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In some respects this is a strange passage. There are no robust
and exultant exclamations that the Lord has truly risen such as occur later
in the chapter (24:33-35). The discovery of the empty tomb does not lead to
fully fledged faith as quickly as in John 20:1-11, or Matthew 28:1-10 (though
in the latter the risen Jesus makes a personal appearance). It is true that
there are notes of hesitation and even downright doubt in some other resurrection
accounts (notably Mark 16:1-8 and John 20:24-25). This is hardly surprising
since the followers of Jesus were convinced they had buried him forever.
This same mist of uncertainty hangs over today’s text.
Can we not have something more positive, affirmative, rousing? We have to
take Scripture as it comes to us, and not rewrite it as we might want it to
be. When we do, we may find that it speaks to our condition with an appropriateness
that we sometimes miss. If the passage before us comes to a somewhat uncertain
end, whereas the Emmaus story which follows it is much more forthcoming, perhaps
this means that faith sometimes starts from small beginnings. What the text
shows are the first faltering steps towards resurrection faith. They were
the stumbling efforts of some women disciples of Jesus, as well as of the
prince of the apostles—Peter, no less.
It is just as true today that people come to resurrection faith
with faltering steps. Sometimes faltering steps are the only ones that lead
to firm steps, like a baby learning to walk. They should be encouraged, not
despised.
The narrative begins with the perplexity of the women who found the tomb open
but empty (2-4a). The appearance of two angelic visitors moves them to terror,
and not least their announcement that Jesus has risen (5). The invitation
to recall what Jesus had taught them prompts the recognition that resurrection
had always been an item on Jesus’ agenda (8). Accordingly, they return
and report this to the eleven and all the rest (9-10). There is no forthright
declaration that had come to faith in Jesus’ resurrection, though it
may be implied. However, their report was dismissed as the product of overheated
female imagination (11). Nonetheless, Peter ran to the tomb and noticed alertly
that the linen cloths were lying where the body had been. The body had left
not merely without its clothes, but without disturbing them (12). Peter went
home amazed. Amazement is not faith, but amazing happenings pose the question
of faith. This is where the lesson ends.
Inasmuch as the narrative is concerned with how faith—particularly
in such a stupendous event as the resurrection—comes to birth, it is
important to take from the text only what it says. The time for the Hallelujah
Chorus will come. But it is not yet. The need is to nurture the first sparks
into a more steady flame. A passage like this will be handled in a very different
way from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. There Paul is addressing people who have
flatly dismissed any idea that resurrection is possible for anyone (1 Corinthians
15:12). His method is frontal attack, using logic to rebut its misuse. That
method will not work in Luke 24:1-10. Here the problem is not forthright skepticism,
but tentativeness, hesitancy, uncertainty. The objective is the same in both
cases. But the method must match the mood of the hearers.
The resurrection of Jesus is also important for the Christian
understanding of the life to come. It is not difficult to find people who
believe in life after death, but what is meant by this varies widely from
vague notions of incorporation into the World Spirit to reincarnation either
in another form or simply in one’s descendants. But the bodily resurrection
of Jesus is the anchor of the Christian belief in the bodily life of the world
to come. This is not developed in this text, but it constitutes the foundation
and validation of it.
To the fearful and surprised disciples on the first Easter Day
God’s answer came in the form of a sequence and even chain of events.
First, there was the indisputable fact: “They found the stone rolled
away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body”
(3). Then came the witness of the angels, announcing that Christ had risen
(5). Following this came the command: “Remember what he told you”
(6). Remember they did, and the coherence between what Jesus had said would
happen, and what now appeared to have happened led them to declare what they
had witnessed to their fellow-believers. While their report was greeted with
derision, Peter went to the tomb to see for himself, and noted that the position
of the grave clothes was difficult to reconcile with body-theft or resuscitation.
He was amazed, but not yet believing.
Perhaps more often than we realize, people come to faith in
Christ precept-upon-precept, line-upon-line, even if there comes a point of
completion when everything comes together.
The ultimate response God look for is fullness of faith in the
death and resurrection of Christ. These were the things Paul taught the Corinthians
as being “of first importance” (1 Corinthians 15:1-3). Faith has
an indispensably individual dimension. No one else can believe for you. At
the same time, faith also has an indispensably corporate dimension: it is
“the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude
3). However individual and isolated one may be, no one comes to faith without
the witness and influence of the community of faith.
In Luke 24:1-12 we see that process taking place. The faith
of the women disciples, slender as it was, sprouted in incipient form as together
they remembered and reflected on what Jesus had taught them, while most of
their fellow-disciples dismissed their thoughts as fiction. Yet one—Peter—began
on an inquiry which did not lead to faith immediately, but did so before long.
Perhaps our response to this narrative should be this: that
the church is the community of faith, the community of the faithful and the
community whose faith leads others to faith.
(For a sermon example
from this text go to www.preachersmagazine.org and click on “Sermons”)
Enough has been said to suggest the way in which this text should be preached.
James Denney once said that we should preach the gospel in the spirit of the
gospel. One may apply that principle to this matter by saying we should preach
the text in the spirit of the text. The spirit of Luke 24:1-12 is that of
“leading, not driving” (to borrow Wesley’s phrase); of reminding
rather than berating; of recording each advance as progress, rather than dismissing
its meager proportions. There are at least some (possibly more than we think)
who will come to faith in the resurrection of Christ only in this way.