“O Lord – Now What ?”

Scripture: Luke 24:1-12

This had been a roller-coaster week for those who followed Jesus. First, the grand entry in Jerusalem when the entire troop was cheered and praised. Then the heavy teaching began, and the Lord no longer made any bones about what he was telling the people. He had always run counter to the conventional wisdom, but now, he was getting more and more intentional in addressing the Pharisees and their legalistic brand of faith.
The teaching was getting more and more difficult to accept, but on the positive side, it looked like he was beginning to stir the pot real good. Could this be the beginning of a revolt against the oppressive lifestyle they all had been subjected to? Was Jesus going to lead them into a better day?

Then he was arrested and hauled off to the Sanhedrin for trial. This wasn’t a good sign, but then Jesus had never done anything to warrant a conviction, so maybe he will get off. But when the Romans got involved, that possibility vaporized, and the only certainty was that the sentence of death was on its way.

But there were those who truly believed that Jesus had been sent from the Great Jehovah – would the Lord actually allow “His Man” to be tortured? To be executed? Surely God would intervene!
But he didn’t. Jesus would be flogged to within a breath of death, and then he was taken to Calvary for the final act of hatred.

How could this be? How could this strange but wonderful ministry come to such a tragic and abrupt end? What would become of them, now that Jesus was no longer able to teach and encourage and enable them to serve in his name? How could life get any worse than this?

Read Luke 24:1-3

Sabbath had been a very solemn day – more than it normally was. They had gone through the motions of worship, but it held little meaning for most. The day of rest ended at sunrise, and the women went to complete the anointing of Jesus’ body. But when they arrived at the tomb, the stone had already been rolled away and the guards were nowhere in sight. Strange, but then, who could ever understand the Romans!

And then things began to get really bizarre – the body was gone! As if the Lord’s death hadn’t been bad enough, now the women couldn’t even complete the burial ritual! Who would steal a body? And in plain sight of the Roman solders? And if it was by consent, why would Rome want to make him disappear? It just didn’t make any sense?

Read Luke 24:4-8

Suddenly two men appear right in front of them, and they know immediately that these must be messengers sent from God. Their clothing, their sudden, miraculous arrival, the divine presence that radiated from their being – everything about them said “HOLY”!
What now? Where they going to tell the women where the body is? Was this to be one more of Jesus’ miracles? They were scared stiff, and imagined that they were going to be struck dead in the next instant.

But they weren’t – these “men” had a message for them. “He’s alive, so why are you looking for him here? Don’t you remember what he told you?

Slowly, Jesus’ words began to come back to them.
- “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (Luke 9:22)
- “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.” (Luke 9:44)
- “He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.” (Luke 18:32-33)
And now these heavenly messengers remind them once again that ”The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.”

It all came flooding back – but they still didn’t know where his body was. If Jesus was alive, why wasn’t he here to greet them? They saw the empty tomb, they heard the divine words, they remembered Jesus’ words from years ago, and still, it didn’t make sense.

Read Luke 24:9-12

As they returned to the locked room, they began to wonder just how they were going to explain this to the men! “Crazy women – are you saying that you didn’t complete the anointing? What’s wrong with you? What do you mean he is missing?” The men didn’t understand, either. And yet, there was something that kept pulling at Peter, and he just had to go and see for himself. The Spirit told him “Don’t walk, Peter – RUN!”! Peter would see for himself, and he would still struggle with the significance of this empty tomb.


These people had been with Jesus for years – some since the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry in the Galilee. They had heard the teaching, had seen the healing, had witnessed the courageous truth that had been shown toward the arrogance of the elitists, and had been privy to the extra time that Jesus spent with them, explaining and giving them even more grace than he did to the masses. Jesus had called them, fed them, encouraged them, empowered them, and I have no doubt that the women experienced almost as much of Jesus that the men did.

But Jesus was unlike any rabbi that they had ever known. He taught the strangest things, but with the most incredible authority and wisdom, that they could never believe that he was wrong. They knew their history, they knew the prophecies, they knew the law, but none of it seemed to help them understand.

But slowly, slowly, everything was beginning to come together – the teaching and all that had happened – but still there were questions. What about them? What were they to do now? How would they know? WHY?

For over three years, they had walked the roads of Palestine and the Galilee with this man. They knew that he was unlike any other they had ever known, but the “why” of today continued to plague them. They now knew that something incredible had happened, and that life for them would never be the same, but what that life would be was a complete mystery. They would just have to wait.


We live in a fast paced, immediate gratification, breaking news reports with little delay, and societal norms that are nearly as corrupt as those 2,000 years ago. And while the message of Jesus’ resurrection is still discounted by many in the world, the truth of Christ is still before us. The disciples would soon discover that faith in Jesus Christ involved more than just heart, mind and soul – that it would require action on their part. And that raises another issue within our nation – many are so caught up in their own selves – their ideals, their entitlement, their self-importance, their self-serving attitude - that faith makes little sense to them.

And yet, the Church continues to grow in both numbers and understanding. Why? Because the “apostles” of today understand that while salvation is a freely given gift of God, faith requires more than heart, mind and soul – it demands that faith includes action. But all too many think that “active discipleship” is for others, and they have become that third servant who buried his coin in the ground instead of using it to bring honor to his master. (Matthew 25:14-30)

We’ve come a long way since that Resurrection Day, and the time has come for each and every one of us to begin taking that risky and uncertain step in Jesus’ Way. It’s time that we all reach out to those doubters and deniers and rejecters, and begin to show them just what Jesus is all about, and why they need to know him for their own lives.

The fishermen, and the tax collectors, and the farmers, and the women, and Gentiles, and even a Pharisee or two, would begin putting themselves last, and Jesus first. They would begin to live Jesus’ instruction – “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name …” (John 14:12-14)

Do we have faith in Jesus Christ? Then it’s time for us to “do what [he has] been doing”! Jesus had the power of the Father within him, and he tells us that we can have the power of the Son working for us.

Is your Christian faith new, or weak? Then let others help you to grow in faith.

It is time. Today is the day. Today, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus – his emergence from the darkness of death, into a new and glorious existence.
Today is the day that we, too, need to shed the old complacent life, the old controlled life, the old uncertain life, and follow his resurrection into a new and glorious life for ourselves.

May your old, fearful prayer of “O Lord – now what?” fade away, and become one of Resurrection - “I’m ready Lord – send me!” May this be your resurrection day. Praise the Lord!!

May your Easter be blessed!