The Tomb

Early on a Sunday morning, a few women head to Jesus’ tomb. Their friend and LORD is dead. They’re going to mourn, pay their last respects and wrap his body. But what they see is not what they expect. The stone is rolled away, and they can’t find his body. Suddenly, two men dressed in brilliant white appear. Terrified, the women fall face-down on the ground. After saying that Jesus has risen, the men tell the women to “remember” Jesus told them all of this would happen.

Luke tells us that’s exactly what they do—they remember (Luke 24:8). Maybe they think back to Jesus saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Luke 9:22) or “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men” (Luke 10:44). Maybe they recall him telling them, “But first [I] must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation” (Luke 17:25). The women grieve because they forgot what Jesus said.

It’s pretty easy for us to forget too. That’s why the words from the men at the tomb to “remember” are still for us today. Much of what we do as Jesus-followers centers on remembering. We remember Jesus’ death when we participate in Communion. We remember our salvation when we observe others’ baptisms. We need to remember Jesus’s promises when we start to move from depression to despair. When we remember—we focus on what Jesus has done for us in the past and what he promises to do in the future.