But 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. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; and as 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 returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened
Understanding And Applying the Text
Here greatest event in history had occurred. And there was no one there to witness it. But several women were the first to become aware of it. The reaction of the heavenly realm and the earthly realm were polar opposites. The women went ot the tomb to care for Jesus body. This surprised two men who, I assume were angels from heaven. “Why would the women look for Jesus here? This is where dead men lay. Jesus is alive.”
Jesus said he would rise from the dead and he did. And of course, He did. He said He would. For Him not to do so would be astonishing. The women and the disciples are from the earthly realm. Dead people are dead. Dead people do not come back to life. Dead is dead. For someone, anyone to come back to life is astonishing. Actually, it is more than astonishing it is unbelievable.
Peter had enough questions in his mind to go see for himself. He did not see Jesus. He saw an empty tomb linen cloth. There were many explanations. All were far more reasonable than Jesus rising from the dead. But whatever happened, Peter understood it was unusual. So he went back home to wonder what had happened.
Peter had seen Jesus raise people from the dead. But even so, Peter believed extraordinary claims required extraordinary evidence. And while he saw unusual evidence it was not extraordinary. How different than those from the heavenly realm viewed it. The extraordinary claim from heaven’s view would have been God would not keep His word,
God doesn’t break His word. That doesn’t happen. Yet we are more willing to believe God breaks His word than believe something else. That is because we live in a world where people break their word all the time. But God is not a man. The good news is God keeps His word. But the bad news is God keeps His word. God promised his wrath on unrepentant sinners. Even here in the midst of the expression of God’s love, it is impossible to miss the totality of God’s nature.
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