A bit too late!

My family and I went to India as missionaries in 1996. Soon after our arrival, I applied for a telephone connection. Back then, one had to wait months for a connection; India has jumped ahead in technology by light years since then! While we waited, we used our neighbor’s phone. Two years later, as we were packing to leave India for good, the telephone man came to install our telephone—a bit too late! We told him that we no longer needed a connection.

This was the case with the ladies from Galilee who had accompanied Jesus. They followed Joseph of Arimathea and saw the tomb where he laid Jesus’s body (Luke 23:55). They returned home and prepared spices and myrrh to embalm the body (23:56a). Since the Sabbath began, they waited at home, according to the commandment (23:56b).

On the first day of the week, however, they returned to the tomb early in the morning with the spices they had prepared for embalming the body (24:1). To their surprise, the stone covering the entrance to the tomb was moved (24:2). Entering the tomb, they couldn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus in there (24:3). They were a bit too late for his burial. Truthfully, they were completely off.

As they were standing there confused, two men appeared to them. They wore dazzling clothing (24:4). The women feared them and fell face down on the ground before them (24:5a). The two men said,

“Why do you seek the living one among the dead ones? He is not here but has been resurrected.” (24:5b–6a)

The grammar is precise: (1) he was the living one (singular) among the dead ones (plural), and (2) he had been resurrected (passive) by God or the Spirit. Although he was briefly among the dead, God or the Spirit raised him at that hour.

Then, the men reminded the women of Jesus foretelling this event.

“You remember that he said to you while you were in Galilee that this will happen — the son of man must be handed into the hands of the sinful people, crucified, and resurrected on the third day.” (24:6b–7)

As soon as the two men said that, the ladies remembered everything Jesus had said to them before (24:8). Leaving the tomb (and perhaps the spices), the women told the eleven, the apostles, and those with them what had happened (24:9). These women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary of Jacob, and their companions (24:10). Those men thought these were nonsense words (24:11). But Peter stood up and ran to the tomb, stooped low, and saw only the linen clothe that was around Jesus’s body and marveled at what had happened (24:12).

The apostles and women had heard Jesus say three times that he would be handed over to be crucified, die, and be resurrected. Yet, when it happened, they forgot or didn’t connect the reality with what was said. The same is often true of us. We know God’s promises of his presence, sustenance, or protection. Yet, we usually forget and prepare spices for a dead body, which wouldn’t be there anyway. Instead, we must learn to trust the Lord’s words and prepare for God’s actions.