Luke 24:5 Commentary and Bible Study

The women were unsurprisingly afraid at this supernatural appearance, but this response was coupled with their perplexity at everything that was taking place. The angels had been sent by God to comfort them, even if there was bound to be fear on account of their appearance. The women were overcome with a sense of awe, and prostrated themselves, not in worship, but in recognition of this heavenly visitation. They dare not look upon such elevated beings as if they were worthy to be in their presence. It was not fear at what would be done to them, but fear that such beings existed, and had come to close to mortals. The supernatural inevitably creates a sense of dread because we are aware of powers at work which are far beyond our understanding, and before whom we are helpless, however great our power on earth.We can add a few words gathered from Matthew. The angels said, ‘Fear not’; that was the first thing. ‘Don't be afraid at what you see, at what is taking place.’ Of course they said that, because the whole purpose of the resurrection is to give us tremendous assurance, to calm all fears, to give us an insight of certain things. Look at it with the disciples. Here they were: they should have understood what was happening on Calvary's cross; they had been prepared for it, but they hadn't understood it. Now the resurrection is going to help them to understand. Once they realize that Christ is risen, then all their gloom and despondency and fear, all their feeling that after all everything has come to an end – that is going to be removed. The angels knew that there is nothing more wonderfully encouraging to Christian people and to the disciples of those days than the fact of the resurrection. When the women came in and were terrified at what they saw and alarmed and amazed and cast down, the angels, as it were, were working overtime to say, ‘The last thing you should do is to be afraid. This is all designed to help you. This is designed to be your greatest encouragement: this resurrection of the Lord Jesus.’‘Why seek ye the living among the dead?’ It should have been a delight to be reproved in this way, for with the reproof came the affirmation of a truth which transformed everything. This was indeed what they were doing. They had come to the tomb convinced that Christ was dead, and never expecting to see him alive again. Though they knew he had raised Lazarus, they apparently had no thought that he could raise himself, and so all hope had gone. They had entirely set aside in the mind the words he had repeatedly spoken, that he would be raised on the third day (Matthew 16:21; 17:23; 20:9). There was a residual love in them that made them loyal to him even as a dead Messiah, but that was all they had come to find. They had come to anoint a dead body, and they had lowered their expectations accordingly. They had come to a tomb where bodies are laid, but where there is no living spirit, no exchange of affection, no acts of kindness and help, no mind of a living person with which to engage so that the flame of love and companionship and fellowship burn brightly. A dead Messiah could not save them as they had once hoped, and they imagined that he now needed their help, rather than the other way round. The most they expected was to find an identifiable body which they could anoint. That vibrant person who they had followed down from Galilee, and whose wonderful teaching they had heard, and whose glorious miracles they had seen, was gone. Yet they still loved the memory of him, and they had come.But the living do not take up residence with the dead, and are not to be found among them. They should have been seeking a living Saviour, and that was the point of the angels’ words. ‘Stop searching for a dead Christ, and start searching for a living Christ’, is what they were told. ‘You have cruelly constrained your hopes, and it is all so unnecessary. You do not have to confine yourself to hopelessness.’ What is a world where death cannot be defeated, even by the Prince of Life? It is a world where man might as well give up immediately, because there is no solution, and all that Christ does in coming to visit this world and complete his mission fails to accomplish anything. ‘Banish such a thought,’ say the angels, ‘and dare to hope in the truth of all that he has said.’ No one who leans upon his word will be disappointed.