Luke 24:22 Commentary and Bible Study

The two on the road had been there when Mary Magdalene and the other women came from the sepulchre. They knew that these women from their company, from the group of disciples, had gone early to the sepulchre looking for the body of Jesus. They presumably knew they had gone to anoint the body. But it was gone, and they had come back with what the disciples regarded as confused reports, which Luke has told us they treated as idle tales. The women claimed to have seen angels at the tomb who said that Jesus was alive and risen from the dead. This had astonished the disciples, but they were not prepared to believe what the women said without seeing him themselves. Thomas was not the only disciple to doubt the testimony of others. Of course we test the reports we hear, and we are not to be undiscerning and gullible. The reason why there was blame attached to their refusal to believe the women was that the Scriptures taught that he must rise, Christ had told them that he would rise, and the women were known to be reliable witnesses. All these things should have been weighed more carefully, and it is to the testimony of Scripture that Christ is about to turn in order to convince them. But they knew the Scriptures, and ought to have gone there without the Lord prompting them.