Look and See

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

LOOK AND SEE

Luke 24:9-12

 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

NIV

It is a little odd that Luke does not record the fact that John ran to the tomb with Peter and that he arrived first but did not enter until Peter did. John does record that they did see the linen and did not understand that Jesus had risen from the dead. Here we see the women named who had gone to the tomb to finish the burial procedure with the spices and perfumes, but found it empty and as we have already seen, saw and heard from the messengers from God. Whether the women were talking coherently or talking with a great deal of excitement, it is clear the disciples did not believe them because their words seemed to them like nonsense. What exactly did the women say? Did they report the fact they had gone to the tomb and the stone was already rolled away? Did they report that when they went in, Jesus’s body was not there, only the linen he was wrapped in? Did they report the two messengers that shined like lighting speaking and telling them Jesus is not dead? What part of that did the disciples not believe? These are men who had been personally called by Jesus to follow him. These were men who had spent the past three years or so with him, listened to all his teachings, saw him heal people, even raise some from the dead. Did they not believe he too could be raised from the dead? Peter especially, who had answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” These men had heard Jesus tell them he would be handed over to the gentiles and he would die but on the three day be raised back up. Why did they not believe what the women told them? Is it just the ingrained personality of men, not to believe women? Is it because the women were not making any sense because they were too emotional? Even after Peter saw what the women had said about Jesus being gone, he still wondered what really happened. Why is it so difficult to except the truth? Why do we have to explain everything in human terms? Something supernatural occurred and these disciples just could not wrap their minds around it. Other accounts indicate they thought someone had stolen his body, trying to think in human terms how this could be. But God does not operate in human terms, although he created us. He created us to be spiritual beings living in a human form, just as he did in the form of Jesus. Instead of thinking in the natural, in the flesh, in human comprehension, we need to see ourselves first as spirits. Then we can comprehend the truths of God who moves in the spiritual realms, although he also intervenes in the natural realm as well, when it is necessary to make a point. Had Peter and the others been living in the spirit they would have understood what had happened. Of course the Spirit had not yet been given, but they were still a spiritual being created by God, but they were only living in the natural and therefore could not understand a spiritual truth. This is how we should be living, in the spirit as well as now we can also live in the Spirit, or rather the Spirit can live in us. If this is the case, then we do not have to be like Peter and the others, wondering what has happened. When we look with our natural eyes we can only see the natural, but when we look with our spiritual eyes we can see the truths of God, we can see the spiritual realm of God, and we can experience his kingdom. In the natural we can only look, but we do not see. In the spirit we have a vision undetected by human eyes. . In the spirit we can look and see.