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9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened. ~ Luke 24:9-12
We return to the greatest event to ever happen in the history of man, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Up until this point in the narrative, the followers of the Lord Jesus were discouraged and drained. Where once their hopes were highly charged, now their hopes were completely dashed. This is always a needful part to the development of our faith in the Lord Jesus.
Napolean once said, "Leaders are dealers in hope." Having hope doesn’t mean that every unwanted thing disappears. Hope is developed in us as we are given opportunities for God to show Himself true to His promise that all things work together for the good of those who are learning to give their hearts to Him.
In order to be the dealers of hope that these first century followers became, they had to experience the worst darkness to be convinced of the incredible light of the Lord. This is also true for you and me, we must not ignore the framing up of God effect that hopelessness renders in our lives.
In v.9 we read, "When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others." Excitedly, the women hurried to the disciples to tell them about the good news of the resurrection. As we would expect, the disciples were skeptical. In fact, they did not believe. All of our lives, we have been taught that doubt is a bad thing. I have come to appreciate the vital role doubt plays in the development of my faith. I believe it was Philip Yancey who said, "Doubt is the shadow cast by faith." It only makes sense that doubt is useful to the development of our faith for without its questions we would not wrestle with what is really real.
According to John 20:1-10, Mary Magdalene asked Peter and John to come to examine the tomb, and they too saw the proof that the Lord Jesus was not there. When Peter did go to the tomb, it was before Mary Magdalene came back. It was before the full testimony of the women. The chronology is clear in John 20. Initially, Peter and John ran to the tomb to verify Mary Magdalene’s story that somebody had stolen the body. John arrived at the tomb first, and after seeing the linen wrappings lying there, he didn’t go in. He was processing all of the information. We all process differently. When Peter arrived at the tomb, he just blew right by John and goes into the tomb.
The followers of the Lord Jesus heard the testimony of Mary Magdalene and the other women, and then they go to the empty tomb and they see for themselves the empty grave clothes. What is easily missed in all of this is the EMPTY grave cloths. Everything in this world will render us empty, even the grave clothes of the Lord Jesus after His resurrection. That is unless the empty graves clothes render hope in us.
This is the purpose of all that which is of this world, our hurts, our fears, and our negative experiences. God uses all of these and more as stepping stones which lead us into a deeper relationship with Him. And, when this happens, we will swell up with hope, enabled to give it to others.
Very instructive in all of this is after all of this happened, the disciples went back to their homes in Galilee. We must always be aware of the the fact that there will always be a measure of uncertainty with our faith, otherwise faith is not needed.
As M. Craig Barnes once wrote, "Few things are more dangerous to our spirituality than certainty because our spirituality thrives in the context of choices. Choices we have to make when we are not certain. That’s why God isn’t interested in convincing us he exists or that he loves us. God wants us to choose to have faith in him."
