Context No. 2879 of 4322 · Luke
Context · Reflection
Luke 24:6-12: in context
6He isn’t here, but is risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee, 7saying that the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again?” 8They remembered his words, 9returned from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them told these things to the apostles. 11These words seemed to them to be nonsense, and they didn’t believe them. 12But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he departed to his home, wondering what had happened.
At the empty tomb the angels tell the women, he is not here, but is risen. Then they add a pointed reminder: remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be crucified and rise on the third day. The women remember his words, run to tell the eleven, and are met with disbelief, their report dismissed as nonsense. Only Peter gets up and runs to the tomb, sees the linen cloths, and goes home wondering.
Two things stand out. The angels' remedy for confusion is memory: remember what he told you. Jesus had said all of this plainly beforehand, but grief had buried it; the resurrection was foretold, and they only needed to recall his own words. And notice that the first witnesses are women, whose testimony the men brush aside as an idle tale, yet the women are right and the apostles wrong. God entrusted the very first news of the resurrection to those the world was least ready to believe.
When God's promise seems too good to believe, do I dismiss it like the apostles, or remember that he told me plainly and go to see for myself?