April 12, 2009
Background Scripture: Luke 24:1-12
Devotional Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:12-26

For some people, the Good News of Jesus Christ does not extend much beyond the manger of Bethlehem. For others, the Good News turns into the Bad News of Calvary.

But neither the manger nor the cross would matter to us today if the tomb was the final resting place of Jesus Christ. The joy of Christmas, the tragedy of Good Friday and the eternal surprise of Easter are all part of one story: Christ is risen!

When Jesus died on Calvary, his disciples and his enemies thought that was the end of him. The followers of Jesus did not anticipate a sequel to the crucifixion. Luke does not even tell us where the disciples were.

Obviously, they were not gathered in joyful expectation that Jesus had conquered death and risen as he had told them. The tragedy of Calvary blocked their remembrance.

The women who went to the tomb did not go there to find the risen Christ. They went there to lovingly minister to his dead body. But the body was not there!

Instead, they were confronted by “two men … in dazzling apparel.” The women were not inspired by these “dazzling” strangers; they were “frightened and bowed their faces to the ground.”

Then they remembered

The words of the two messengers (angels) were the Good News of Jesus Christ that they had not expected, the same words they speak to us today: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 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.”

These are the very words which Jesus had spoken to them in Luke 9:22 and 44. And Luke tells us that then “… they remembered his words …” (24:5-8).

Perhaps at the time they had not understood what Jesus told them. Maybe the horror of the experience on Calvary had driven the words from their memory.

Or possibly it was because when they first heard those words, they focused on the crucifixion, not the rising “on the third day.”
That part of it may have seemed too good to be true. And so it seemed when the excited women – “Mary Magdalene and Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women with them” – went and found the grieving, defeated apostles and told them what they had experienced at the tomb.

Was it because this message came from the women (let’s face it – the apostles, as men of their own times, probably did not take the words of women seriously)? Or was it because the message had not come directly to them, the apostles (after all, they were Jesus’ closest followers, weren’t they?), that they reacted incredibly or even predictably: “But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them” (24:10,11).

Victors, not victims

Let’s not be too judgmental with the apostles. Who among us might have reacted differently?

When we stand by the grave of a departed loved one, it is understandable for us to seek the “living among the dead” and even to find the promise of life after death “an idle tale.” The overpowering emotions of grief and loss can temporarily obscure the message of Easter.

Death, however, is not the last word for Jesus Christ or us. His death and rising become our access to eternity and we make that transition as he did and does – not as victims, but victors. So the Good News of Easter is both cosmic and personal. It is not just about Jesus’ victory over death, but ours, too.

Thus, although Easter morning begins in darkness, as Clement of Alexandria put it: “God changes sunset into sunrise.”

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.