nonsense or marvelous?

This is the seventh in our series of Holy Week devotionals.

Happy Easter! He is risen!

Today is a day filled with joy and thankfulness!

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ And they remembered His words, and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.

Luke 24:1-12

In the course of two short verses we see Peter and the other disciples going from believing the testimony of the women was “nonsense” to Peter walking away “marveling.” So what made the difference? He saw for himself.

The women saw the empty tomb. They heard from the “two men” in “dazzling” clothes. They heard the words “He is not here, but He has risen.” They were reminded of what Jesus had already told them. Then they excitedly went and told the others.

But the others didn’t believe them. The others thought what the women were saying was nonsense! But…they decided to check it out for themselves. They saw the wrappings, and they saw that Jesus’s body was gone just like the women had said. The women could tell them, but ultimately they needed to see and experience for themselves.

We celebrate today with excitement because we have realized that the tomb is empty. We know Jesus is not dead, that He is alive and has risen! We are reminded of God’s great love for us and that Jesus’s paying the price for our sins means we can be in relationship with God.

Although we are excited about the joyous message of today, we might encounter others who believe it is nonsense. Like the women, we need to be faithful to tell others what we have seen and experienced. We need to encourage them to check it out for themselves, and then pray that they will do just that and encounter the hope of Jesus’s resurrection for themselves so they too can marvel at what happened.

As you celebrate today, let these women of Easter inspire you to share the Good News of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ with others today!