Empty Tomb

24:1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” 8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened. (Luke 24:1-12)

Jesus is raised the tomb is empty, it is still empty. Luke begins the account of the resurrection. I always find it strange that people think this was an illusion, some sort of mass hysteria thing that happened among the disciples. Jesus isn’t seen at first. What is seen is an empty tomb. The disciples tend to all be as skeptical as Thomas when they first start seeing Jesus, and as they grapple with the cold and hard fact of an empty tomb. This isn’t mass hysteria. The empty tomb remains as a convincing fact for the city of Jerusalem. 50 days later, on Pentecost, there will be a mass conversion. This will be the result of the testimony of an empty tomb. No one could explain it. The only option that made sense was the resurrection.