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4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” 8 Then they remembered his words. ~ Luke 24:4-8
We return to the resurrection account according to Luke. The empty cross and tomb are God’s proofs that our sin debt has been paid in full. The tomb was empty and for this reason the Roman soldiers guarding it ran away. They were fearful for their lives because they were responsible for the dead body of the Lord Jesus. And they did not know about the scriptures which predicted His resurrection. But, if His body was still there, they would have remained at the tomb guarding it. Their absence speaks volumes.
Note the beginning of v.4, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus produced wonder in the women. Wonder is that sense of awe that enables us to take note of the bigness of God. Most people fail to possess that acute awareness of God which enables us to know Him more deeply.
The grace of God has reached down through His Son into our brokenness to offer us the free gift of forgiveness and personal relationship with Him. Once we have responded to the gospel positively, we enter the process of looking for the living among the dead. Even though the believer is forgiven completely, we still need to learn what it means to have a personal relationship with our Creator.
After these women experienced wonder, they had to experience "fright" as noted in v.5. The development of our ability to worship the God of the Bible involves fear because it is fear that forces us to draw nearer to Him. This is what was happening to these first century believers. But, their worship was misplaced for they bowed before created beings. The object of our worship must always be the Creator rather than the created.
There is a strange connection between our fear and our faith. Our journey of faith in the God of the Bible demands that we let go of our image of Him and ourselves, allowing Him anew to hone our heart's ability to recognize Him. In order to accomplish this, He uses His word in tandem with His creation and our life's experiences to frame up our perspective of Him. As this happens we are more and more equipped to be captured by awe and wonder of Him through even the most unwanted moments in our lives.
And, if the Lord Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, it would have been easy for the Jews to prove that He was still dead. All they had to do was to just present His body. But they couldn’t, so they came up with several lies in an attempt to cover up the truth.
In v.4 we read, "While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them."
It was the women who were the first to give testimony about the resurrection. This is important because, if these first century believers were cooking up a hoax, they would not have used the eye witness account from the women for women did not have good standing in their culture. And then, to add to their story, God dispatches two angels to confirm what had been told of throughout the Old Testament.
In v.5 we read, "In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?"
As the women stood in the dawning sunlight and shadows, they were jolted into the most frightening scene they had ever experienced in their entire lives. Angels not only appeared to them, they also spoke with them.
In the Scriptures, when they appear to people angels always appear in human form. In Mark's account, he describes one of the angels as a young man. That would be a consistent thing for an angel to do because angels do not age. There were two angels, perhaps because according to Deuteronomy 19:15 it takes two witnesses to validate anything.
Then, according to Matthew and Mark, one of the angels spoke. And, according to Mark 16:8, after the women heard the message, they went out, fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. This was all a part of the development of their ability to worship the God of the Bible.
In Luke 9:22, the Lord Jesus had told the disciples that "He would suffer many things. Be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.”
In v.6-8 we read, "6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 'The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again. 8 Then they remembered his words.'"
The disciples had forgotten what the Lord Jesus had promised. When we are not in the word on a daily basis, we forget what the Lord has said to us. The Word of God is always faithful to isolate our faulty views of Him, ourselves and others. There are times when God has to frighten us in order to enable us to see life as He does.
The Feast of First Fruits occurred in the Spring around the same time as Passover. The celebration included a reading from Ezekiel 37:3, “Can these dry bones live?” Resurrection, as a result, became a sign of the coming of the Messiah. When we have difficulty recognizing His death, we are not able to expect His resurrection.
On the year the Lord Jesus died, the Feast of First Fruits occurred on the day after His death. He was crucified on Friday, and the Jews celebrated the Feast of First Fruits the following day, reading about the promise of resurrection. The very next day the angels appeared to His followers saying, “He is not here! He is risen! Just as He said!” This is the basis of our hope, the overcoming life of the Lord Jesus over all sin and all death. Thus, we are victorious in the end. The victory is the Lord's and He has graciously shared it with all who are alive enough to believe.
