was good news that none of Jesus’ disciples expected!