Why Look For The Living Among The Dead?

"On the Sabbath the women rested according to the commandment, but the first day of the week, at dawn, the women went to the tomb with the perfumes and ointments they had prepared.  Seeing the stone rolled away from the opening of the tomb, they entered, and were amazed to find that the body of the LORD JESUS was not there.

As they stood there wondering about this, two men in dazzling garments suddenly stood before them.  In fright the women bowed to the ground.  But the men said, 'Why look for the living among the dead?  You won't find HIM here.  HE is risen.  Remember what HE told you in Galilee, that the Son of Man had to be given into the hands of sinners, to be crucified, and to rise on the third day.'  And they remembered JESUS words.

Returning from the tomb, they told the Eleven and all the others about these things.  Among the women, who brought the news, were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James.  But however much they insisted, those who heard did not believe the seemingly nonsensical story.  Then Peter got up and ran to the tomb.  All he saw, when he bent down and looked into the tomb, were the linen cloths, laid by themselves.  He went home wondering." - Luke 24:1-12 

The Ascension Of JESUS CHRIST

(The LORD JESUS: with this expression, not found in the rest of the Gospel but very much in use in the early church, Luke shows us that the Risen JESUS has entered a kind of existence which is different from that of HIS mortal life.  Let us remember the following:

     1)  None of the Gospels describe the Resurrection of JESUS: it was an event that could not be seen.

     2)  The apostles' preaching about the risen JESUS is based on two facts: the empty tomb and the appearances.

     3)  Before the Gospels were written, Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, in the year 57, gave a list of JESUS' appearances [1 Corinthians 15:3].

     4)  Although the four Gospels agree on the essentials, there are, nevertheless, differences as to the order of the appearances and the place where they occurred.  Luke does not mention appearances in Galilee.  Matthew gives the impression that all that was important took place in Galilee, and that the Ascension took place there as well.  Paul speaks first of an appearance to Peter and does not mention the appearance to Mary Magdalene.  An in-depth study of the texts sheds some light on these discrepancies: they did not want to reveal everything, and at times preferred to modify details of the place or the chronology to fit the demands of their book and for the purpose of teaching.

     5)  As for JESUS' ascension, it was not a "trip" to heaven; HE was already "in heaven," in the sense that HE shared the glory of GOD from the moment of HIS resurrection.  The Ascension is simply the last of HIS appearances.)

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