Luke 24:11

Posted by DJL on Apr 5, 2013 in Daily Bread | 0 comments

But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

“Idle tale” is a fairly generous translation of the Greek word Luke uses to describe the apostles’ characterization of the women’s testimony. It’s accurate, but generous. “Leros,” the Greek word in question, is at the root of our word “delirious.” And so what the men were really saying was that the women were out of their minds, crazy, spouting nonsense.

It’s interesting, I think, to note throughout the gospel – and, indeed, in many ways the whole Bible – who receives and bears good news. At the beginning of this story it’s shepherds, who are at the very bottom rung of the socio-economic and cultural ladder. And now it’s women, who also don’t have much social standing and whose testimony is dismissed as nonsense.

And so I think part of what Luke’s account of Jesus’ life teaches us is to look for God always where we least expect God to be, to anticipate God using people we wouldn’t dream of God associating with, and to get used to God surprising and even overturning our expectations.

But I also think there’s something more going on here. I also think that Luke is giving us some insight into the very nature of the gospel. For whatever else it is, the good news of God’s redemption in Christ is also, well, more than just a little bit crazy. I mean, if there’s one thing we can be certain of in this world, it’s that the dead stay dead. And if suddenly that’s up for grabs, then what’s next?

No wonder the apostles’ rejected such testimony. Nothing in their life or experience had prepared them for resurrection. If that fundamental law of nature and their experience fell to the side, what could they possibly count on? And so rather than face the fact that their limited perception of reality might just be too small, too limiting, only a fraction of the larger whole, the men dismiss the women’s story as ludicrous.

I wonder how often we’ve done the same.

Prayer: Dear God, keep us from becoming so sure that our experience of reality is the only reality out there that we miss the unexpected ways in which you intervene in – and interfere with – the world you love so much. In Jesus’ name, Amen.