But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive (Luke 24:20-24).
The passage these verses are taken from is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It takes place after Christ’s resurrection, when he appears to two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus. I think the reason I like it so much is that we see the shift of emotions. These men went from, “What happened? We thought He was the one,” to “What just happened!” They went from hopelessness to hope. As Jesus spoke to them and explained the scriptures and prophecies about the Messiah, it describes their “hearts burning” as he spoke (Luke 24:32).
When we look back upon the resurrection we must remember what Christ taught these two men. Jesus showed them why He had to die. Without His death, hopelessness would reign; but death had no hold. Christ died for our sins and was raised again on the third day, so we too can be raised with Him.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him (Romans 6:5-9).
The death of Christ is our salvation. The resurrection of Christ is also our resurrection because it threw open the gates of heaven for those who were previously dead in their sins but are now raised up with Him through baptism. Jesus is arisen and He still gives hope to the hopeless and sets hearts on fire.
