After the last few chapters of Luke, this chapter awakens the soul to joy!

What must it have been like when the women went to the tomb that Sunday morning and found the stone rolled away and heard the greatest announcement? “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” [vs 5 HCSB]

Why, indeed!  Jesus was not in that tomb. The women were reminded that this was exactly what Jesus had said must happen.  Then the women … yes women … ran to the disciples to announce that Jesus was alive! “Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them were telling the apostles these things.” [vs 10 HCSB]

I find that most amazing. God used women to testify to the resurrection of Jesus. This was at a time when the word of women carried no weight. In Jesus’ day their testimony was even considered inadmissible in a court of law.

But no matter the gender of the messenger, it is the message which brings peace and comfort to the soul. Our LORD Christ Jesus is not in the tomb. He is Risen! And now He brings that Resurrection Life to us.

Christmas is about so much more than a simple story of a couple that could not find lodging and ended up having their baby born in a shelter for animals. Christmas without the cross would not exist. And the cross without Christmas would just be another case of capital punishment in the Roman era. Christmas and the Cross need each other.

And God’s magnificent exclamation point is the Resurrection! Without that, we would never celebrate Christmas or Easter!

Our LORD Christ Jesus, Immanuel (God with us!) came to seek and save the lost. Us. He became a helpless babe born in humble circumstances. He died on a Roman Cross and was buried. And then, rose from the grave. “Why seek the living among the dead!”

Why, indeed!