Luke 24:1-12

We can’t see it. We can’t understand that a man came back to life after having been dead for three days. First, the death didn’t compute, how Jesus could have died. But then once His death is accepted, then He comes back to life. And now this doesn’t compute. It doesn’t make sense. Understanding someone dying is easier than understanding someone undying. Death is easier to accept than resurrected life.

And because Jesus coming back to life is so hard to grasp, because our minds get a little befuddled when we really picture this happening, we keep this miracle, this mystery, this resurrection at a distance. We hold it at arms length. We are comfortable celebrating Easter as the holiday for bunnies and eggs and chocolate and spring time. That we understand. That we can hold in our minds. We can even hold the resurrection as a theological fact, something that we can discuss in Bible studies and hear about in sermons. As long as we keep this technical, at arms length, we’re okay.

And we might even hold this miracle for a day, once a year, on Easter. We might be amazed from 9:30 to 10:30, and maybe again from 6-7 this evening. But then we have to move on. We’ll have forgotten by next Sunday that the reason we worship on Sundays is because Jesus died and then undied. It’s certainly more comfortable, and a lot easier, to get back to real life tomorrow and forget this confusing mystery.

And that’s really too bad. Because the more we forget, the more we grow sad. The more we move past the resurrection, the more confused about life we become. Without the miracle of the resurrection, with the wonder of a life raised from the dead, we will stay stuck in a life that is dead.

But if we can see it and remember, our dead lives become alive lives. Our hopes come back to life after having been crushed. The light comes back into our eyes after having been extinguished. We, we, we come back to life.

See how the women in Luke 24 moved. The light came back into their lives, the hope came back into their hearts, when they remembered. They wanted this, they needed this so desperately, because they were without hope. They had accepted Jesus death, they had confronted this horrible truth. Over that Saturday, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, these women had thought and thought and cried, and by early Sunday morning, they had to face the fact. Jesus was gone. Verse 1:

Don’t go too fast, here. In verse 1, here, these ladies don’t know that there’s going to be a verse 2. They know what they’re going to find, but they don’t know what we know. They know they’re going to find Jesus’ body. And it’s not going to be nice. There will be holes in His hands and feet, and a spear hole in His side. The women, Mary Magdelene, Mary the mother of James, Salome, Joanna, and at least one other woman, had come to terms with this death, and were doing what they could to show their love. They had no hope. All they could do was take care of the body. Memories are swirling around in their minds. They’re remembering Jesus’ laugh, they’re remembering His kindness. They’re each thinking about the last time He spoke to them, the last words they said. That’s what they’re thinking. They have been overwhelmed with death, and there’s no place to go.

Until, verse 2:

This is the first clue this group has that something has happened. But they’re not looking at the stone and thinking that Jesus is alive. They’re just noticing that the grave is opened, and it’s not supposed to be. Did someone forget to roll the stone over the grave last Friday? Has it just been setting open? Did someone beat them there to take care of Jesus’ body? This is not expected, but it’s not a miracle. They’re just confused.

And they become more confused when, verse 3:

This is really wrong. Something really wrong has happened. They are still not thinking resurrection. Now, they’re thinking grave robbers. After everything that had happened to Jesus, now His body is stolen? What next? Their grief and loss has just doubled in their confusion and questions.

But, verse 4:

These are messengers from God. Angels who speak the words of God. And nothing short of God speaking is going to break through the grief and hurt and confusion of the women. They would never figure out the truth on their own. They wouldn’t believe just another human being. It took God to flash into their darkness and bring the light.

Verse 5:

They heard the message. Jesus has risen. They were reminded that Jesus had told them that He would. They are presented with the undeniable fact of an empty tomb. There is no other explanation. Jesus said He would come back to life. And Jesus has come back to life.

And this wonderful verse 8:

And this is what we need to do this morning. We have to remember. He have to remember that Jesus came to die on purpose, and then to come back to life, on purpose. We have to remember. And if we forget again, then we have to be reminded again. Because this is how we don’t live in death anymore. This is how we live in life.

Without this, everything we see, everything we touch, everything we think, everything we taste is dead. We are dead, we just don’t know it. We have no purpose for our jobs, just to get a paycheck, just to make it to the weekend, just to pay the bills. We try to have fun, but the fun doesn’t fill us up like we wanted to, and then we have to come back to reality. Our hopes for the future are shaky, because we just don’t know what we can depend on. We’ve had too many knocks, too many hurtful surprises that we never saw coming, and we don’t really dare to hope anymore. Relationships get strained and then they break, relationships with friends, even relationships with family, brothers, sisters, moms and dads. We try to fill ourselves up by filling ourselves up, with food, maybe drinking, maybe drugs. And no matter how much we put in ourselves, we’re still empty. Our lives our dead.

And then, there comes death itself. And we can’t see beyond death, it’s too big, too scary, so much pain. Death is more real than life, and death hurts so much.

And then we get to Easter, and we hear these words, that Jesus is risen. And we’re a little confused. Now about whether Jesus rose from the grave. We understand that. It’s just that we can’t see how Jesus being alive again really connects with our jobs and our play and how we get along with our family and friends, even how it affects what we have in the refrigerator. It probably should affect it, right? We’re just not really sure how. We sit here, trying to figure it out, wondering.

And while we’re wondering, scratching our heads, we hear God’s word. John 5:24

And 2 Corinthians 4:14

And we remember. It clicks. Jesus’ resurrection isn’t just for Easter anymore. It’s not even just for Sunday. His resurrection is for every action we perform, every thought that goes through our mind, every hope and wish, every tear, every worry.

Our jobs become part of a global plan for God to put everything right. Everything we do, paper work, driving, planting, nursing, cooking is all done building a world that honors and worships God.

And the tragedies on our lives become bearable, because even death has been defeated. And the worries in our lives just shrivel up, because nothing can stand against the power that brought Jesus out of the grave. We know all this, we rejoice, when we remember.

And when we remember, we talk. Verse 9:

Let’s see where they’ve come from. They started out grieving, no hope, no light in their eyes. They became confused when they saw the empty tomb. Then they remembered, and the hope came flooding in.

And now, they just have to tell someone. They just have to talk about it to somebody. Especially to those who are still stuck in death. And that’s where the Eleven disciples are. Just the fact that there are eleven is hard to live with, thinking about what Judas did to their Jesus. One of their own, an insider, gave Jesus up. And the Eleven are scared. They’re lost. They’re hopeless. They are, here in verse 10, where the women were in verse 1.

But the women have come full circle, and now they want to pass it on. They want the disciples, they need the disciples to know that Jesus isn’t dead, that He’s alive, just like He said He was going to be. The women saw the tired, sad, despairing look in their eyes, and they had this great news, and nothing could hold them back from telling them.

They told them that Jesus was alive. And if Jesus was alive and well, then death was no longer an enemy. And Satan was defeated. And God’s kingdom was coming. And life had meaning and purpose. That all their worries and concerns, all their memories and regrets, everything that dragged them down had been released and they were free. They had life flowing through them, giving resurrection glory to every moment of their lives. They were alive, because Jesus was alive. They told them to think back, to remember what Jesus had said.

But, verse 11:

This seemed impossible, too good to be true, so it wasn’t true. They couldn’t let their hopes get up, after having had their hopes crushed just three days ago. They would rather stay with the hopeless, meaningless life than trust and believe that Jesus was back from the dead.

Everyone, except Peter, who, verse 12:

And now we’ve come full circle, this circle of resurrection life. From the women, overwhelmed in sorrow, to the confusion at the tomb, to the joy of remembering, to the excitement of telling others, to the sorrow of the disciples, to the confusion of Peter. And Peter would also remember. And he would begin to tell others.

And the fact is that every one of us is moving through the circle. Every one of us knows sorrow and worry and dread and regret. And we’ve heard that Jesus has come back from the dead, and we know that should be wonderful, but how does this affect us? What change does this make? And then it sinks in! We know this. We believe this. We believe that Jesus died and rose again for us. That means we’re eternal. That means we’re righteous. That means now we live holy and righteous lives. That means we tell other people and we live in the way that Jesus wants us to live. And we keep moving the dead, meaningless parts of our lives, the parts that drag us down, we keep moving them from the hopeless to the expectant, from the frightened to the bold, from the sinful to the pure… from the dead to the alive.