Context No. 3781 of 4322 · Luke
Context · Reflection
Luke 24:1-5: in context
1But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they and some others came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3They entered in, and didn’t find the Lord Jesus’ body. 4While they were greatly perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling clothing. 5Becoming terrified, they bowed their faces down to the earth. The men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?
At early dawn the women come to the tomb with their spices, expecting to tend a body, and instead they find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. As they stand perplexed, two men in dazzling clothing ask them a question that turns everything around: why do you seek the living among the dead?
The women had come in love but in grief, still thinking of Jesus among the dead, when in truth he was alive. The angels' question is gently corrective and full of joy: they were looking in the wrong place, for the wrong thing, because they had not yet grasped that Jesus had risen. He was not to be found among the dead, for he lives. There is an invitation in that question for us. How often do we seek life, hope, and answers in places where they cannot be found, among things that are passing and dead, when the living Christ, risen and present, is the true source of the life we long for. He is not among the dead; he is alive, and life is found in him.
Am I seeking life and hope among things that are passing and cannot give it, when the living Christ, risen from the dead, is himself the source of the life I long for?