Luke 24:1

Now, on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they... came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away... and they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus... two men stood by them in shining garments... "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen."... Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus... while they conversed and reasoned... Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained so that they did not know him... "Oh, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken"... beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself... he took bread, he blessed it, he broke it and gave it to them. And then their eyes were opened and they knew him, and he vanished from their sight... "The Lord is risen indeed." (Luke 24:1–35)

A still mountain lake, a thrown stone, and ripples that have not stopped for 2,000 years—the empty tomb still changes everything.

The Stone Cast Into the Lake

Have you ever stood beside a mountain lake so still it was like a freshly cleaned mirror, reflecting the hills and trees around it? If you're anything like me, you've thought about picking up a rock and throwing it into the center just to see what happens. When that rock hits, the edges aren't disturbed at first; but at the epicenter, the point of impact, waves begin to ripple out until the whole glassy surface is moved.

The events of Luke 24 are like that rock cast into an undisturbed lake. Two thousand years ago in Jerusalem, the resurrection began that impact, and it has rippled outward every year since. It continues to have effect today—so much so that on this day more than two billion people throughout the world commemorate the events described here. Nearly a third of the entire population of the globe remembers the life, ministry, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

This event has completely altered history. Even those who are not among the two billion celebrating still live under a calendar that affixes dates according to the birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. My prayer over these last several weeks has been that the truth and reality of the resurrection would have a real impact in your life.

The Pivotal Event of All History

Here is point one: the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the pivotal event of all human history. That may be a big statement, but if you examine human history you'll see it's true. And it is most certainly the central event of Christianity.

The apostle Paul made this clear in writing to the Corinthians:

Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead... if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty... we are found false witnesses of God... your faith is futile and you are still in your sins... If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable. (1 Corinthians 15:12–19)

I recently heard a man on a podcast who, by his own admission, called himself a Christian minister—and yet he said he didn't believe the resurrection actually happened, but that's okay, because Christianity still has meaning in the teaching of Jesus and the traditions of the church. I hate to break it to that man, but that's not true. Paul knew it 2,000 years ago: if Christ didn't rise, what we're doing here is completely worthless. You might as well have an Easter egg hunt and eat some ham. The whole point of the Christian faith is that the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive. If He is not alive, there is nothing in His life that can deal with the problem of sin in your life and mine.

The Loser Bus

If Christ is not raised, those who die in Him simply perish, and those of us still alive who believe in Him are to be pitied. The disciples on that Sunday morning, before they knew the tomb was empty, counted themselves absolutely pitiable.

Have you ever been a loser? I read an article after the most recent presidential election that followed the team that lost, back at their headquarters the day after. It was a sad, somber, sorry place—everyone had lost their jobs, everything they'd worked and sacrificed for was over, and their whole demeanor was total depression.

It reminded me of my last football game, senior year of high school. Don't get it in your head that your pastor was amazing at football—I was a second-string O-lineman who didn't play much. But that night I suited up for the CIF semifinals, and we rode the bus down to play Torrey Pines. The Union Tribune had written that our team was expected to win, and we expected ourselves to win. By the end of the night the bus ride home was very different. We had lost, and lost badly. Nobody said a word. There were tears; I remember watching my friends tear up. It was the loser bus. Has anyone ever been on the loser bus?

Point two: without the resurrection, we are pitiful losers. On the morning of the resurrection, before they knew the tomb was empty and before they had seen the risen Jesus, the disciples were dejected, depressed, dispirited, and pitiful. They were on the loser bus, probably planning their next move.

How Quickly Things Change

Just imagine the scene only a week before. They had come into Jerusalem on the winning team, the crowds crying out, "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" There the disciples were, marching in victoriously. My, how things can change. Now they're on the loser bus, thinking, "Well, what's next? I guess I'll go back to fishing. I guess I'll go back to being a tax collector. I certainly can't stick around Jerusalem—a week ago we were victorious, and now everybody in the city wants to get rid of us."

In this passage we read of two of them already heading back:

Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which is seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all the things which had happened. (Luke 24:13–14)

I think it's fitting. Emmaus means warm baths—there were hot springs there. Maybe they figured they'd go drown their sorrows in the sauna and try to figure out what's next. That walk is the loser bus ride—a somber talk of dispirited disciples recounting all the misplays and the fumbles.

A Stranger on the Road

So it was that while they conversed and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him. (Luke 24:15–16)

Something about His appearance post-resurrection was different, or their eyes were miraculously restrained by God. Jesus said, "What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?" The whole setting of Jerusalem during Passover was joy and rejoicing, remembering deliverance from Egypt. Here come these two with heads hung low, shoulders slumped, talking about how terrible everything was.

Cleopas answered, "Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem? Have You not known the things which happened here in these days?" In other words, "Where have You been? Did You sleep through last week?" And Jesus said, "What things?"

They answered:

The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. (Luke 24:19–21)

Notice the past tense: "who was a prophet." They had seen Him feed multitudes with next to nothing, cast out demons, heal the sick, and raise the dead. Just weeks before, in Bethany, His friend Lazarus had been dead four days, and Jesus stood and said, "Lazarus, come forth," and Lazarus came waddling out alive. They had heard Him preach with power and seen His miracles, and it only increased their confidence that He was the Messiah, the anointed one of God. They had given up jobs, left home, and walked away from everything to follow Him—because they thought He was the one.

Hope Deferred

"But it's been three days, and He's dead. So I guess we're going back to our normal lives." Proverbs 13 says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick." Oh, they had hoped. In the midst of Roman occupation and the reduction of their nation, they had hoped He might be the redeemer. And hope deferred makes the heart sick. Maybe you are here today and you've experienced the loss of hope. That's what they had.

Point three: death without the resurrection is pitifully sad. I've been privileged to pastor for 18 years, and in that time I've done many funerals. Occasionally we get a call from someone who doesn't really go to church but had a loved one die, asking if I could officiate. I've stood at funerals where it was very clear the person had no trust in God and those remembering them had little hope of anything beyond the grave. To stand there and see the tears, the weeping, and the loss of any hope that something good can come—it is heavy.

It's an incredible contrast to do a funeral for someone who had a vibrant faith in Jesus, surrounded by people who knew that faith. There is sorrow, but not the same kind of sorrow. The Scriptures say we do not sorrow as those who have no hope. What gives us that hope? The events of Luke 24 that we celebrate on this day. It's amazing to hear a loved one stand at the microphone to share a memory—the difference between the one who has this hope and the one who does not. Though there is sorrow, there is a joy within it that says there is victory over the grave. But death without the resurrection is pitifully sad.

Christ in All the Scriptures

I imagine Jesus, after hearing all this, saying, "That sounds really depressing. Is there anything else?" And there was:

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. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see. (Luke 24:22–24)

This is curious—why are you leaving Jerusalem when the women said they saw Him? Then Jesus said:

"O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. (Luke 24:25–27)

What a message that would have been. No doubt He referenced Psalm 22, written by David a thousand years before—a perfect prophetic chronicle of the crucifixion. He surely referenced Isaiah 53, written 700 years before, which speaks of the suffering servant who has borne our griefs and sorrows, and by whose stripes we are healed. He may have referenced many more passages, but He must have referenced those.

Abide With Us

Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. But they constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." And He went in to stay with them. (Luke 24:28–29)

This was a message they didn't want to end, a meeting they didn't want to lose. "Stay with us. It's late. We'll get a bite to eat. Stick around."

Point four: Jesus died and rose again that we might abide with Him forever.

Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. (Luke 24:30–31)

We don't know why or how, but their restrained eyes were suddenly free. Just days before, Jesus had broken bread at the Passover with the Twelve—and these two weren't there, since later they go back to "the eleven." Yet in the very same fashion, He takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. Maybe in that moment they noticed His hands for the first time. The scars from the cross remained; a week later Jesus would tell Thomas, "Touch the scars; put your hand in My side." And as soon as they recognized Him in the breaking of bread, He vanished.

A Resurrection Body

That He vanished tells us something about His body after the resurrection. He had what we call a glorified body, a resurrection body—the very thing the Scriptures promise to all who trust in Him. This corruption will put on incorruption; this mortality will put on immortality; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall be changed.

That sounds really good. I don't want to keep this body forever—it just keeps falling apart, and I'm not even 40 yet. I see some of you limping and aching, and I already feel it every morning. The first 500 steps down the stairs, it's like I'm going to tumble. You may not be there yet; it'll come. But Jesus died and rose again that we might abide with Him forever.

Off the Loser Bus

They said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" (Luke 24:32–34)

These men had just walked seven miles, and now, at night, they ran the seven miles back. When they arrived, they didn't find a teary-eyed bunch despairing and wounded. They found a group of people full of joy and rejoicing—because they had seen the risen Lord Jesus. The resurrection had changed everything. "The Lord is risen indeed!"

Life and Joy Forever

Point five: the resurrection means life and joy forever. Jesus died, but He did not remain dead. Death could not hold Him; He overcame it and rose again.

You may say, "That sounds great—but how do we know?" Paul answers in 1 Corinthians 15:

I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present... After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also. (1 Corinthians 15:3–8)

Where in the Scriptures? Think of Psalm 16: "You will not leave my soul in the grave, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, and at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

How do we know? Because the evidence is there. The tomb is empty, and there were more than 500 eyewitnesses—many of whom went to their deaths as martyrs: thrown to beasts, crucified, beheaded, stoned, run through with swords. All they had to do to escape death was say it didn't happen, that He was still dead. But they wouldn't. They said, "He is alive, and I have seen Him," and they were put to death. To disprove it, all anyone had to do was produce the body of Jesus of Nazareth—but the tomb is empty, and the witnesses speak on. He is alive, and because He lives, anyone who lives and believes in Him shall never perish but have everlasting life. The resurrection means life and joy forever. That is the good news we celebrate on Resurrection Sunday.

Closing Prayer

Father, I thank You that You loved us so much that You gave Your Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. You who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might receive righteousness. And because You did not remain dead—because You overcame death and sin and were victorious—we are not on the loser bus. We are more than conquerors through You who loved us. We thank You for the life, the hope, and the joy we have. Though we will experience the pain of an earthly death, because You live, we shall live with You forever. Thank You for Your forgiving grace that makes it possible to know with certainty that we will be with You forever.

It may be that, even now, you don't have that hope and joy. Instead you have loneliness, emptiness, guilt over wrong things done or said, and a fear of what comes after this life. Jesus came to take away our emptiness, loneliness, guilt, and fear, and to give us joy through His forgiving grace. It's a free gift He came to give as we put our trust in Him for salvation. He deals with our sin—its penalty and its power—so we can have life with Him forever.

Because of the truth of the resurrection, these prayers don't just go into the air and disappear; they go to the risen Jesus, seated on a throne in heaven. So pray with me: Dear Jesus, I know that I have sinned and failed, and that I can't fix my sin myself. I thank You that You died on the cross for me and that You rose victoriously over sin. I pray that You would come into my life, forgive me of my sin, and help me to follow You by faith. In Jesus' name, amen.