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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Luke 24:1 - 24:7
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Resurrection of Christ.
The women at the grave:
v. 1. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
v. 2. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher.
v. 3. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
v. 4. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments;
v. 5. and as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?
v. 6. He is not here, but is risen; remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee,
v. 7. saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
See Mat_28:1-10; Mar_16:1-8. On the first day of the week according to Christian reckoning, which Luke employs on account of his readers, very early in the morning, literally at deep dawn, when the dawn was just giving way to the brightness of the morning, at just about the time of sunrise, the women that were mentioned in the last chapter were on their way to the sepulcher. They brought the spices and ointments which they had prepared before and after the Jewish Sabbath, for their purpose was to anoint the body of Jesus. But in the meantime wonderful things had happened at the sepulcher. A great earthquake had shaken the garden and the surrounding country; an angel of the Lord had come down from heaven; he had rolled away the stone from the doorway tomb, where it fitted securely into a groove, and had sat down upon it. The women, therefore, who had been apprehensive about the stone, since they were unable to move it, could enter into the tomb. But as they did so, thy did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. The empty grave had been a surprise, the absence of the Lord's body was a greater surprise. At the time of His burial they had noted expressly in just what way He had been laid into the tomb, and now He was not there. But while they were standing there in doubt and hesitation, all dazed by the unexpected turn of events, suddenly two men in shining, lightning-white raiment, two angels, came upon them, appeared to them. Stricken with overpowering fear in the presence of these beings from the realms of glory, they, the poor sinful human beings, could not lift up their eyes to look upon that glory, but bowed their faces to the ground. But the angels had a reassuring, a cheering message for them, destined to take away all fear out of their hearts. A wonderful Easter-message it is: Why seek ye the Living One among the dead? Jesus is the Living One; He is the source and incarnation of all life, Joh_1:4. And therefore this Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified, had arisen from the dead. He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened on the third day by the Spirit; He had entered also according to His body into a new, spiritual, divine life. Then He had gone and preached to the spirits in prison, He had shown Himself to the devil and all his angels, and also to the souls of the damned as the Conqueror of death and hell, 1Pe_1:18-19. That was the beginning of His exaltation. Now we know with the certainty of faith grounded in the Word of eternal truth that Christ, our Champion, has destroyed the power of hell and has taken away the might of the devil. He was no longer in the tomb; He had risen. And the angels remind the women how, in what words, Jesus had spoken to the disciples, probably in the presence of these women, that it was necessary for the Son of Man, that the obligation rested upon Him, according to the purpose of His incarnation, to be delivered into the hands of sinful men and to be crucified, but that He had also given them the glorious promise that He would arise on the third day. All these express prophecies, which at the time had not entered into their consciousness and understanding, had been fulfilled before their eyes. All this was irrefutable evidence for the resurrection of the Master.