Good News Of Great Joy: Lessons From The Gospel Of LukeSample

"First Sunday after Christmas Day: The 'Missing' Christ"

Jesus Christ’s living presence dominates every page of Luke’s Gospel. Yet when we get to chapter 24, we find Jesus conspicuous by his absence. It is now the third day since he was crucified, dead, and buried—the day he said that he would rise from the dead. So Christ has risen. Yet in the opening verses of this chapter, he is nowhere to be found—at least not in his bodily presence. Why not? If Luke wants us to know Jesus for sure, why isn’t he thunderously proclaiming the Good News of Great Joy by showing us Jesus raised from the dead? 

To understand why Jesus seems to be missing, we need to turn to the little group of women who were the last people to leave the cross and the first to arrive at the tomb. A surprise was waiting for them: “And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus” (Luke 24:2-3). Imagine how shocked they must have been to enter the tomb and find the body missing! This is how we know for sure: by believing the gospel promise that Jesus died and rose again. 

The angels’ words help us understand why Jesus is missing from this passage: “‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen’” (Luke 24:5-6). This was their gentle way of saying that the women were operating on the basis of a faulty assumption. They assumed that Jesus was dead, which is why they were at the tomb so early in the morning, carrying the oils and spices for his embalming. 

It was the third day—the day Jesus must rise from the grave, for the earlier promises of the gospel expressed a divine compulsion. Therefore, when the women saw the empty tomb, they should have known that Jesus was alive from the dead. They were only perplexed because they did not yet believe what Jesus said. 

This is how we know for sure: by believing the gospel promise that Jesus died and rose again. We have heard the gospel word, the Good News of Great Joy, and it should be enough for us, as it should have been enough for them. The baby who once was born in Bethlehem, and who died at Calvary, has become the risen Lord, Jesus Christ.