Luke 24: Do Not Look for the Living Among the Dead

Introduction

"We are in God's hands. We are always in God's hands." That is how Elio Varricchione opens his message at Chiesa ADI Milano Baggio, before reading a glorious page from the Gospel of Luke: the resurrection of Jesus.

On the first day of the week, women who loved the Lord and were used to serving him go to the tomb early with spices. The stone has been rolled away. Two men appear to them and say: "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He isn't here, but is risen" (Luke 24:5-6).

For the preacher, this question is not only for those women. It is addressed to us today: where are you looking for life? What is your place?

Outline of the message

1. Women at an empty tomb

After the Sabbath rest, the women come to honor the body of their teacher, as the custom of the time required, with spices and perfumes.
They find the stone rolled away and are perplexed, "just as it would have happened to us," the preacher notes.
Seized with fear, they bow their faces to the ground. Then they return to Jerusalem and are the first to tell the apostles that Jesus is no longer dead: he is risen with power.
"Sepulchers speak of death, tombs speak of death." The angels' question sets two places against each other: the place of death and the place of life.

2. Lazarus, then Jesus: life overcomes death

Shortly before these events, Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, had died. As long as he was in the tomb, death reigned in his body, to the point that the smell could be noticed.
Jesus arrives, has to face resistance to get the stone removed, and then brings new life to the one who no longer had it. "Death is defeated and life takes possession again."
The body of Jesus was not to see decay (Psalm 16:10). Yet an odor surrounded that tomb: the odor of the sin of all humanity, which Christ bore along with our sicknesses and infirmities (Isaiah 53:4). "What a person cannot perceive with the natural senses, the spiritual person perceives with spiritual senses."
Jesus had said it: he has the power to lay down his life and the power to take it up again (John 10:18). His resurrection is a victory, and it prepares the resurrection of all the children of God who have received him as Lord and Savior.

3. We were dead, he made us alive

Before knowing the Lord, each of us was spiritually dead. Killed by what weapon? "By the deadly weapon of sin."
"Sin gives no discounts, and sin kills": it kills the inner part, the spiritual part.
What God did in the physical realm for Lazarus, he did for us in the spiritual realm. "You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you live together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses" (Colossians 2:13).
The preacher insists: our experiences have their value, but it is the written Word that allows us to understand God's will.
After his resurrection, Lazarus became a witness in his town: many came not only for Jesus, but to see the one who had been brought back to life (John 12:9). "And shouldn't the same be true for us?"
Ephesians 2:4-6 confirms it: God, rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ when we were dead through our trespasses. The one who gives life did not add condemnation upon condemnation: he saw a heart willing to acknowledge what it was.

4. Where my sin abounded, grace abounded all the more

"This empty tomb propels us into life," into the present life and into eternal life, through the death of Jesus.
The preacher returns to Romans 5:20, a verse often recalled lately in this church, and makes it personal: "Where my sin abounded, God's grace toward me abounded all the more." God did not stop at the abundance of sin; he saw the urgency of stepping in.
Romans 6:3-4: baptized into Jesus Christ, we were baptized into his death, "that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4).
The purpose of the new birth is not to keep getting by "more or less as before." Life is new above all in terms of who is in command.
The believer is like a boat with Jesus inside. He is the one at the helm, without ever tipping us over and without ever forcing us. In the face of a sacrifice of love, the only answer is love: "Lord, I want to entrust my whole life to you."

5. We will not spend eternity with God, we will live with him

"Listen carefully: we will not spend eternity with God. We will live with God." It will not be about moving a pleasant life to a new heaven and a new earth, but about finally living the full meaning of life according to God.
We will see him with our own eyes, and we will sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Matthew 8:11). "The Lord knows what lies behind those words."
In the meantime, there is the present life. Here on earth, it must be marked by newness of life.
The verb "walk" speaks of progress, of a continual drawing near: "I used to do it this way, but I should do it that way," always closer to the Lord.

6. Do not love the world: do not look for life where it is not

The apostle John urges the Church of his day, the churches that would come after, and this community today: "Don't love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father's love isn't in him" (1 John 2:15).
There cannot be two loves at the same time. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life do not come from the Father. "The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God's will remains forever" (1 John 2:16-17).
"You cannot love life and love death at the same time." If, by God's grace, you have stopped drinking the sick, poisoned water of the spirit of this world, do not go back to drink from those springs to quench your thirst.
This is where the angels' question meets our lives: "Do not look for the things of the life I teach you among the dead, says Jesus. Do not look for that 'more' in the wrong place; look for the reality I have placed in you."
Jesus does not ask us to isolate the Church. He prays to the Father, not to take us out of the world, but to keep us from the evil one (John 17:15), because the evil one would like to see us anywhere other than where the Lord has placed us.
That place is his Church, his body: not only the local assembly, but "the right place, which is the place of life."

7. Watch over your alliances and stay a light

Before reading 2 Corinthians 6:14-17, the preacher prays that no passage of the Bible will seem unpleasant to us. The One who inspired these lines is the same Spirit who inspired all of Scripture, and God, like a Father, has only thoughts of peace toward his children.
"Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers." What do righteousness and iniquity have in common, light and darkness, Christ and Belial, the temple of God and idols? "We are a temple of the living God."
It is a firm word, the word of a father looking at his children. "Let us pay attention, each of us, myself first, to our ties, our choices, the people we associate with," in every area and not only in romantic relationships.
When one belongs to Christ and the other does not, what is at stake is life on one side and death on the other. The other choices, those by which we ourselves would stand in the way of what the Lord wants to do for us, are not our place.
We remain in the world, but not passively: "with our lights on," to pull someone out of the darkness rather than letting ourselves be dragged to the other side, by the Word and by the Holy Spirit, not by our own voice.
This is the calling of every child of God: to listen to the Lord's voice, to put it into practice, and to bring souls to salvation, so that they pass from death to life.

Key takeaways

The tomb is empty: Jesus is alive, and his resurrection prepares the resurrection of all who believe in him.
We were spiritually dead through sin. God made us alive with Christ, by grace alone.
The new birth has a purpose: to walk in newness of life, with Jesus at the helm.
You cannot love the world and love the Father at the same time. Do not look for life among the dead.
Your place is in the Church, the place of life, and in the world as a light that wins souls.

Personal application

Where are you looking today for what quenches your thirst: in Christ, or at springs you had left behind?
Can you say, too: "Where my sin abounded, God's grace toward me abounded all the more"?
Who is at the helm of your life right now? Is there an area you are still keeping for yourself?
Which ties or associations are pulling you away from the place the Lord has given you?
Like Lazarus, does your new life draw someone toward Jesus? Who can you share your testimony with this week?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What does "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" mean in Luke 24?

The angels tell the women who came to the tomb that Jesus is no longer there: he is risen. For Elio Varricchione, the question concerns us too: do not look for the things of life where death reigns, look for the life the Lord has placed in you.

What does it mean to be spiritually dead and then made alive?

Before knowing the Lord, everyone was spiritually dead, killed by the deadly weapon of sin. As Colossians 2:13 says, God made us alive with Christ by forgiving all our trespasses. The purpose of this new birth is to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

Do we have to leave the world to live the new life?

No. The preacher reminds us that Jesus did not ask the Father to take his own out of the world, but to keep them from evil (John 17:15). The believer stays in the world, light on, but does not love the world (1 John 2:15-17) and watches over his alliances (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).