One of the crucified criminals recognizes Jesus has done nothing wrong (Luke 23:14).
Herod can find nothing in Jesus worthy of death (Luke 23:15). Pilate proclaims Jesus innocent three times (Luke 23:4, 23:14, 23:22). Through the account of the crucifixion, Luke highlights Jesus’s innocence. He teaches us about Jesus in the process. Luke doesn’t just present the empty tomb. He had to see the evidence for himself, and we see it through him. After being absent at the crucifixion, he was desperate for another chance to see the Lord. Jesus looked at Peter after the rooster crow marked Peter’s third denial (Luke 22:61). Peter’s previous appearance in Luke did not end well. Grave robbers would have taken the body with the cloth a resurrected Jesus would shed his wrappings. It is significant that Peter saw the linen wrappings (Luke 24:12) instead of an empty tomb. The angels point to Jesus’s prophecy about himself (Luke 9:22) as more evidence. All three women who saw the empty tomb are named (Luke 24:10), perhaps for the purpose of verification. We have not one, but two heavenly witnesses declaring, “He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:6). Remember that Luke is a historian, so he presents his readers with evidence and testimony about this miraculous discovery. He leaves the tomb convinced (Luke 24:12). But the apostles don’t believe them (Luke 24:11), so Peter checks it out himself. The women then remember (Luke 24:8) and tell the apostles what they saw (Luke 24:9). Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise. They are “perplexed” to find no body.Īs the angels tell the women that Jesus has risen, they emphasize Jesus’s own words. They had seen Jesus’s body laid in the tomb (Luke 23:55), so when they find the stone rolled away, they know where to look. Luke 24 opens with three women approaching Jesus’s tomb at dawn (Luke 24:1), expecting to anoint his body with spices they prepared (Luke 23:56). (See also Peter’s look at Luke for a previous series.) The Witnesses He is writing an “orderly account” for Theophilus, that he would “have certainty concerning the things been taught.” Luke writes as a historian.įollowing Daniel Wallace, I take this as Luke’s theme: Jesus is the Son of Man, rejected by Israel, offered to the Gentiles. Luke’s purpose is evident from the first verses of his book (Luke 1:1–4). Why did Jesus rise from the dead? We’ve previously looked at Matthew’s account, and today we turn to Luke.