The Women at the Tomb (Luke 23:55–24:12)

Women ministered to Jesus and his disciples during his travels. We don’t know when this practice commenced; Luke in 8:1-3 informs us that it was taking place:

‘Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.’

At least Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James were in Jerusalem at this time (Luke 24:10); so also was Salome (Mark 16:1). But there were others as well. No doubt, they helped Jesus because he had helped them. While we are only told about the help he gave to Mary Magdalene, each of them was grateful to him for revealing his grace to them.

There is something very counter-cultural about the way Luke presents his evidence for the resurrection (as is true of each of the Gospel accounts). God in his wisdom arranged for the first witnesses of the resurrection to be some women. The testimony of women was not valued in the ancient world. But God had determined to ignore and overcome the standards of how things should be done, the standards developed in a sinful world. He was prepared to use the testimony of women.

Their loyalty

The women had stayed at the cross as long as Jesus was there. In later days, they would be important witnesses to what had taken place. It is obvious that they were interested in what happened to Jesus, no matter who was doing it. Probably, they wondered who Joseph of Arimathea was since it is likely that they had not seen him previously. Whoever he was they wanted to see what he would do with the body of Jesus.

The woman could not have been too close to what was happening because they don’t seem to have been aware that Joseph and Nicodemus had anointed the body of Jesus in a copious way. They resolved to anoint his body as soon as they could, after the Sabbath was over. They prepared spices and ointments and early on Monday morning they made their way to the tomb.

Moreover, the women would not have been aware of the guards that the Jews had placed at the tomb. They did not expect anyone to be there (other accounts say that they wondered who would roll the stone from the mouth of the tomb), but they might have assumed that Joseph’s gardener would be in the vicinity and would help them.

What can we say about the women? It would be wrong to be critical and say that if they had listened to the words of Jesus about his resurrection they would not need to have done all this. Rather it is more appropriate to focus on their desire to do something for Jesus and their dedication to God. They wanted to do their best for Jesus even although he was dead and the cause destroyed. And they wanted to honour the fourth commandment and rest from labour on the Sabbath.

That is the challenge that comes to us from the behaviour of the women. They lived up to what they could understand and did not let their disappointments prevent them from doing so. It is not difficult to see that what moved them was love to Jesus and love to God’s law. Although for a time under the cloud of unbelief, they showed that the root of the matter was in their souls. They did what they knew they should do, and because they did so they were led along a path that brought great blessing to them. We must do the same when we don’t understand what is happening in providence.

The risen Saviour

The problem that they anticipated did not materialise because the stone had been rolled away from the tomb. Yet the removal of the problem added to their perplexity because the body of Jesus was not there.

The women had reached the tomb very early, almost at dawn. It is not possible for anyone to say when Jesus actually rose from the dead. In Jewish thinking, the day began at sunset, which was about twelve hours before the dawn that is mentioned here. This means that almost half of the day had passed when the women reached the tomb. So from their perspective, Jesus could have risen at any time between 6pm and 6am. He had said that he would be in the tomb for three days, which would part of Friday, all of Saturday, and part of Sunday.

The significance of the resurrection of Jesus

More important for us to know is the significance of the resurrection of Jesus. We can remind ourselves of some important features of it. First, it was a vindication of his own predictions that he would rise from the dead. On several occasions, he had told the disciples that he would be put to death in Jerusalem and that he would rise three days later. Connected to those announcements would be the fact that he prayed that the Father would raise him from the dead.

Second, the resurrection is the crucial evidence that his atoning work on the cross was accepted by the Father as sufficient for dealing with the punishment due to us for our sins. If he had not paid the penalty for sin, he would not have been raised, and as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 we would be very miserable.

Third, the resurrection reveals that Jesus had defeated the power of death. Others had been raised from the dead previously, but they died again. In contrast, Jesus rose in the power of an indestructible life, because death had no hold on him. Whatever its power is, it could not retain Jesus in the state of death. He is now alive and alive for evermore.

Fourth, the resurrection is the first step in the exaltation of Jesus. The experience of him as the God-man is described as having two stages – there was his humiliation which ran from his conception to his burial; there is his exaltation which commenced with his resurrection and was followed by his ascension to heaven and his enthronement on God’s throne, and ahead for him will be his glorious roles as the Judge on the Great Day and the Recreator of the universe at his second coming. The first step on the path of glory was his resurrection.

Fifth, the power that was revealed in the resurrection of Jesus is the power that is seen in the spiritual resurrection of believers to new life. Paul refers to this in his prayer in Ephesians 1, when he says that his petitions for his readers include him asking that they would realise the power that is at work within them, a power which he links to and likens as the power that raised Jesus from the dead. By power in that context, he means the Holy Spirit, and he says that the heavenly Power not only brings new life but also continues to work within his people as they are sanctified.

Sixth, we should bear in mind that in ways that we cannot understand believers were united with Jesus in all that he did. Some aspects are positional, some are practical, and some are both. Believers are said to be risen with Christ and since that is the case they are to set their minds on things above where Christ is. When they believe in Jesus, they discover wonderful aspects of this profound unity, with those aspects occurring because of the work of the Holy Spirit.

Reaching the tomb

Matthew tells us how the stone was rolled away. ‘And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow’ (Matt. 28:2-3). We are not to assume that the angel rolled away the stone in order for it to be possible for Jesus to leave it. But Matthew’s reference shows that not even an earthquake could stop the women from going to the tomb.

At the empty tomb, the women became aware of the presence of two angels, which frightened them immensely because of the shining appearance of the heavenly visitors. Angels do not always appear in this striking way, but they do on this occasion, even as they did to announce the birth of Jesus. Revealing their full identity was appropriate for the occasion.

The women receive a reasonable rebuke from the angels. They should have known that Jesus would rise from the dead because he had said that he would. There must be a connection between them coming from Galilee and him speaking about his resurrection when he was in Galilee. One possibility is that Jesus had spoken about his resurrection with great emphasis. Whatever the reason, they should have recalled what he had said.

The women also were given a reminder regarding how to have a strong faith. It would have been possible for the women to speculate about the likelihood that there had been a resurrection. The angels reminded them of what should have been basic to their outlook, which was that they should have listened to the teaching of Jesus. That principle is also true for us, and it is true about everything connected to truth. No one could work out by merely looking at the cross and at the other events that occurred that Jesus had paid the penalty for sin. Words of insight had to be given from above. What does the Bible say is the deciding matter for us because it is God’s Word. The resurrection is impossible to explain through us trying to decide whether it is true or not. It comes down to believing the Word of God and what it says about what took place.

Their rejected witness

The women recalled what Jesus had said and went to tell the others about what they had seen at the tomb. Luke does not include the detail that Matthew mentions, which is that Jesus met the women as they went. Rather he stresses that the apostles and the others refused to believe what the women had seen. He also mentions that Peter went to the tomb (but does not include the detail that John had gone with Peter). Luke’s purpose is to stress the failure of the disciples to believe the message that Jesus had given, which was that he would rise from the dead. Their minds would be convinced when they saw him, but not before.

The women became a channel for the message to be conveyed. They passed on what they had experienced, which was that Jesus was no longer in the tomb, that angels had informed them of his resurrection, that they had met him on the way to tell the disciples. It is likely that they would have expected the other disciples to believe their testimony. But the fact that those disciples did not believe the women does not mean that their witness was unnecessary. Rather it was preparation by Jesus for the disciples’ meeting with him later that day. They would receive confirmation personally from Jesus.

And is that not what happens when we witness about Jesus? We tell the truth about Jesus, we explain that we have experienced his grace ourselves, and then we have to wait for Jesus to confirm it to those who hear us. If it were left to our action, what would happen? On the other hand, if we don’t share the message, what will happen normally? This should give us hope as we share it with family, with friends, with contacts. Sharing the message can become the path along which Jesus walks to confirm it in his own way.

We can also see from verse 12 that everyone in a group of needy believers will react differently. Peter had his own way of responding. ‘But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marvelling at what had happened.’ The testimony of the women made him curious, and he went to examine the tomb. He was not restored at that moment, but the process had begun. The empty tomb would have given him hope that something amazing was in the process of happening. He was in the Lord’s hands although he probably did not realise it. And that was good for him.