The Lord Is Risen: The Empty Tomb and the Living Christ
The Empty Tomb, the Appearances, the Road to Emmaus, Thomas, and the Great Commission
1. The Empty Tomb
Very early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, the women came to the tomb with spices to anoint the body — Mary Magdalene and the others who had followed Him from Galilee. As they walked they wondered among themselves who would roll away the great stone from the door, for it was very large.
But there had been a great earthquake; an angel of the Lord had descended, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow, and the soldiers on guard "shook for fear of him, and became like dead men" (Matthew 28:3–4). The women found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty, and the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid... He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay" (Matthew 28:5–6). "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" (Luke 24:5).
Mary ran to Peter and John with the news, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb." The two ran together; John outran Peter and reached the tomb first but waited at the door; then Peter went in and saw the linen cloths lying there, and the cloth that had been around His head folded together in a place by itself (John 20:6–7) — not the wild disorder of a robbery, but the quiet order of One who had risen and laid His grave clothes aside. Then John also went in, and "he saw and believed" (John 20:8).
2. The Risen Lord Appears
Mary Magdalene lingered weeping outside the tomb. Stooping in, she saw two angels in white sitting where the body had lain, and they asked her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" "Because they have taken away my Lord," she said, "and I do not know where they have laid Him." Then she turned and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not know Him and supposed He was the gardener. "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" He said only one word — "Mary!" — and at the sound of her name she knew Him and cried, "Rabboni!" which is to say, Teacher (John 20:15–16).
"Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father... but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God'" (John 20:17). She was not to hold Him to the old manner of His earthly presence; she was to go and tell. So Mary Magdalene became the first to carry the word, "I have seen the Lord!" He met the other women on the way as well, and they held Him by the feet and worshiped Him (Matthew 28:9). The first witnesses of the resurrection were women — a detail no inventor of that age would have chosen, and so itself a quiet mark of the truth.
3. The Road to Emmaus
That same day two disciples were walking to a village called Emmaus, downcast, talking over all that had happened. Jesus Himself drew near and walked along with them, but their eyes were restrained, and they did not know Him. "What kind of conversation is this?" He asked, and they stood still, sad. They told the Stranger of Jesus of Nazareth, a mighty prophet, crucified by their rulers; "we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel"; and of the women's astonishing report that the tomb was empty.
Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe... 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) — the cross and the empty tomb were no accident, no defeat; the whole of the Old Testament had been pointing to this all along. As they drew near the village, He made as though He would go farther, but they urged Him, "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent" (Luke 24:29); so He went in to stay with them. At the table He took bread, blessed and broke it — and in that moment their eyes were opened and they knew Him, and He vanished from their sight. "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32). They rose that very hour and ran back to Jerusalem.
4. The Upper Room and Thomas
That evening, the doors shut for fear of the authorities, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said, "Peace be with you." He showed them His hands and His side, and the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. "Behold My hands and My feet... Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have" (Luke 24:39). To prove further that He was no ghost but risen in true body, He asked for food and ate a piece of broiled fish before them (Luke 24:42–43). Then again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." And He breathed on them, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:21–22).
But Thomas was not with them, and when they told him, he would not believe: "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails... I will not believe" (John 20:25). Eight days later the disciples were inside again, and Thomas with them, and Jesus came though the doors were shut and stood among them. He turned to Thomas: "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands... Do not be unbelieving, but believing." And Thomas answered Him, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28). Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29) — a word of blessing reaching down to every believer since.
5. The Great Commission, the Ascension, and the Meaning of the Resurrection
By the Sea of Galilee the risen Lord restored Peter, who had denied Him three times. Three times He asked, "Do you love Me?" and three times He charged him, "Feed My sheep" (John 21:15–17) — grace enough to lift up the fallen and send him out again.
Then, on a mountain in Galilee, He gave the Great Commission: "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:18–20). The work of the church flows out of an empty tomb.
And when He had led them out as far as Bethany, He lifted up His hands and blessed them, and while He blessed them He was parted from them and carried up into heaven (Luke 24:50–51; Acts 1:9). As they gazed upward, two men in white said, "This same Jesus... will so come in like manner as you saw Him go" (Acts 1:11). He who rose will also return.
What, then, does the resurrection mean? It is the Father's "Amen" to the Son's "It is finished" — the open proof that the sacrifice was accepted, the debt was truly paid, and death itself was conquered. "If Christ is not risen... your faith is futile; you are still in your sins" (1 Corinthians 15:17); but Christ is risen, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and because He lives, all who trust Him will live also. He was seen by Peter, then by the Twelve, and then by more than five hundred at once (1 Corinthians 15:5–6); the witnesses were many and the tomb was empty. And as He rose, so all who are His will rise — His resurrection the firstfruits and the pledge of our own.
And the divine and human stand together still. The very body that was crucified and buried rose again, was seen and touched and ate among them, yet passed through shut doors and was taken up into glory — truly man, truly God, the living Lord. The story that began in a manger and ran on to a cross does not end in a borrowed tomb. It ends with a living Christ who says to His own, in every age, "I am with you always." The grave was not the end of the story but the doorway into endless life.