In Luke 24 we see Jesus in resurrection, and we find many things here to invite attention. In the opening verses, as soon as the Jewish Sabbath was over, the women came with spices which they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre, but they found not the body of Jesus.
Do we not find something exceedingly comforting in all that mix of ignorance and affection? It was ignorance that took them to look for the living among the dead, while it was affection that counted the dead body of the Lord Jesus worth more than all else around.
What did Christ do with it? He appreciated it but was not satisfied with it. He will not have love in the place of faith. Love is the principle that gives; faith is the principle that takes.
Christ will have us debtors, for He will occupy the place of the more blessed. Another has said, “Faith is the principle that lets God think for us. If I come naked and empty and make God everything, that is faith.”
The law makes man the principal and God secondary. Man is to be doing this and that, while God is passive. But the gospel changes sides altogether. Here God is the giver and you are the receiver. But with these, it was not faith but rather ignorant love. They had affection but did not understand the victory He had gained on their behalf. It is Christ that has visited me in my grave, not I that have visited Him in His grave. He is the living One; I am the dead one.
So they bring their spices looking for a dead body and were startled by a glittering stranger. The word from the angelic messengers is, “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee.” That was a rebuke, because though they were about the business of love, it was also the business of unbelief. God stands vindicated in all.
Then they remembered the words. Oh! how much mischief we get into by not remembering God’s words! When the blessed Lord Jesus was tempted, He had the Word of God at hand, and by that Word He gained the victory in battle.
They had acted so because they had not remembered the simplest words that could have fallen on their ears. Yet, how sweet to see the grace of God in communicating with us, even in our mistakes! The rebuke was well meant and well deserved, but it was an excellent oil that would not break their heads (Psa. 141:55Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. (Psalm 141:5)).
Their mistakes now put them in company with Jesus. How much better that my mistakes put me there too, rather than my not being in company with Him at all!
J. G. Bellett (adapted from Notes on the Gospel of Luke)