Pure Nonsense (part 1)

But these words seemed like pure nonsense to them, and they did not believe them. – Luke 24:11 (NET)

The words of nonsense were a part of the attempt by some women to convey their amazing experience. A group of women had gone to Jesus’ tomb, “taking the aromatic spices they had prepared” (24:1b). Not only was this an obvious expression of love for, and devotion towards Jesus by these women, but what they were doing was a regular part of Jewish burial practices. Jesus had been buried in a tomb “where no one had yet been buried” (23:53b).

Though no one had yet been buried there, most assuredly, over time, there would have been many people placed in that tomb. A tomb was not designed for one person, and one person only. That is the reason for taking the aromatic spices. A body would be placed in the tomb, and while that body was in the tomb, other bodies would be placed in the tomb. The spices would counteract the smell of decaying and putrefying flesh, which would make the further placement of bodies in the tomb somewhere more bearable. After a period of time, when the flesh of a body had completely decomposed, family members would return to the tomb to collect the bones and place them in a jar or box. Those bones, now collected together, would either be taken to another location or left in the tomb. For this reason, each body laid in the tomb would have aromatic spices applied to them.

This serves to point out that none of Jesus’ disciples or followers expected Him to be raised from the dead. None of them were looking forward to Jesus’ Resurrection. Clearly, the women were not, because they were taking the spices to the tomb as part of the normal burial routine. So when “they found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb” (24:2), they might not have thought that to be a completely odd occurrence. One of the first thoughts might very well have been that somebody was already there, doing to Jesus’ body exactly what it was that they had come to do. “But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus” (24:3). This was completely unexpected. We are told that “they were perplexed about this” (24:4a). It was then that they would hear the amazing words that “He is not here, but has been raised!” (24:6a) Along with this, the women receive something of a rebuke, as they hear, “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 again” (24:6b-7).

Upon hearing this, we read that “the women remembered His words” (24:8a), and for the first time, putting together the words that they are now remembering, with the words that they were hearing, there is a belief in a Resurrection. Until that point, there was nobody that carried any type of expectation that Jesus was going to rise from the dead. Again, the women went to the tomb, not expecting to find it empty, but to find the dead body of Jesus. Death was well understood. Then, as now, there was a full and complete knowledge that people, quite simply, do not return from the dead. That is why, “when they returned from the tomb” and “told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest… these words seemed like pure nonsense to them, and they did not believe them” (24:9,11). Dead people stayed dead. No one was expecting Jesus to return to life.

Peter heard these words and “got up and ran to the tomb” (24:12a). He had to see for himself. He found the tomb empty, as the women had said. However, he did not experience what it was that the women had experienced. “He bent down and saw only the strips of linen cloth” (24:12b). Because of his life experience, however, Peter knew that people do not rise from the dead, so the report of the women, undoubtedly, still rang in his ears as nothing more than pure nonsense. After making his observations there at the tomb, “he went home, wondering what had happened” (24:12c). At that point, Peter did not believe that Jesus had been raised, he merely wondered at how and why the tomb was empty.