Sermons
April 20, 2025
The women have lost their marbles.
Luke 24:1-12
In Jewish biblical interpretation, students engage in a practice called Midrash, in which they discuss details that are left out of a text, or questions that the text raises but never quite addresses. This could be things like, “How did Sarah react when Abraham took Isaac up to Mt. Moriah to sacrifice him, apparently because God commanded it?”[1] Or, “Why did Lot’s wife turn around to see the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and why did she turn to a pillar of salt?”[2]
Or—I love this one—“What did God’s voice sound like when he spoke to Moses from the burning bush?”[3] The voice would have had to be one that would get Moses’ attention and speak with some authority, but without frightening Moses. So the rabbis decided God’s voice might have sounded like that of Moses’ father.
I’m rather fascinated by the process of midrash, because there are quite a few places in my own Bible study where I feel like things aren’t addressed that I’d really like to know about. Today’s reading contains one of those.
Actually, all the resurrection narratives leave out the same detail—what did Jesus’ disciples do on Saturday? Of the four Gospels, only Luke says anything about Saturday, and he only gives us one sentence: “On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.”[4]
I imagine most of us have been through a day like that Saturday.
There was nothing to do except sit and think, every thought prefaced with “He’s dead…he’s gone…it’s over.” Tomorrow arrangements would have to be made, his body would need to be anointed and properly wrapped for its eternal rest since the burial Friday was necessarily hurried, bags would need to be packed for the long walk home; but none of that could happen Saturday.
Even though Luke says the women rested on the sabbath, it’s hard for me to imagine them actually getting a whole lot of rest. They hardly tasted the sabbath eve supper, went through the candle lighting and prayers by rote, didn’t bother singing any of the usual joyful songs. And when they went to bed, it was as if they were lying on stone slabs—as, their minds continually reminded them, their Teacher and Lord was. “He’s dead…he’s gone…it’s over.”
Then the sun came up and the long day of enforced idleness loomed before them. They sat, maybe talked in hushed tones, maybe told stories, maybe cried a little, maybe just sat. Or they walked through the house picking things up and putting them down, noticing little details that reminded them of Jesus—and brought back that endless loop in their minds’ ears: “He’s dead…he’s gone…it’s over.”
I doubt they were sorry to see the sun set and that long, terrible sabbath ended.
Before they went to bed, the women made sure they had all the spices and ointments ready for their errand in the morning. And then they started another long, sleepless night.
As soon as the sky began to lighten the next day, they started toward his tomb. Every step they took echoed that now-familiar refrain: “He’s dead…he’s gone…it’s over.”
When they got to the tomb they were surprised to find the tomb open, the stone rolled away. Can you imagine where their minds went? Bad enough they killed him; did they have to steal his body, too?
Yes, they had heard Jesus say, many times, that he would be killed and then be raised on the third day; but it had never made any sense. That doesn’t happen, not in the real world. Yes, Jesus had raised people from the dead; but who could raise Jesus from the dead?
Then angels appeared, and reminded the women of what Jesus had said: “This is that!”
Oh! “He’s not dead! He’s not gone! It’s not over!”
They ran back to where the rest of the disciples were hiding, and told them what they had heard and seen. And it didn’t compute. “The women have lost their marbles!” they said.
A lot of scholars will say that the disciples didn’t believe the women because women’s testimony was, at that time, not considered reliable. Maybe not in a court of law, but this wasn’t a court of law. These women had been following right along with many men as Jesus traveled the country. They had supported the band of disciples out of their own wealth.
But the rest of the disciples didn’t believe them, assumed they were out of their minds with grief over what had happened the last few days.[5] They didn’t believe because what the women were saying was simply ridiculous. One does not simply get up and walk away after being crucified—one of the most brutal and horrific forms of execution the ancient world had ever thought up.
And that’s where Luke leaves it. Peter goes to the tomb and finds it empty, but then he just goes home. He’s “amazed,” but is that amazement good or bad? Luke doesn’t tell us.
If the story stopped there, we could just as easily dismiss the women as having lost their marbles. But it doesn’t.
First a couple of disciples walking home see him, then Peter sees him, then all the disciples—and a whole lot of other people, so Paul tells us, including himself—see him.[6] And even though Luke eventually describes how he ascended into heaven after many days, he is still with us even now, and we continue to follow him, serve him, learn from him, live as he taught us.
He’s not dead! He’s not gone! It’s not over!
And now it’s our turn to go out and proclaim the good news: The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed!
[1] Genesis 22:1-19. Sarah dies at the beginning of Genesis 23; some of the midrashim suggest that her death was the direct result of her husband having taken her only son to be sacrificed. There is also midrash about how God “tested” Abraham by commanding him to take his beloved son to be sacrificed: the test was to see if Abraham would talk back to God, as he had done, successfully, when God told him what was about to happen to Sodom and Gomorrah; and by simply obeying God’s voice without question, Abraham actually failed the test.
[2] Genesis 19:26. Some midrashim say she turned to a pillar of salt because of the tears she shed as she looked back and saw her hometown, including friends and perhaps relatives, destroyed. The midrashim give her a name, Idit, which in Hebrew means witness.
[3] Exodus 3:1—4:17
[4] Luke 23:56b
[5] The NRSV uses “an idle tale” for a Greek word that meant “delirious.”
[6] 1 Corinthians 15:1-11