The Second Week of Easter

Their Eyes Were Opened

A Biblical Study for the Easter Season 2016

Based on the Gospel of Luke

Introduction to the study.

The Second Week of Easter (April 3)

For this page in PDF format, click this title Easter 2

 

1. LISTEN to the audio interview OR READ the transcript below. The interview is based on this scriptural passage: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Lk 24:5).

The interview reflection: Tell a story about a time when your expectations were not met, but you later realized that something far better had happened than you could have asked for or imagined.

Listen to an interview with Marjorie George.

Or read How I Failed Eighth Grade in PDF format

2. READ and STUDY the Scriptural Passage:

Luke 24:1   But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.  2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,  3 but when they went in, they did not find the body.  4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.  5 The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.  6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,  7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”  8 Then they remembered his words,  9 and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.  10 Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles.  11 But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.  12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Commentary on the Passage by the Rev. Dr. John Lewis

The women at the tomb are puzzled and perplexed by the disappearance of the body of Jesus. They don’t have a framework for making sense of this completely unexpected event. The two men in dazzling clothes then make things even more confounding. Their words imply that Jesus, who clearly died on the cross a few days earlier, is still somehow among the living. “This cannot be,” the women must have surely thought to themselves.

The two men try to explain the surprising absence of Jesus’ body by reminding the women of something Jesus said earlier while in Galilee: that the Son of Man would be crucified and raised from the dead on the third day. Only after the women remembered for themselves these words of Jesus do they understand what has now taken place. These earlier, prophetic words of Jesus provide the key for their interpretation and comprehension of these otherwise inexplicable current events.

3. RESPOND to the following questions:

• Find the connections between the interview and the biblical story.
• Are there any connections between the interview and your story?
• Can you describe a recent event in your own life or that of your congregation that made more sense to you in light of some of the words or teachings of Jesus?
• Give a concrete example of how the words and teachings of Jesus have provided meaning to an important event in your life.