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On Resurrection Sunday, before Jesus Himself appeared to anyone, there were several appearances of angels to the women who came to the tomb to complete their burial custom for His dead body, but no such appearances to Jesus’ disciples.  This appears to have been to test and increase the faith of all His followers according to whatever faith each one had in proportion to what had been entrusted to them.  Whatever hope they had in Jesus’ words that He would be raised from the dead was shattered by the brutality of His crucifixion; it is one thing for a little girl or young man who were otherwise whole and intact to be resuscitated from the dead, but quite another for one who has died a torturous death and had His life fluids poured out by a spear that pierced His side.  They understood reality, and couldn’t conceive how life could ever be restored to such a mangled body, much less, even if by some miracle it was, that He could ever be so whole again as to be the promised Messiah to save them from their enemies.  For like us, they were slow to understand why we even have enemies, and the need for a much greater salvation from sin that Jesus had in fact just accomplished through His death and resurrection as the firstborn from the dead to an entirely new and different wholeness of life. 

Even with the appearance of the angels it was only by faith that the women themselves could believe, for His body was gone.  Like trying to understand what happened to the worm that can no longer be found after a butterfly has emerged from its chrysalis, they could not imagine what happened to Jesus’ body having yet to see His glorified, resurrected body that emerged from the cocoon of the tomb.  Their encounter with the angels, as others like it throughout Scripture, was surreal and dreamlike so that after it happened and the angels could no longer be found they would wonder if it was even real.  Nevertheless, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17), so that at the angels’ prompting, when they remembered Jesus’ words that He would be crucified and rise again on the third day, their faith was kindled, as an example to us for how reminding ourselves of God’s words kindles our own faith. 

What does Luke say that this second group of women did as the angelic vision fanned the dying embers of their faith and gave them a tiny glimmer of hope that perhaps it was true?  See Luk 24:8-9.  Should we understand from Luke’s words that all the women left together and went to the same place where all eleven of the apostles and the rest of Jesus’ followers were to be found, or rather that his words are simply summarizing how the report of the empty tomb quickly spread to Jesus’ many followers who were there in Jerusalem for the Passover?  Cf. Joh 20:1-2 where it is clear that Peter and John were together but not with the other apostles.  Similarly, does the mention of Mary Magdalene in Luk 24:10 necessarily imply that she saw the vision of the two angels he has just described that seems at odds to what Matthew describes (see Mat 28:1-8)?  Or rather, is Luke in his account simply summarizing the separate, but related accounts of what happened at the tomb in a way that allows for the initial appearance of the angel to the two Marys that Matthew describes and was already well-known when Luke wrote, but provides the additional information of what happened at the tomb to the other women they had arranged to meet while Mary Madgalene was on her way to tell Peter and John? 

What does Luke say was the reaction to the women’s announcement of what they had experienced at the tomb?  See Luk 24:11 and note that the NAS nonsense refers to empty, idle talk, even sheer fantasy.  What impact would the disciples’ reaction have had upon the faith of the women in what they had experienced, especially considering the fading, dreamlike nature of the angelic vision?  If upon investigation the angels were not found, how difficult would it be to convince the women that under the circumstances of the shock that Jesus’ death was to them, they had just imagined what happened at the tomb and it wasn’t real, that they had just dreamed it?  What does this teach us about the potential danger of squashing the faith of a brother or sister and perhaps even causing them to stumble by dismissing as untrue a spiritual experience that in fact was true?  Considering the nature of the spiritual realm and how it seems to be verifiable only by faith even when it clearly manifests itself in our physical world, should we necessarily dismiss out of hand something that seems to us as if a person was only dreaming?  On the other hand, considering the fallen state of man and that there are hucksters and people who will fabricate stories for both profit and attention, should we necessarily accept as true anyone’s spiritual experience?  Even if a person appears completely sincere and truthful, given that Satan is a deceiver and the father of lies, should we immediately accept their experience or revelation as an expression of truth from the true God?  Considering that Jesus reproached the eleven for not believing those who had seen Him after He had risen (Mar 16:14), how then are we to discern the validity of someone’s spiritual experience?  See Isa 8:20 and consider that if something is from God, it has to line up with what He has already revealed in His word; cf. Mal 3:6, Heb 1:11-12, 13:8.  What does this again teach us about the importance of carefully studying God’s word to know what it says?  Cf. Luk 24:25-26,44-46, Act 17:11.

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