Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 24

Now upon the first day of the week.—See Notes on Matthew 28:1-4; Mark 16:1–4.

Very early in the morning.—The original has a more poetic form “in the deep dawn,” agreeing with “while it was yet dark.” The last clause, “certain others with them,” is not found in the best manuscripts, and may have been inserted by transcribers to bring in the second group, who are named in the other Gospels, but not in this.

And they found the stone rolled away.—The narrative is less vivid and detailed than St. Mark’s; possibly, we may believe, because St. Luke’s report may have come, not from one of the Marys, but from Joanna or Susanna, who were less prominent, and might only have heard of what had happened from others.

Two men stood by them.—St. Mark and St. Matthew mention one only. Had St. Matthew given the two, it might have been urged by adverse critics that this duplication of phenomena, as in the case of the demoniacs (Matthew 8:28), and the blind men at Jericho (Matthew 20:30), was an idiosyncrasy of his. As it is, we must suppose that each set of informants—the two Marys, and the “others” from whom it seems probable that St. Luke’s report was derived—described what they themselves had seen. At such moments of terror and astonishment, perception and memory are not always very definite in their reports.

Why do you seek the living among the dead?—Better, as in the margin, Him that liveth. The question was enough to change the whole current of their thoughts. The Lord whom they came to honour as dead was indeed living, was emphatically He that liveth, alive forevermore (Revelation 1:18).

The primary meaning of the words is, of course, limited to this; but like the parallel, let the dead bury their dead (see Note on Matthew 8:22), they suggest manifold applications. It is in vain that we seek Him that liveth in dead works, dead formulas, dead or dying institutions. The eternal life that is in Christ is not to be found by looking into the graves of the past in the world’s history, or in those of our individual life. In both cases it is better to rise, as on the stepping-stones of our dead selves, to higher things.

Remember how he spoke to you. The direct appeal to the memory of the women is peculiar to St. Luke, and shows us what does not lie on the surface of the Gospel history, that they, too, were among those to whom were uttered the prophecies of the Passion and the Resurrection of which we read in Luke 9:43-45. In the words of Matthew 28:6, He is risen, as He said, we have an indirect reference of the same character.