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Luke 24:1-12 WHY SEEKING THE LIVING JESUS AMONG THE DEAD

Shalom, 

May the Holy Spirit always guide and lead us because we really need Him in our daily life. We’re really grateful that the Holy Spirit has been poured on us not only on the Day of Pentecost but also on our day-to-day life for He has actually dwelled in us. 

What happened before the Holy Spirit was poured on Jesus’ disciples? Luke 24:1-12 write, “Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘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…. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them…” 

The question, “Why do you seek the living [Jesus] among the dead?” was addressed to the women who came to Jesus’ tomb and also to Jesus’ disciples who were fearfully hiding. 

However, if we think the question is only for the disciples, it’s easy for us to blame them for their disbelief in Jesus’ resurrection whereas Jesus had told them about it before He died. What would be our answer if we were asked the same question: “Why do we seek the living Jesus among our problems (= the dead)?” Isn’t it true that when we are overwhelmed with unsolved problems, we are prone to doubt Jesus’ existence? When we are still struggling with problems, we shouldn’t question whether He is there with us; instead, we ought to involve Him. In so doing, we will get a positive result which is in contrast to what happened to the Israelites who grumbled to God, questioning whether God was there. As if God were not with them to provide food for them during their journey in the wilderness. 

The question “Why do you seek the living Jesus among the dead?” is still relevant until today.

Because:

  • We haven’t really understood how to believe in the word of God.

The angels said to the women, “Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee”. Then they remembered Jesus’ words. They indeed forgot what Jesus had told them and it wasn’t because they had a problem with their brain’s memory system (hippocampus). 

What does believing or having faith mean? When we say we believe in something, it must come out of our own confidence. We shouldn’t say it simply as a slogan or because we follow others, worse yet, we are saying it as if we are reciting a magic spell.

Believing or having faith includes these aspects:

♦ The source of the message.

♦ Man’s senses as the first receivers of the word of God. In this case, our ears are to be used to listen to the word of God (Romans 10:17). 

♦ Sound mind supported by feelings that guides man to choose whether to accept, to reject or to abstain. For example, Eve saw and felt that the fruit pointed out by the serpent was nice, then she chose to disobey God’s command by accepting the serpent’s deceitful persuasion (Genesis 3:6). 

♦ The word of God affirms that faith without works is dead (James 2:17,20,26).

♦ God’s Spirit who grants faith to man (1 Corinthians 12:9).

If, even, one of the above aspects is nowhere to be found, it’s not faith. 

Once again, the women forgot what Jesus had ever told them not because of a problem in their hippocampus. Basically, they were just being careless and indifferent to Jesus’ words, and it stemmed from their disbelief. Even worse, the apostles who heard the message from them thought they were telling “idle tales”. 

The disciples and the women had all witnessed factual evidences of Jesus’ resurrection. Nevertheless, they still didn’t believe because it had never crossed their mind that Jesus would really resurrect from the dead. 

The factual evidences of Jesus’ resurrection:

♦ “the stone rolled away from the tomb” (Luke 24:2).

Who could roll away that big and heavy stone? Moreover, “they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard” (Matthew 27:62-66). It was the two men in shining garments who did it. They were the angels. 

♦ Jesus’ body was not in the tomb. Sadly, Mary Magdalene erroneously assumed that someone had taken away Jesus’ Body (John 20:2). Although it commonly happens that thieves dig up the rich’s graves to take away their valuables buried with them; whereas Jesus was, in fact, not rich at all and had no worldly treasure. He even didn’t have His own tomb as He was buried in the tomb of Joseph from Arimathea (Matthew 27:57-60). 

Apparently, the disciples had never really kept in mind and hearts what Jesus had ever told them about His suffering many terrible things (Matthew 16:21). They only heard Jesus saying that but didn’t ponder on it further; that’s why it was hard for them to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. While Adam and Eve decided to transgress God’s command, the disciples decided to state that the message about Jesus’ resurrection was “idle tales”, meaning nonsense. 

Those who don’t believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection will confidently state that it’s only nonsense; therefore, they won’t keep it in their minds and hearts. Peter even refused to believe when Jesus told him about His sacrificial death. He considered it a taboo for Jesus on saying such thing.

Why did the majority of Christians choose to dislike hearing any message about Jesus’ cross?

♦ There’s a significant increase in the number of preachers who tend to pervert the true word of God by preaching only messages that seem more palatable, in order to gratify their own flesh desires—to gain popularity and 

♦ They begin to insistently drive the word of God to follow their mindset. Here’s the analogy: the older people’s way of thinking is different from children’s. While the elderly consider running around and laughing loudly impolite, the children do those things naturally. Most Christian preachers nowadays choose not to say about the theology of the 

♦ They claim that the true word of God is one that is compatible with man’s way of thinking, culture, and convenience. 

Then what should the preachers and members of congregations do?

♦ Realizing that our mind is corrupt. Don’t easily accept motivators’ idea that encourages us to always have “Positive Thinking” and to believe that men’s brain is exceptional because it can understand about the universe and so on. 

♦ Submitting ourselves to the Lord’s will.

♦ Not trying to control and drive the Lord’s ways, let alone oppose Him. Jesus once said to Saul (changed to Paul later), “…It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 26:14). In Mark 5:36 Jesus asked the ruler of the synagogue not to doubt what Jesus could do to his dead daughter, but to “only believe.” 

♦ What is a goad? It’s a pointed stick used for making cattle go wherever the shepherd wants. If the cattle go according to their own will, they will certainly be wounded from the goad. In John 21:18 Jesus reminded Peter, “Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” 

Application: We will gain nothing if we have been attending church services, listening to God’s word thousands of times and busy in some ministries, yet we don’t believe in His entire word. In its aftermath our marriage gets deteriorated, we can’t peacefully enjoy our old age, youngsters will live hard lives as the consequence of the sins they couldn’t resist. Don’t blame God if those calamities befall us! 

  • We have humiliated and chosen not to believe in the women’s message about Jesus’ resurrection (Luke 24:11). 

We need to learn from this verse. The message about Jesus’ resurrection was first told to the women, not to the disciples. Just imagine: those women must have enthusiastically gone to the disciples to tell them about it, but they responded negatively by stating that they were telling nonsense. The disciples chose not to trust the women. It’s not mentioned, however, whether their disbelief was based on gender issue. 

Is the gospel for certain gender only? Certainly not! God graciously gives the gospel to anybody. The fact is the Bible verses are often misused for our own advantage. For example, husbands often demean their wives using the verse “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” Many husbands and wives keep their money separately that they spend it without their spouse knowing it. Why do they keep their finances secret from each other whereas they’re open to one another when they’re doing their private business on bed? 

Application: We shouldn’t demean others based on gender. Likewise, we should give respect to a preacher whatever their gender is. Moreover, it isn’t right to question a preacher’s quality based on their condition—gender, sinful or uneducated, etc. because it was God who sent them. The world also needs women to share God’s word about Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

On Pentecost Day the believers were gathering together in one place and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4a). Then a drastic transformation took place. What change happened to Peter? He became bold to declare that Jesus whom they crucified had been raised by God (Acts 2:22-24). His phenomenal action resulted in the salvation of three thousand souls. However, we shouldn’t forget that it was all initiated by the women’s testimony. 

What made Peter and Thomas change? The Holy Spirit is powerful to change a timid servant of God to a bold one. They who were previously frightened to openly speak about Jesus’ death and resurrection, now become bold to do so. 

It’s evident that miracle of life transformation is not merely a theory. Yet we don’t need to go to any length to pursue miracles because the sophisticated technology can now imitate miracles, so we must be wary of it. What the technology can’t do is the miracle that God performs to save souls. Miracle is only a means (an instrument) God uses to make our life transformed. Thus, the life transformation is the true miracle done by the Holy Spirit. Examples of life transformation: Paul who previously took pride in his credibility now confessed that he was the chief sinner (Philippians 3:5-6; 1 Timothy 1:12). Jesus said to Nicodemus that he ought to be born again (John 3:3-4), but he didn’t understand. Then Jesus gave him an analogy, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.” Meaning, no one can take control of the Holy Spirit. The important matter is that we need to have an encounter with the Holy Spirit. Paul’s and Peter’s encounter with the Holy Spirit resulted in their substantial life transformations. In other words, if we haven’t ever experienced an encounter with the Holy Spirit, our following Him is pointless. Because only He—not any great pastor, who can transform our life. Also, no worldly theory can teach how we can be filled with the Holy Spirit. 

Let’s all believe that Jesus has risen from the dead and always include Him in our lives! Let’s not discriminate a preacher on the basis of gender considering that God sends them according to His will. More importantly, we shouldn’t drive the Holy Spirit to do whatever we want. Rather, let’s learn to completely submit to the Lord’s will which can be found in His word and to obey the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth. Amen.