Luke 24 verses 5-7. “In their fright the women bowed down with 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; he is risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee; The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.”
The angels reminded the women at the tomb; “Remember how he told you…..” (verse 6). In verse 8 it says; “Then they remembered his words”. But in verse 11 unbelief and incredulity still reigned. “Their words seemed to them as nonsense” (v 11). Peter then ran to the tomb and found things just as the woman had reported to them. Amazingly, Peter still at this stage did not appear to think that Christ’s prophecy of his resurrection had come true.
This strange fact of the disciples inability to see or grasp what had happened is further proof of the authenticity of the story. Some have suggested that the Mission of Jesus was simply to tell us about the love of God. But if that was all it was He need not have died on the Cross for it. These same people suggest that the disciples then invented their own message about why Jesus came and so what they later preached and what Jesus came to do was entirely different. You will see this kind of thinking in books like the “Da Vinci Code” and others.
But the disciples did not invent their news. In fact for some time they did not believe it, nor understand it. The entire message of the crucified and risen Christ originated with Jesus himself and he had clearly told his disciples beforehand what was to happen to him in Jerusalem.
The great aim of the enemy is always to discredit the Gospel. He will do so by suggesting it never happened; or that it was an invented tale; or that the records are mistaken, or that it is simply too ridiculous to believe. The enemy will especially attack the meaning of the Cross – that is that Jesus died as a substitute for our sins.
Furthermore the enemy’s representatives will sometimes appear to be very smart, smooth-talking, and persuasive. We must be determined not to listen to them.
Let’s ask God for wisdom to discern between truth and error in these days and let’s also ask our Father to give us grace to stay true to the real Gospel message, no matter the opposition.