Last week’s Bible study ended with a discussion of Joseph putting Jesus’ body into his own grave while some of the women watched at a distance. Those women clearly made plans to come back on Sunday morning to properly anoint the body for burial. That they did. However, what they found on Sunday morning was not what they expected. It wasn’t what anybody expected – despite the fact that Jesus had told them he would rise again.
What we will see in today’s text lines up with something I mentioned last week. I had mentioned that I wasn’t sure how much Joseph knew about the promised resurrection. Perhaps he had heard Jesus mention it but didn’t understand. Perhaps he wasn’t around when Jesus talked about it. But the women new. So did the apostles and at least some of the disciples. Yet most of them had trouble believing.
This isn’t a knock on them and their lack of belief. Jesus being resurrected from the grave was a hard pill to swallow. It was a very difficult thing for people to wrap their brains around. I say all that to say this: we Christians also struggle to believe God from time to time. It’s normal and natural. Nonetheless, we owe it to ourselves and him to fight against unbelief at every turn. The truth is that Sunday came. And when it did, Jesus answered their unbelief.