Clint Loveall and Michael Gewecke dive deep into the Easter story as told by Luke. They explore the themes of perplexity, fear, and amazement that arise from the discovery of the empty tomb. Join them as they discuss the significance of the resurrection and the questions it raises about faith and belief. Watch this engaging conversation to gain a new perspective on this timeless story.
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Transcript
00:00:00:28 – 00:00:29:11
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Welcome back. Thanks for joining us as we start the week together. In the last chapter of Luke, though, it is as Luke’s chapters tends to be fairly long. But we nevertheless are moving toward the culmination of this gospel. We’ve been working on it for a long time. We didn’t slow ourselves down enough that these stories will coincide with Easter, but we’re we’re close.
00:00:29:13 – 00:00:33:43
Clint Loveall
We’re not for starting a year ago.
00:00:33:48 – 00:00:37:18
Michael Gewecke
September, right? Yeah, I think we started this September. So. Yeah.
00:00:37:22 – 00:01:06:10
Clint Loveall
This last September. Yeah. Anyway. Okay. For starting several months ago. Not. Not a terrible guess, but we today move into the 24th chapter of Luke, and this is Luke’s rendition of the Easter story. Luke does an interesting thing here that we’ll talk about. I probably tomorrow. But before we do that, let’s get to just his resurrection story, which I’ll read for you.
00:01:06:10 – 00:01:29:24
Clint Loveall
Then we’ll come back and talk through on the first day of the week. Early at dawn, they came to the tomb taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they didn’t find the body. While they were perplexed about this. Suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.
00:01:29:29 – 00:01:50:19
Clint Loveall
The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. But the men said to them, Why do you look for the living among the dead? He’s not here. He has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee? The son of man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified on the third day to rise again.
00:01:50:24 – 00:02:17:04
Clint Loveall
Then they remembered his words and returning from the tomb. They told all of this to the 11 and to the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told this to the apostles. But the words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb.
00:02:17:09 – 00:02:43:03
Clint Loveall
Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloth by themselves. And then he went home, amazed at what had happened. So you know this again, if you’re a Bible person, if you’re a church person, you know this Every Easter story in the four gospels has its own nuance, its own thing, that it emphasizes its own sort of character.
00:02:43:08 – 00:03:02:55
Clint Loveall
And I think we see that in Luke, though. I think we’ll make a good case today that that’s connected to the things that Luke has shown us consistently. So the gist of the story, because of the Sabbath, they have to wait to prepare Jesus body. They go to do it on Sunday. They find when they’re there, the stone has been rolled away.
00:03:02:56 – 00:03:32:43
Clint Loveall
Remember that Luke hasn’t mentioned the stone at this point, but we again, we fill that gap in from other places, from other stories. And there’s this wonderful word. While they were perplexed, in other words, why they considered this. And if if you would jump all the way back to the story of Jesus birth, we will remember that when the shepherds showed up, Mary pondered these things in her heart.
00:03:32:45 – 00:03:59:55
Clint Loveall
That’s the idea here, that they’re perplexed. They’re question ing what it means when suddenly two men in closed angels. It’s the simplest way to think about this. Show up and announce this thing to them. He’s not here, and they remind them of the things Jesus said. And the women. Mary. Mary and Joanna, as well as maybe some others who aren’t named.
00:04:00:00 – 00:04:28:18
Clint Loveall
They’re so excited. They return. They rushed from the tomb. They go and find the disciples. The 11 now titled and share the news with them. And this is the part of this that I think is vintage Luke, is that Luke would love the idea. He’s not the only one to do this, but Luke would love the idea of the women being the first hearers that.
00:04:28:22 – 00:05:05:12
Clint Loveall
That’s a shocking it doesn’t sound shocking to us because we’re familiar with the story. It really is a shocking development in the story itself that the first witnesses are women who, with apologies to our female listeners, are not, in Jesus day, considered reliable witnesses in regard to kind of testifying and bearing witness. So the idea that it is women who carry the news to the disciples is I think, a detail that Luke would have leaned into.
00:05:05:16 – 00:05:29:09
Michael Gewecke
I couldn’t agree more. I think that the reality of that is lost on us in some ways. But I actually think that if we look closely enough, we can see that embedded directly in links in Luke’s account itself. And let’s just take a look at that here. It says verse 11. These words, the witness of these women seemed to the disciples an idle tale, and they didn’t believe them.
00:05:29:09 – 00:05:55:12
Michael Gewecke
And I think that right there gives a nod to exactly what you’re saying, that when the women come to give an account, only one of them, as Luke tells the story now, John is going to tell this story a little bit differently than what Luke does. But as as Luke gives us this story, it’s Peter who then rushes off, runs to the tomb and takes the evidence of the women with enough seriousness that he’s going to explore it himself.
00:05:55:12 – 00:06:21:48
Michael Gewecke
And of course, when he goes and sees the linen clause by themselves, he goes home amazed. And that’s another detail I think that’s worth pointing out, is that if one had stolen Jesus’s body, as was a very popular thing to claim in that first generation of believers, then there would be no linen clause left in the tomb. One would not take a body out of the linen cloth.
00:06:21:48 – 00:07:00:00
Michael Gewecke
So the idea is not only is there no body, but the thing that was wrapped around that body remains as the clause themselves are left in the tomb. And so this is another evidence that would have been on offer to the fact that something had happened besides some sort of trickery or some sort of grave robbing. Now, in this case, as we have just father up here in the text, Clint, we the reader and our questions about the authenticity of this story are really answer the in some of these details And then we are asked the same question Why are you looking for the living among the dead?
00:07:00:00 – 00:07:19:50
Michael Gewecke
He’s not here. And that becomes, I think, for Luke, not just the question offered to these women, but the question offered to all believers asked after, why are you looking for the Jesus who is not dead but continues to live? That’s the promise of resurrection. It’s the first word after the word of death.
00:07:19:55 – 00:07:47:12
Clint Loveall
This this resurrection narrative and all of them, all four of the gospels, versions of the resurrection, I think, really bring us to the same point, Michael, which is to say that there are lots of questions. And if you want to filter these stories and look for differences between them, you will find them. You’ll find different details. That’s troubling to some people.
00:07:47:16 – 00:08:16:41
Clint Loveall
I think we will have a conversation probably down the road a few days about what that does and doesn’t mean. But I think it in the upside, it it keeps us from the idea that we understand exactly what’s happening here. It keeps us from the idea that we can make sense of it and that we can fit it into a box and that we can as if we need to defend it.
00:08:16:46 – 00:08:48:24
Clint Loveall
The Gospel tells us a very mysterious story about this man called Jesus, the Son of God. Through the faith of the text that goes into the grave as a dead person, a dead man hung on the cross by people who knew how to kill people. And yet when his people go looking for him, they find not death, but the promise of life.
00:08:48:28 – 00:09:17:35
Clint Loveall
Why are you looking for the living among the dead? And we can use that as a springboard. But I think the mystery of the story is preserved in this kind of less than less than perfect symmetry between all the versions of it. It is supposed to be troubling. It is supposed to be shocking. It is supposed to be confusing.
00:09:17:40 – 00:09:46:50
Clint Loveall
And ultimately, rather than proving on our way to it, it becomes a decision of faith. We believe this or we don’t believe this. We put our trust in it or we don’t. And I think Luke gives us a beautiful example of that. These women, they take this newfound joy, they take this story, they have seen angels and they go and tell the disciples.
00:09:46:55 – 00:10:14:37
Clint Loveall
And the disciples say that that doesn’t sound right. They seemed an idle tale to them and they did not believe them. Fascinating that right here in a resurrection story, the first recipients of the story do not believe it. And so if that’s true in the moment, right. We we can’t be blamed for bringing some questions to the text.
00:10:14:42 – 00:10:35:55
Clint Loveall
But ultimately, those questions are not answered by details. They’re not answered by words, studies and symmetries and entirely linear of the four gospels. They’re answered by faith and I think I think the gospel writers do a really nice job of pushing that question on us.
00:10:36:00 – 00:10:54:04
Michael Gewecke
I think that there are some details of the story that are invitation lines to us as the reader as well. And I just want to point out one here right from the start. Look at verse six. Remember how Jesus told you while he was in Galilee that the a man must be handed over to center, to be crucified.
00:10:54:09 – 00:11:24:25
Michael Gewecke
And on the third day rise again, that’s a powerful word. Remember, Because to the women it functions as an invitation to look back over their life and time with Jesus and to survey the breadth of those teachings. And then to see that the seeing that they see in front of themselves right now, this shocking, unbelievable thing, that that is the very thing that Jesus had been preparing them for the entire time.
00:11:24:25 – 00:11:59:10
Michael Gewecke
It becomes that light bulb moment, that opportunity in which a thing that seems disjunctive or surprising becomes an opportunity to see the truth of everything that had built up to that point as they stood there. The other thing that it serves to do, and I think that we should be very, very clear in this, is that the remember how he told you also gives us the reader of Luke, the recipients of this gospel, this telling of the life of Jesus and the invitation to ourselves.
00:11:59:15 – 00:12:31:42
Michael Gewecke
Go back and see how that case was laid out. Because Luke of of course, all the gospel writers are doing this, but Luke certainly has provided for us a reliable and consistent record of the number of times that Jesus did explicitly say this thing. And so for us, the remembering doesn’t necessarily look like us going back and remembering all that time that we had dinner with him on the Sea of Galilee in that time that we’re talking on the way to Jerusalem.
00:12:31:42 – 00:13:07:01
Michael Gewecke
No, what we remember are the times specifically chosen by Luke and cattle in this book in which Jesus said these explicit and exact things. And this provides, I think, for us, a kind of narrative, summing up all of the stuff that came before is realized here in this moment. It’s realized in the moment of the empty tomb. It has now come to pass the stuff that Jesus said would be now is and everything on the other side of that opens into a whole new kind of reality, a whole new kind of life.
00:13:07:01 – 00:13:29:09
Michael Gewecke
And we shouldn’t forget, of course, that acts as part two of the Book of Luke. So it’s going to tell the story. What comes in the other side of the grave. But this is a fulcrum point. The cross and the grave. They stand at the center of this important story. Everything that came before speaks to it and everything that comes after it will be referenced by it.
00:13:29:18 – 00:13:35:58
Michael Gewecke
And that’s the way that Luke has constructed the narrative for us to see the reality of that.
00:13:36:03 – 00:14:14:45
Clint Loveall
It’s perhaps more true in the Old Testament in terms of language, but the word remember here in Greek does have a sense of not just call to mind, but to understand. So when when the angel tells the women to remember the things he said, it’s more than just that they have forgotten something, some comment. It’s that they have not understood and again, I think Luke, through the telling of this story, is asking us the same What do what do you understand of Christ?
00:14:14:45 – 00:14:41:58
Clint Loveall
And then, you know, his resurrection account ends with Peter got up and ran to the tomb and looked in and he went home amazed at what had happened. Now, again, you have the idea of perplexed. You don’t yet have the idea of understand. You don’t have yet the idea of connecting the pieces of what was with what now is this is an entirely new reality.
00:14:41:58 – 00:15:18:47
Clint Loveall
This is this is unique. This is novel in human history and certainly in human religion and faith. And so these these men and women are now on uncharted waters. They are they are navigating a thing that not only did they not expect, they don’t yet understand. And so again, we say this a lot, but it is a difficulty for us to manufacture that because we are accustomed to the story.
00:15:18:52 – 00:15:52:50
Clint Loveall
And as we get accustomed to the story, sometimes it loses its ability to floor us and to just perplex us. And so as best as possible, we have to try and reenter this mysterious strange tale each time we encounter it so that it asks us the right questions and so that hopefully it helps us understand what we are, what we are putting our faith in, and who it is that we are giving our trust.
00:15:52:55 – 00:16:20:33
Michael Gewecke
So Clint, I think a really interesting detail that is maybe emphasized in greater detail in other gospels, but is present here in this one. And I want to point out is not only were the women perplexed, but they are terrified. They are afraid. And I think that that fear, that emotional response is absolutely the kind of response that any reasonable human being would have in the face of an empty tomb.
00:16:20:33 – 00:16:57:22
Michael Gewecke
It it recognizes Luke wants us to know that this is an unsettling experience. These unchartered waters that you speak of are not taken lightly by the gospel writers. They don’t gloss over it. They don’t expect you to hear this and to think to yourself, Well, obviously, if we think that if we get to that conclusion, I would make the argument that we have been inoculated to the shocking nature of this message, the idea that the gospel writers wants to know that in the face of what should be death, there was life.
00:16:57:27 – 00:17:24:48
Michael Gewecke
And that’s a terrifying prospect, because what in our life has prepared us for that possibility? What could we compare that to? We none of us have experienced that in the way that these women that first day did. And I think it’s the fear that is listed in every gospel in some way. And it is included here, this this terrifying reality at the presence of these men.
00:17:24:48 – 00:17:51:54
Michael Gewecke
And I think that’s extrapolate both to the experience that they’re having in general. There is that fear that that in some ways, I think gives weight to the experience that Luke is describing here, because they are truly walking on uncharted territory. They are in a place no human had been before and and they are not understood ending it either out of a mental or an emotional level.
00:17:51:59 – 00:18:11:52
Clint Loveall
Yeah, and it’s not the last time we’ll see that word. We’ll see it again when Jesus appears to the disciples. And the other thing, I suppose there’s a I suppose there’s a possibility, Michael, that if we thought about it, it would surprise us. You know, Luke has taken 24 chapters, 23 and a half chapters to get us to this point.
00:18:11:52 – 00:18:31:13
Clint Loveall
This has been where the story is heading. Luke writes long chapters. He’s given us stories, given us speeches, he’s given us all kinds of these various aspects of Jesus experience. And it may in that context be surprising that He gives us 12 verses about the resurrection.
00:18:31:13 – 00:18:32:58
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, yeah.
00:18:33:03 – 00:19:19:27
Clint Loveall
The Bible, as much as we it dominates our conversation in the modern world, the Bible is not particularly interested in proving the claim of resurrection. The Bible is fascinated with the question, What does it mean? But it it doesn’t feel compelled to say, Well, because this happened and this happened and this person saw it, and that person that in there, I won’t argue that that’s not in parts of the gospels or parts of the New Testament, but it’s not the theme you would think you would expect an entire chapter from Luke on why this happened and on who saw it on on proving it.
00:19:19:31 – 00:19:50:16
Clint Loveall
And because it’s a faith question. I really believe it’s just not something the Bible has a great deal of. It’s not something it makes a great deal of effort to, quote unquote, prove. It simply presents it as a fact. And then asked, what did people do with it? And then ultimately, what will you do with it? No, I think, you know, again, to to the point of credibility, I that’s not how you were.
00:19:50:25 – 00:20:09:37
Clint Loveall
It’s not how you would do it if you were trying to start a religion, if you were trying to. I just think the character of it is very interesting. And unfortunately or fortunately, I don’t know which it doesn’t always answer. Answer the questions we might prefer that it did.
00:20:09:48 – 00:20:32:53
Michael Gewecke
Clint I think that’s an absolutely essential point and I think I would only add to it just by way of illustrating it in this text that we have here in front of us here today, note how little of it is narrative, how little of it is descriptive, and how much of it is people are. It’s naming the women, it’s naming Peter.
00:20:32:58 – 00:21:13:31
Michael Gewecke
It is talking about the the things that these women are doing, how often Luke is dedicating the small amount of time that is used to describe the resurrection and is telling us about some disciples encounter with it some response to it. It’s relational and it’s personal. It has a name, each one of these people in their story. I would argue, because while the New Testament is certainly trying to provide for us a reliable account of Jesus’s death and resurrection, it is also simultaneously trying to introduce us to the men and the women.
00:21:13:31 – 00:21:42:33
Michael Gewecke
And in this case, first, the women who will be our mothers and fathers of faith, the ones who pass on the good news, though reliable witnesses who invite us to consider what will be our response. Will we respond in faith to, of course, in terror, but also with amazement and then later in deep faith, her respond to the empty tomb, and for that to become the living, beating heart of our own faith and life.
00:21:42:37 – 00:22:08:29
Michael Gewecke
How will we respond to your point? And I just think while we might be interested in answering you what might be the modern questions of the texts, the scientific stuff, the logistical, historical stuff that interests us, and that’s fine. But we should note and even should be challenged by the biblical writers who were answering different concerns and the concerns that they’re answering.
00:22:08:29 – 00:22:42:41
Michael Gewecke
I think if we hear them rightly or maybe the deeper concerns of the faith, and I think that if we are willing to see the brevity of the text and understand the importance of the people in the text, it might also empower us as we move further into Luke and then, of course, if you would study the Book of Acts, you’re going to see how personal the response to this gospel was for each and every one of these men and women and the way that it transformed not just their world, but ultimately it’s this moment in their faith that will translate or that will rather change the entire world.
00:22:42:55 – 00:22:46:27
Michael Gewecke
And Luke wants us to know that it’s all connected down the line.
00:22:46:31 – 00:23:15:33
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And I would say, Michael, to give maybe a commercial for tomorrow, that perhaps the best example of that is the passage we will look at tomorrow in which outsiders and to my remembering Luke is the only one who does this, who takes outsiders and gives them a resurrection experience. And so I think our text tomorrow will definitely fall along those lines.
00:23:15:37 – 00:23:32:34
Michael Gewecke
We certainly hope that you will join us for that. Maybe the easiest way to get those notifications is to subscribe. Hit the bell icon of every time that we will have one of these livestreams and then, of course, give this video like the resurrection story. It helps other people in the midst of their own studies of Luke in all of the years to come.
00:23:32:34 – 00:23:38:15
Michael Gewecke
It will help them find it and hopefully it will also be a help to them. Thanks for being with us here today. We will see you tomorrow.
00:23:38:29 – 00:23:39:16
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.