Proclaimer Blog
Exegetical thoughts on Luke ch.24, part 1
At the recent PT Summer Wives Conference I gave three talks on Luke’s final chapter, ch.24, and to be honest I found the prep a real wrestle. Preachers know that feeling mid-way through the prep for something like this: “I don’t think I’m going to have anything useful to say. Shall I just pick something that promises to yield easier fruit instead?”.
However some things did come to strike me quite forcefully, and I share them here, over the next three days.
First up is vs.1-12.
Luke seems to have narrated this in a way that stresses two things:
1) The disciples were simply not expecting the resurrection (vs.1-3, 11), even though they had heard Jesus predict it (v.6), and even though some of them had themselves experienced his miraculous healing power personally. The latter point is presumably why Luke goes out of his way to name the women in v.10, since some of the same women are also mentioned as having been healed in 8.1-3.
That gives huge comfort to Christians who find our message of a risen Christ met with incredulity.
2) This is really the same point, but now put positively: belief in Christ resurrected is given through divine revelation that first of all humbles, and then gives insight into and remembrance of Christ’s words (vs.4-8). (This theme will also continue into the next section: vs.16 and 31-32.)
I began to think that this explains why Luke ends the section with Peter as a partial exception to the disciples’ lack of expectation of the resurrection (v.12). The last time Luke showed us Peter, he was in a position rather like that of the women at the tomb: humbled, forced to remember Jesus’ words, and confronted with the truth of those words (22.60-62). If that’s right, then Luke is showing that human reception of the news of the resurrection requires our humbling – and those who have been humbled by God are more likely to be open to believing it. On reflection, I have found that to be largely true of ministry as I have experienced it.