Luke 24:9-12 John 20:2-10
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9 and
returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all
the rest. 10 Now they were Mary Magdalene and
Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women
with them were telling these things to the apostles. 11 But
these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe
them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the
tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went
away to his home, marveling at what had happened.
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2 So
she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved,
and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do
not know where they have laid Him.” 3 So
Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the
tomb. 4 The two were running together;
and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb
first; 5 and stooping and looking in, he
saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go
in. 6 And so Simon Peter also came,
following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings
lying there, 7 and the face-cloth which had been
on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by
itself. 8 So the other disciple who had
first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. 9 For
as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from
the dead. 10 So the disciples went away again
to their own homes.
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The women come to the disciples and tell them what the
angels had said. This was not an easy
message to give nor an easy message to understand. The men had probably been meeting to discuss
how they would proceed without Jesus. We
can only imagine the subject of their discussion. Perhaps some were talking about going back to
their old jobs. Some may have been
suggesting they go out a preach from village to village like before. Maybe some of them were considering how they
could overthrow the Roman Empire and set up the kingdom in the name of Jesus. Whatever they were discussing, it did not
include Jesus as a part of the picture. So,
when the women arrive, the meeting was adjourned. The resurrection of Jesus changes everything.
THE CONFUSION OF THE DISCIPLES: When the women transmitted the
message of the angels to the disciples, the were confused as it seemed like
nonsense to them. It should not have been
that way. We have already seen that many
who heard Jesus speak, understood that He has promised to rise again. Certainly, the disciples had been told
repeatedly that He would rise from the grave.
They had seen others come back from the dead. Doubt and unbelief are very dangerous in the
heart of man. Perhaps the disciples
thought Jesus has been speaking metaphorically when He told them of His
resurrection. Whatever the cause of
their confusion, it was eventually cleared away and these flawed men were used
to revolutionize the world. As we wait
for the second coming of Christ, we need to fight of doubt and unbelief and
avoid confusion. There are certainly
events surrounding His second coming that will surprise us. But as we wait, He continues to call and used
very flawed men to spread the message of His death, resurrection and return to
a world that desperately needs hope. May
He use us to revolutionize the world in which we live.
THE CONFIRMATION OF THE DISCIPLES: We have a saying that “seeing
is believing.” Actually, just the opposite
is true. If we insist on seeing, it is
because we are not believing. Not seeing
but still believing is truly believing. We
have not seen Jesus, yet we believe. Missouri,
is called the “show me state.” Perhaps
Peter and John were the forefathers of this state. Jesus had told them He would rise from the
dead. Scripture revealed Messiah would
rise from the dead. The women gave them
a message from an angel saying that Jesus had risen from the dead. The women told them the tomb was empty. They still had to see it for themselves before
they were willing to believe. The race
to the tomb lets us know that John was the faster runner of the two men. However, it seems John waits for Peter before
entering. Perhaps this was out of respect
for Peter’s age, position as leader or timidity over the grandeur of the
moment. Once they saw that the tomb was
empty, they believed. We benefit from
the testimony of these men and additional Scripture which informs our belief. As we continue to wait for the fulfillment of many
more prophecies, it is important that we believe. When we believe the promises of God it fills
our life with hope and gives us meaning in all the circumstances of life.
APPLICATION: All of us are flawed and struggle with
confusion and unbelief in our lives. We
can rest assured that God knows all about our flaws and is still able to use us
to spread the Word of His resurrection and second coming to the ends of the
earth. He is in the process of
transforming us and at the same time, using us as instruments of transformation
in the nations. Our main focus is simply
to believe Jesus and His promises. Our
lives should be marked by hope in all circumstances even when we cannot see how
things will work out. We must simply
trust the Lord.
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