Luke 24:5-12 - Women witnesses

22:5-8

Why do you look for the living among the dead? These words remind us of Jesus’ word to the Sadducees, God is God of the living, not the dead. They then declare that Jesus is risen. They also remind the women that Jesus had told them He would rise again. Note that Jesus’ teaching was intended for women as well as men! It is also significant that the first witnesses of the resurrection were women. If the story was made up they would surely have chosen men as the first witnesses, given the cultural conditions of the first century. Note that they also reminded the women of Jesus saying He had to suffer. We must take the cross and the resurrection together, one without the other makes no sense at all.

24:9-12

The women told the things they had discovered, seen and heard. Luke names three of the women, but it is clear that there were more women who had gone to the tomb. The disciples did not believe the women, because their words seemed like nonsense. This knocks another of the sceptic's argument on its head. The idea is often given, implicitly if not explicitly, that the first century folk were somewhat gullible and would believe anything. This is not the case. They knew what death was, and that once someone was dead that was the last you saw of them. The New Testament witness is that a unique event has occurred.

Peter was not one of sitting around thinking, so he ran to the tomb to investigate matters for himself. When he got there he found an empty tomb. It seems that he is still not convinced at this stage, but he is wondering about what has happened.