The Living Among the Dead Text: Luke 24:1-12
Introduction: The Hinge of History
We have come to the central event in the history of the world. All of human history pivots on this one event. Everything before the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a shadow, a promise, a prophecy pointing toward this moment. Everything after the resurrection is a consequence, an outworking, a fulfillment flowing from this moment. If Jesus Christ is still dead, then our faith is futile, we are still in our sins, and we are of all men most to be pitied. If Jesus Christ is still dead, then Christianity is a pathetic fraud, a collection of pious lies, and we should all just go home, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die and rot. But if He is risen, then everything changes. If He is risen, then death is defeated, sin is conquered, and Satan is a declawed, defanged lion, roaring in impotent rage. If He is risen, then He is Lord, and every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess it, whether in glad submission now or in terrified recognition on the last day.
The modern mind wants to treat the resurrection as a lovely metaphor, a spiritual symbol of new beginnings. But the apostles would have none of that. They did not preach a symbol; they preached a fact. They did not die for a metaphor; they died for a man they saw, touched, and ate with after He had been publicly, brutally, and undeniably executed. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a story about the triumph of the human spirit. It is the story of the triumph of the Son of God over the grave. It is a historical event, grounded in space and time, testified to by eyewitnesses who had nothing to gain and everything to lose by their testimony.
The account in Luke is raw, honest, and filled with the kind of details that reek of authenticity. We see confusion, fear, and unbelief. These are not the actions of conspirators inventing a clever lie. These are the actions of broken people stumbling into the most glorious and unexpected reality imaginable. They were not looking for a resurrection. They were looking for a corpse to anoint. But God had other plans. He was about to launch the new creation, and it would begin, as the first creation did, in the early morning darkness with a great declaration of light and life.
The Text
Now on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing, and when the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” And they remembered His words, and when they returned from the tomb, they reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the rest of the women with them were there; they were telling these things to the apostles. But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they were not believing them. But Peter stood up and ran to the tomb; and stooping to look in, he saw the linen wrappings only. And he went away by himself, marveling at what had happened.
(Luke 24:1-12 LSB)
Pious Unbelief at the Tomb (vv. 1-3)
The story begins with the faithful, but faithless, actions of the women.
"Now on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus." (Luke 24:1-3 LSB)
Notice their purpose. They came with spices. They came to perform the last rites for a dead man. Their devotion was commendable, but their expectation was zero. They loved Jesus, but they loved a dead Jesus. They were coming to anoint a corpse, not to worship a king. This is the state of the human heart, even the believing heart, when it is governed by what it sees rather than by what God has said. Jesus had told them repeatedly that He would rise on the third day, but the trauma of the cross had deafened them to the promise. Grief is a powerful sedative for faith.
They arrive to find the first piece of evidence: the stone is rolled away. This was a massive stone, set in a groove, requiring several men to move. Its removal was not a casual act. Their first thought would not have been resurrection, but desecration. Grave robbery. Then comes the second piece of evidence: the tomb is empty. "They did not find the body of the Lord Jesus."
This is the bedrock of our faith, the hard, physical fact of the empty tomb. Christianity does not begin with a subjective feeling or a mystical vision. It begins with a missing body. The authorities, both Jewish and Roman, had every reason to produce the body. If they could have wheeled out the corpse of Jesus, Christianity would have died in its cradle. But they could not. The tomb was empty, not because the disciples stole the body, men who were hiding in fear for their lives, but because the Lord of life had vacated the premises.
The Angelic Catechism (vv. 4-7)
Into their perplexity, heaven breaks in with a terrifying glory and a clarifying question.
"And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing, and when the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, 'Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen...'" (Luke 24:4-6 LSB)
These are not gentle, ethereal spirits. These are angels, messengers from the throne room, and their appearance is terrifying. The women are flattened with fear. This is the proper response to the unveiled holiness of God's court. But the angels' message is pure grace. They begin with a gentle, course-correcting rebuke in the form of a question: "Why do you seek the living One among the dead?"
This question is aimed at the heart of all our misplaced worship and misdirected grief. We are constantly looking for life in graveyards. We seek ultimate meaning in politics, in wealth, in philosophy, in pleasure, all of which are tombs. They are dead things. The angels are telling these women, and us, to check our premises. You are looking for Jesus in the wrong category. You have filed Him under "dead prophets." You need to create a new category: "Risen Lord of all."
And how do the angels prove their point? They do not point to the empty tomb alone. They point back to the Word of God. "Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee..." They call the women to remember the Scriptures. The facts (the empty tomb) must be interpreted by the Word (Jesus's prophecies). Without the Word, the facts are just confusing anomalies. With the Word, the facts become faith. The resurrection was not an improvisation. It was the plan, spoken in advance. God always tells us what He is going to do before He does it, so that when it happens, we believe.
From Memory to Mission (vv. 8-10)
The Word does its work, and faith ignites, leading to immediate action.
"And they remembered His words, and when they returned from the tomb, they reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest." (Luke 24:8-9 LSB)
This is the turning point. "They remembered His words." The Holy Spirit takes the key of Scripture and unlocks the mystery of the empty tomb. The light goes on. This is how faith always works. It is the marriage of God's work in the world and God's Word in the heart. When those two come together, the result is a living faith.
And what is the first fruit of this newfound faith? Evangelism. They immediately go and tell. They become the first apostles of the resurrection. And notice who God chooses for this task: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. In that first-century Jewish context, the testimony of a woman was not legally admissible in court. It was considered unreliable. And yet, God deliberately chooses these women to be the first official witnesses to the single most important event in history. This is a glorious, intentional subversion of the world's standards. God is building a new kingdom, and in this kingdom, the proud are brought low and the humble are exalted. He commissions the "unreliable" to carry the most reliable news the world has ever heard.
Apostolic Nonsense (v. 11)
The response of the apostles is one of the greatest proofs for the truth of the resurrection.
"But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they were not believing them." (Luke 24:11 LSB)
The Greek word here is leros, which means idle talk, delirious rambling, or nonsense. The apostles heard the greatest news in the history of the world and dismissed it as hysterical gibberish from emotional women. This is not the response of a band of credulous men eager to invent a myth. This is the response of cynical, broken-hearted men who had seen their master tortured and killed. Their hopes were in the grave with Jesus's body. They were not expecting a resurrection; they were expecting to be arrested next.
We should be profoundly grateful for this verse. The skepticism of the apostles is a gift to the church. It demonstrates that they were not predisposed to believe. They had to be conquered by the evidence. They had to be overwhelmed by the reality of the risen Christ. Their unbelief makes their subsequent, unshakeable faith all the more powerful. These men, who dismissed the first report as nonsense, would go on to be flogged, stoned, imprisoned, and executed for preaching that same report. What changes a man from a cynical doubter to a martyr? An encounter with the risen Christ, and nothing less.
Peter's Race (v. 12)
Peter, however, cannot let it go. A seed of hope, or perhaps just sheer curiosity, has been planted.
"But Peter stood up and ran to the tomb; and stooping to look in, he saw the linen wrappings only. And he went away by himself, marveling at what had happened." (Luke 24:12 LSB)
Peter, the one who had so spectacularly denied the Lord, is the first to investigate. He runs. He has to see for himself. He stoops down, looks into the dark tomb, and sees the evidence. Not just an empty tomb, but the linen wrappings lying there, undisturbed. John's gospel tells us the face cloth was folded neatly by itself. This was not the scene of a hasty grave robbery. This was the scene of an orderly departure. The grave clothes were lying there like the discarded chrysalis of a butterfly. The Lord had simply passed through them.
Peter's reaction is not yet full-blown faith. He went away "marveling." He is confronted with an impossible fact. His worldview, which had been shattered by the cross, is now being shattered again by the empty tomb. He is caught between a grief that says "He is dead" and evidence that screams "He is not here." He is on the road to faith, but he is not there yet. God is drawing him in, piece by piece, fact by fact, until the Word and the works collide in his own heart.
Conclusion: The Risen Fact
So what does this mean for us? It means everything. The resurrection is not just a historical curiosity; it is the foundational reality of our existence. Because Christ is risen, our sins are actually forgiven. His resurrection is God the Father's verdict, declaring that the Son's sacrifice was accepted. The debt is paid in full. The receipt is the empty tomb.
Because Christ is risen, death has lost its sting. Death is no longer a final defeat, but merely a doorway into the presence of the King. For the believer, death is a conquered enemy. We can look it in the eye and say, "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"
Because Christ is risen, He is Lord. He is not a dead martyr. He is the reigning King of heaven and earth. He is currently ruling and putting all His enemies under His feet, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death itself. The resurrection is the guarantee of our final victory. It is the down payment on the renewal of all things. The world considers this message to be leros, nonsense. They seek the living among the dead. They look for hope in their failing political systems, their empty philosophies, and their fleeting pleasures. Our task is the same as the women's. We are to go and report what we know to be true. He is not here. He has risen, just as He said. And that fact changes everything.