Sermon Central
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Women Ask For Directions
Contributed by Davon Huss on Apr 11, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: The gospel of Luke does the best job in discrediting the wrong tomb theory (Used for a sunrise service)
HoHum:
A boy asked his grandmother, "Why did Moses wander in the desert for 40 years?" The grandmother answered, "Because even back then, men don’t stop and ask for directions!"
WBTU:
Jim Croegaert wrote a song popularized by Sandi Patty called Was It a Morning Like This: Was It a Morning like this When the Son still hid from Jerusalem? And Mary rose from her bed, to tend the Lord she thought was dead? Was it a morning like this When Mary walked down from Jerusalem? And 2 angels stood at the tomb bearers of news she would hear soon. Did the grass sing? Did the earth rejoice to feel you again? Over and over like a trumpet underground, did the earth seem to pound “He is risen!” Over and over in a never ending round, He is risen! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
The newest of the theories attempting to disprove the resurrection was proposed by Kirsopp Lake in 1907. He said that the women went to the wrong tomb. His theory rests on isolating and twisting the gospel of John. The gospel of John says that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and was the first eyewitness of the Resurrection. She went to Peter and John and they ran to the tomb and found grave clothes but no body. While Mary Magdalene was outside the tomb she turned around and saw the gardener. She asked the gardener where Jesus was laid. The gardener then responded, “He is not here.” Mary rushed off to preach the resurrection before the gardener could turn to the right tomb and say, “He is over there.”
Thesis: The gospel of Luke does the best in discrediting the theory of the wrong tomb
For instances:
Read Luke 23:50-56
The women are plural here- we find some of them listed by name in Luke 24:10. More than just Mary Magdalene went to the tomb on the first day of the week. All the women went to the wrong tomb- how could this be? They observed Joseph of Arimathea go through all the preparations and then followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.
The women’s minds did race as they tried to make sense of what they saw. What did they see?
1. The stone. This stone could have weighed a ton. The chief priests and Pharisees had secured a Roman guard for the tomb and “set a seal on the stone” (Matthew 27:62-66). Who could...?
2. The empty tomb. Their hearts beating wildly, the women rushed into the tomb that had been carved out of the hillside. No body! Where could it be?
3. The grave clothes. All that remained were the wrappings, still molded in the shape of Jesus‘ body. How could His body be gone and the grave clothes still remain intact? (Luke 24:12)
The women were frightened, terrified. The Greek word here has a connotation of fleeing. They wanted to get away. The kind of panic that sends us running for our lives gripped the women’s hearts as they trembled before these angels.
Jesus told his disciples several times. Approximately 6 months before these things Jesus said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Luke 9:22
Nonsense. Ironically, the first skeptics of the Resurrection were Jesus’ own disciples. William Barclay says of this word nonsense. “This word used is employed by Greek medical writers to describe the babbling of a fevered and insane mind.” You are crazy.
This is the thinking of the world. This just cannot be so come up with hare brained theories. This phrase describes someone “with the brain of a hare.” Jumping around foolishly like a rabbit.
After all, if these women had gotten lost they would have asked for directions. Only men don’t
The fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the pillar upon which all Christian truth rests. Because He is raised, sin can be forgiven. Satan’s doom is sealed. Death is not the end. Because He is raised, we shall be raised someday. Luke Jesus’ body, our bodies on Resurrection Day will burst forth from the grave and be joined to our souls, and we will live with Him forever.
So what?
“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” 1 Corinthians 15:17-19, NIV.
What do you believe?
