Luke 24:1-2 - The Tomb is Opened for Perplexed Hearts

Rememberwhat Jesus said in John 14:1, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Youbelieve in God, believe also in Me”. I love that because you see in thispassage that we have in Luke 24, there were many different kinds of responsesin the hearts of people concerning Jesus and as to what had happened. Verse 4tells us the first women at the tomb “were greatly perplexed”.They had perplexed hearts. But my friend, I'm telling you, the empty tomb andthe risen Savior is the answer for perplexed hearts. Inverses 1-7, that we read yesterday, the angel had said to the ladies that Jesuswould be delivered into sinful men, be crucified, and on the third day riseagain. “And they remembered His words” (v. 8). Then they returned fromthe tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. It wasMary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with themwho told these things to the apostles.  Itmust have been a good group of ladies that had gone to the tomb early thatmorning (v. 10). Their words to the disciples seemed to them like idle tales,and they did not believe them (v. 11). Only Peter arose and ran to the tomb, andafter stooping down, he saw the linen clothes lying by themselves (v. 12). Andhe departed, marveling to himself at what had happened.  Thispassage tells us that Jesus arose from the dead on the first day of the week.And it must have been very early. According to Matthew 28:2-4, a great earthquaketook place and an angel came and rolled the stone away. This was not done tolet Jesus out, but to let the witnesses in to see that the tomb was empty. Andof course, the message was and still is, “come and see” (Matthew 28:6).  Now,Mary Magdalene is the woman who had been specially helped by Jesus and was verydevoted to Him (Luke 8: 2). She had lingered at the cross and became the firstperson that Jesus appeared to (Mark 15:48). Luke mentions that she was thefirst at the tomb.  Then, we also read thatMary the mother of James, Joanna, and the other devout women also were at thattomb with her. They came to prepare the body of Jesus for burial. But theirlabor of love was transformed into gladness when they discovered that Jesus wasalive.  Theirmain concern on the way there, was who will roll this stone away, because theyknew that the Roman soldier would not allow someone to break the Roman seal,especially a group of mourning Jewish women. But God solved the problem forthem because the tomb was open when they got there, and there were two angels thatappeared to these ladies. Matthew and Mark also talk about the one angel thatgave them the message. The angel’s message was a kind rebuke: “Rememberhow He spoke to you when you were still in Galilee, that He must die, He mustbe crucified, and He would rise again”.  God’sanswer for our perplexed hearts today is also to remember! We need to rememberthe word of God. To do that we need to read it and have it in our hearts. Itwas then they were told to go back and tell the other disciples, which ofcourse, they did. But it was Mary Magalene that came back to the tomb, andshe's still perplexed, but Jesus shows up and meets with her according to thegospel of John. She supposes Him first to be a gardener. But then when He saysher name and she recognizes His voice because: “My sheep hear My voice, andthey know My voice, and I know their name” (John 10:3-4). Everythingchanged for her at that point.  Myfriend, Jesus will change everything for you too when you hear His voice sayyour name. Today, He will speak to us through His Word if we will only listen.  GodBless!