All of the Gospels conclude with resurrection accounts but there are variations between them. Some of the variations are straight forward to resolve as they simply demonstrate where the writers go into more depth. For example, Mark, perhaps as the earliest account and fitting to a scroll to enable a single hearing cuts off at the point where the women find the tomb empty. They are frightened, bewildered, encounter the angels but flee still not understanding because they have not yet met the risen Jesus. Luke includes more detail of that first day introducing a meeting between Jesus and disciples returning to their home village. John offers the most extended account, reporting on an appearance on the second Sunday where Thomas who had been absent on the first Sunday is present and called to leave behind his doubt. John also takes us to Galilee where the disciples go to meet with Jesus and he appears to them by the lakeside at breakfast time.
Some of the accounts seem a little harder to reconcile. For example, do the women go to the tomb before sunrise or after? And when does Mary meet the risen Jesus? I believe that these variations are reconcilable when we remember that they are accounts of the same events told from different perspectives but where the authors would have been aware of the other witness accounts. They do not contradict but compliment. I will have a look at how the account fits together later but first of all, let’s look at how Luke reports it.
Read Luke 24:1-12
It’s the first day of the week, the women had prepared to anoint Jesus’ body but could not act because Saturday was the sabbath. Early on the Sunday, they go towards the tomb. When they get there, the stone has been moved and they find the body gone (v1-3). Two men are there, notice that they are referred to as men but their description suggests that they are angels. The women’s response of fear and bowing down also suggests this. The angels ask a question: “why are you here?” The women are in the wrong place. Note that the angels know who the women are and why they are there (v4-5). But they are in the place of the dead when Jesus is alive. Then the messengers remind the women that Jesus had predicted that he would be killed and would rise again. The women at this point remember what Jesus had said. Note that for Luke, remembering is connected with understanding, not just the mere recollection of events (v6-8). [1]
The women (who are named at this point as Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Jesus’ mother), return into Jerusalem and find the apostles (v9-10). They tell them what has happened but are not believed. The apostles think they are mad. It seems that Luke wants to draw a sharp contrast between their response and the women’s. After all, it was women disciples who had stayed with Jesus through the crucifixion when the others had scattered. Perhaps this is why Luke goes light on their initially fleeing in terror as reported in Mark 16:8 (v11).[2] However, Peter runs to the tomb and sees it as described. Luke adds an important detail that the graveclothes are still there. It would be strange if Jesus had swooned and then recovered or if the body had been stolen for the grave clothes to be removed first. Despite seeing the evidence for himself, Peter is still trying to piece together what has happened (v12).
Read Luke 24:13-35
Two of the disciples[3] decided to return home to a village about 7 miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, on the way they were talking about the recent events. As they are walking and talking, Jesus joins them. We are told that they are prevented from recognising him. There has been much discussion as to whether or not Jesus’ body had been substantially altered, whether by the torture he suffered or the resurrection and whether or not we will recognise one another with our resurrection bodies. However, the emphasis here is on a limitation on their part. It’s that they are restricted in their ability to recognise. (v13-16).
Jesus asks them what they are talking about and one, Cleopas responds asking how their companion can be ignorant to the events in Jerusalem that weekend (v17-18). They then proceed to recount to him about what has happened. They describe Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, sentencing and death. They say that the body now is missing and describe the reports from the women, though they clearly have not grasped the significance. They express their own disappointment because they were looking to Jesus to be the redeemer or rescuer of Israel (v19-28)
Jesus responds “How foolish you are”, note that they are still prevented from recognising him even though he uses language typical of his teaching. He reminds them that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer before being glorified. Then he talks them through Scripture, showing how it all, starting with the Torah and then going into the Prophets and writings was pointing to him and his death and resurrection (v25-29).
When they reach Emmaus, they persuade him to stop and eat with them. It is as he blesses and breaks the bread that they are allowed to recognise him but at that point he disappears. If before they were bewildered at their companion’s ignorance as to the events in Jerusalem, now they are astounded at their own ignorance about his obvious identity (v30-32). They rush back to Jerusalem to share their news only to discover that Jesus had also already appeared to Simon Peter (v30-35).
Read Luke 24:36-49
Jesus appears to the gathered disciples even as they are talking. He is able to appear and be present even into rooms with locked doors. They are bewildered and frightened even though some have already met with him and think they are seeing a ghost. Jesus invites them to observe his wounds, to touch him and to know he is really alive, he is flesh and bone, not a ghost (v36-39). They are not to doubt. He also eats with them (v0-43).
Just as on the Emmaus Road, he shows them how Scripture points to him and is fulfilled in his life, death and resurrection. By opening Scripture, he opens their minds to the truth. Then he reminds them that God has promised the Holy Spirit (v44-47). They are to witness for him but first they are to wait for this “clothing in power2 (v48-49).
Read Luke 24:50-53
At some point, Jesus leads the disciples out to the Bethany area. We know from the other Gospels and the beginning of Acts, that this was later on, that there were other appearances and that they finally meet on the Mount of Olives (v50a). There he blesses them before ascending to heaven (50b-51). Having already references the commissioning whilst still in Jerusalem and giving more details of the ascension in Acts 1, Luke keeps this to a short summary telling his readers that the disciples return to Jerusalem praising God. This mirrors the shepherds returning to their flocks praising God at the start of the Gospel. Again, we know from the other accounts that they initially remain gazing into heaven and angels challenge them and send them back (v52-53).
Reconciling the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection
We know that it is early in the morning when the women set off to the tomb. If they head off at dawn, then it is likely that the sun would have begun to rise as they left where they were staying. They may well have been staying in Bethany which is two miles from Jerusalem. So, they would have left in darkness and arrived in day light. It is as they are on the way that there is an earthquake and the stone is rolled away. They are debating how the stone can be moved as they walk but arrive to find it moved and the angels there. The angels tell them that Jesus is not dead but risen.
Still bewildered, they turn to flee but on the way they meet Jesus. It seems that Mary has been separated from the main group of women. It is possible that Peter and John have stayed separately from the other disciples who having scattered first perhaps returned to Bethany. Mary does not meet Jesus on the way but instead finds Peter and John who run to the tomb and find it empty. At some point, Peter meets with the risen Jesus. Mary having returned with Peter and John remains weeping by the tomb where she meets the risen Jesus, mistaking him at first for the gardener.
In the afternoon, Jesus appears to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, possibly Eleopas and his wife. That evening he appears to the disciples with the exception of Thomas. He appears the following Sunday and then meets with them again in Galilee as reported in John21. It’s there that Jesus commissions the disciples (Matthew 28:19ff). Jesus meets again with the disciples at the Mount of Olives and ascends to heaven.
The Man in heaven
Luke’s Gospel may be seen as fitting together with the second volume, Acts so that we start with the Emperor in Rome sending out his decree and finish with Paul seeking to meet with the Emperor in Rome. This is a “to the ends of the earth” missional account. Luke wants us to get the big picture that there is good news for all. At the heart of that mission though is the end of the Gospel and start of Acts which puts the focus of the good news on the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus which we are meant to read as coming together into one event.
Luke finishes his Gospel and begins his second book with good news that Jesus has not only risen but ascended. That Jesus is in heaven is important for two reasons. It answers the questions “where is he” and “where are we meant to be?
Where is Jesus?
The simple answer is that he is ascended. He is now in heaven. It’s that little, overlooked but crucial day in the Church calendar, perhaps because it falls in the middle of the week on a Thursday. We know the big hitters, Christmas, Easter, Pentecost but 40 days after Jesus’ resurrection is “Ascension Day.” I probably only knew about it growing up because I went to a CofE primary school and so each year, we were matched off up the road to the church one Thursday each year.
And we might miss it skimming over a few words as we get to the end of Luke’s Gospel. Jesus is blessing his disciples, and even whilst he was doing that, “he left them and was taken up into heaven.” Luke fleshes this out a bit more in Acts 1.
Why does this matter? Well here are five vital implications that otherwise we would miss out on.
First, he is in heaven, seated on the throne, his work is done. One of the things that fascinates me about Luke’s Gospel is the way that we aren’t just hearing Jesus’s story but Luke is telling us bigger stories and those bigger stories are in turn intended to point us in to Jesus’ story. So, in the early chapters, Jesus retraces the Exodus, testing in the wilderness and entering into the promised rest of the land. In Luke 24, he shows how the how of Scripture was pointing towards his death and resurrection. Here, we see him showing what god does when he completes his work. In Genesis 1, we are told that God rested on the seventh day, not that he needed a break and a nap but that like a king, he sits enthroned, ready to delight in and receive the worship of his creation.
In the same way, we are told in in Hebrews 8:1 that Jesus has “sat down”, that he is exalted, seated in heavenly places. His work of salvation is now complete and we are truly a new creation in him.
Second, he is in heaven, he intercedes for us. Jesus had risen bodily from the dead and now he bodily ascends to heaven. For all kinds of reasons, we are not meant to think that the God part of him decoupled. Hebrews 7-8 again emphasises that this means, if we have the man, Christ Jesus in heaven, then we have our mediator, our high Priest representing us before the Father.
Third, we are raised up with him. Ephesians 1:3-14 makes this point, that spiritually we are seated with him. This means that if he is exalted above all hostile powers and authorities and we are with him that we have nothing to fear.
Fourth, The Spirit has been sent Jesus, in John had told his disciples that if he was going ahead of them, that he wouldn’t leave them alone. He ascended to Heaven and then sent the Holy Spirit, 10 days later meaning that God indwells each of us, all around the World. The asceniosn means that God is present with his people in an amazing way that he wasn’t before.
Fifth, the promise was that just as Jesus had departed, in the same way, we could look forward to his return. He have sure and certain hope that he is coming back and this links to our sure and certain hope of resurrection. We aren’t just going to float off into the clouds in spirit form. We will be with Jesus in his new creation because he is fully God and fully man.
Where are we in response to this?
We best answer this by seeing what happened with the disciples. They were to be found in the Temple, worshipping God. In fact, specifically, they were worshipping Jesus. The resurrection and ascension combined to leave them in no doubt about Jesus’ identity as God.
We too should be drawn to worship, this is meant to be our place in the story, praising, delighting and giving thanks to the one who has saved us and conquered death. A further implication, not immediate to this passage is that if we have received the Holy Spirit then as well as worshipping, we should be witnessing, trusting in God’s power and presence with us.
[1] Green, Luke, 838.
[2] Green, Luke, 839.
[3] We are only told the name of one of them, Cleopas (v18).
Faithroots 