A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (24:1-12)
On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, but on entering they could not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened that as they were perplexed at this, two men in dazzling clothes were suddenly standing beside them. They were terrified and bowed their heads to the ground as the men said to them, ‘Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has been raised up. Remember what he told you while he was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of man must be handed over into the power of sinners and be crucified, and rise again on the third day.’ And they remembered his words. And they went back from the tomb and told all this to the Eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. And the other women with them told the apostles, but this story of theirs seemed an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
Peter, however, got up and ran off to the tomb. Bending down, he saw the linen cloths lying there but nothing else; then he went back home, amazed at what had happened.
Luke does not begin the account with the names of the women. Two verses earlier, in the previous chapter, the women ‘who had come from Galilee’ (identified in 8:2-3) crucially ‘saw the tomb and how the body had been laid’ (23:55). They were witnesses of the burial and could be relied upon to find the body again. Despite this, on the morning of the first day of the week, though they found the stone rolled back, they ‘could not find the body’ and ‘were perplexed’. In Luke’s account ‘two men’ in dazzling clothes suddenly appear and question them: ‘why are you looking for the living among the dead?’ These words might suggest that this was a place where several bodies lay. The two men then fulfil their primary role of declaring the kerygma: ‘he has been raised!’ But their speech continues: ‘Remember what he told you while he was still in Galilee.’ The women do indeed remember, and they go off to speak to the Eleven. At this point Luke confirms the identity of the women. They must be identified for their testimony to be trusted, and there are other women who are not named. The apostles are sceptical and consider their words ‘an idle tale’.
Peter is more careful. In a scene reminiscent of the disciples running to the tomb in John 20, Peter ‘ran to the tomb’. He ‘saw’ the discarded cloths, and went home. Luke leaves us in doubt about Peter’s reaction, telling readers that he was ‘amazed’ (thaumazon), or perhaps simply ‘wondering’ or ‘perplexed’ at what had happened. It is the beloved disciple in John 20 who ‘saw and believed’. The scepticism of the apostles, however, affirms that they are not gullible. In all the gospels the subsequent appearances of Jesus and his inter-action with women and men demonstrate the reality of his new life.