03 November

Bible In 365 Days

Luke 23-24

Luke 23

This is the story of the Cross, and, as in dealing with other Gospels, it is best read in reverent quietness and meditation. We see all the forces of evil as represented in the Jewish priests and in Pilate joining hands to secure the murder of Jesus. Dr. Maclaren has remarked that there is something impressive in the unbroken continuity of the clauses in this paragraph which follow one another, linked by a simple 'and,' like the waves of the Dead Sea which roll heavily in dreary succession. It is for us to stand on the margin of that sea of unutterable anguish, and to remember that His submerging was for our deliverance.

What mingled feelings of disappointment and love must have filled the heart of Joseph as he laid the body of Jesus in his garden grave. Nevertheless, the love was the supreme matter, and it found vindication later.

Luke 24

No human eye saw the resurrection. The women came early, but only to find the stone rolled away. The record of those earliest experiences is full of touching beauty. Luke alone gives us the story of the walk to Emmaus, in which disappointed disciples poured out their story, and in which at last He revealed Himself to them as the Risen One.

Much mystery still surrounds the fact of the resurrection, but the fact abides. There are suggestive points, moreover, in this account of His appearances. He distinctly denied that His resurrection was of His Spirit only, for He invited them to touch His hands and His feet. The evidences of a material body are abundant. Nevertheless, He came to their midst through closed doors, and at last, in bodily form, passed away, superior to the law of gravitation. To speak of the resurrection as supernatural is correct so long as we mean by "natural" the sphere of life in which we are bounded today. There is nothing supernatural to God. We take His facts today, and await His explanation tomorrow.

The last brief picture of Jesus in this Gospel is of His passing into the presence of God, with hands uplifted in priestly benediction.