“In their fright, the women bowed down with 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; he has risen!’”
Luke 24:5-6
Today it may not seem so strange that women were the first to see Jesus’ empty tomb or that women were the first ones to announce it to the rest of His followers. But in the 1st century Greco-Roman world, women would not have been believed. They weren’t trusted as witnesses in a court of law or the court of public opinions. Yet this is exactly the way God planned this earth-shattering announcement to be made.
Each one of the gospel books records women beholding and telling, seeing and sharing, weeping and waiting as the promise of salvation history, whispered by the Almighty to a woman back in the garden, came to be that Sunday morning. A band of five women (or more) discovered at that tomb the most important square footage in all of human history.
Even more than serving as proof that Jesus rose from the dead, the presence of women at the cross, at the empty tomb, and as early faithful evangelists for the church God was building tells us something about the upside-down nature of God’s new creation. His ways—though not our ways—are perfect!
Each one of the gospel books records women beholding and telling, seeing and sharing, weeping and waiting as the promise of salvation history, whispered by the Almighty to a woman back in the garden, came to be that Sunday morning. A band of five women (or more) discovered at that tomb the most important square footage in all of human history.
Even more than serving as proof that Jesus rose from the dead, the presence of women at the cross, at the empty tomb, and as early faithful evangelists for the church God was building tells us something about the upside-down nature of God’s new creation. His ways—though not our ways—are perfect!
Scripture Focus
Luke 24:1-8
Insight
The tomb was empty so that our hearts could be filled.
Bible In A Year
- Deuteronomy 5-6
- Psalm 82
- Acts 3-4
