Sermon Notes — April 20, 2025
Luke 24:1-9
“All the Rest”
April 20, 2025 – Easter Sunday
Dr. Craig Goff
Happy Easter! So good to be with you. Christ is risen!
This morning we will be looking at the story of Easter from the Gospel of Luke. As you know, there are four Gospels in the New Testament. When I met with the confirmation class last week they knew what they are. Let’s all say them together: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They are all a little different. They tell the same story from different perspectives.
This morning we are looking at Luke’s Easter story and account of the resurrection.
Luke’s account does not begin, with the description of a violent earthquake, like in the Gospel of Matthew. It doesn’t begin with a report of a conversation among the women who visited Jesus’ tomb to prepare him for burial wondering how they were going to be able to move the heavy stone away from the entrance so that they can get inside like in Mark’s Gospel.
In Luke’s Gospel, as we heard when our text was read, when the women got to the tomb to prepare Jesus’ body for burial the stone had already been rolled back. That big massive stone was already pushed out of their way. That would seem like a good thing. If the stone was not rolled back, they couldn’t get inside, but that is where they ran into problems….
Once they got inside Jesus’ tomb, they discovered Jesus was not there. It is hard to prepare a body for burial if you can’t locate it. Understandably, they sort of panic. As they begin searching for his body, verse 4 tells us two men suddenly appear. In the other Gospel accounts it is clear that the messengers who show up at the tomb and begin talking with the women are angels.
Luke sort of down-plays their identity as angels. Many Biblical scholars suggest their presence is intended to bring to mind the appearance of Elijah and Moses in the Transfiguration story, which we looked at a few weeks ago, except here it is the clothes of the men that are dazzling white and in the story of the Transfiguration, it is Jesus whose clothes are shining brighter than anyone had ever seen clothes shine before.
And at the tomb, it is not Jesus’ closest disciples who are the witnesses, Peter, James and John, like at the Mt. of Transfiguration, but a gathering of women who are engaged in the traditional task of caring for the body of a loved one who has died.
Down in verse 23, a disciple by the name of Cleopas does mention that the two men who meet the woman are angels, but their message is not the kind of message angels usually deliver in the Bible. Normally, when an angel speaks to mortals in Scripture they impart some new information, like the angels who tell the shepherds that Jesus has been born in Bethlehem.
That is not what these angels do. Here, what the angels do is remind the women what Jesus has already taught them.
Let’s look at vv.5-7 again.
Read vv 5-7
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 is not here, but is risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified and on the third day rise again.”
As these messengers come and begin to speak to the women, they are so terrified they bow down with their faces to the ground, but the angels don’t tell them anything new, they tell them to remember what Jesus has already taught them.
Which seems to suggest pretty strongly that the function of memory is really, really important in Luke’s interpretation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. These women could remember what Jesus had said because they had heard him. They were very close to Jesus. They were among his most intimate followers. They were first account witnesses to what Jesus had said and done.
But with all the chaos and horror of the events that had just taken place their memory was wiped out, they were a little rattled. Global Transient Amnesia had not yet been diagnosed in their world, PTSD wasn’t a known diagnosis then, but they had been through a lot of trauma and their memory was effected by their experience. It was a lot to take in.
Their leader was arrested, he was beaten, he was subjected to a mock trial, he was imprisoned, and he was executed. He was tortured to such a degree he could not carry his own cross to the place of execution.
Can you imagine? They had seen all that. They had lived through an unbelievably horrific event which would shake up anyone’s thoughts. They couldn’t remember what Jesus had said, but God sent these two messengers to the tomb to help the women remember what Jesus had told them.
Once their memory is restored, these women have kind of a big job. These women were the first Christian preachers. I think it is time to have a woman preacher here at Bethlehem. There is a biblical precedent for it.
Let’s look at verse 8: “Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.”
Once their memory is restored, they are charged with telling the story. Notice who they tell the story to, they tell the story to the disciples and to “all the rest.” The women tell the story to the eleven and all the rest.
Of course they are going to tell the eleven about Jesus. The disciples, those closest to him — but they don’t stop there. God wants them to tell the disciples and ALL THE REST what they have come to remember about what Jesus told them. So this good news of the resurrection these women begin to preach is not to be restricted to a limited group but shared with everybody, everywhere, all the time. It is good news.
Now — let me tell you why you came to church this morning in case you forgot…. You came to church because memory is an important part of faith. You came to be reminded of the good news, that Jesus died and was raised from the dead for all of us. And that all of us who have heard the good news also become witnesses to “all the rest” wherever they are. All the rest need to know who Jesus is and why Jesus is important. It is up to us to let them know.
From time to time our memories and our hearts fail us so we can come together to remember and to literally be re-membered into the body of Christ. So we can tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
I’ll be the first to admit church isn’t always terribly exciting, sometimes technical glitches occur, sometimes the liturgy doesn’t flow the way we would like it, or the music is not exactly like we wanted it to be, but even though our worship is never perfect, the liturgy and message of the church can remind us of why this day is so important.
And how important it is to keep the story alive. To remember that there is a reason the tomb was empty. The tomb was empty because, Christ is Risen. Christ is risen indeed. Thanks be to God.