Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. This is a story no one else tells. I suppose this shouldn’t surprise us. After all, while all four of the gospel...

But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. “Idle tale” is a fairly generous translation of the Greek word Luke uses to describe the apostles’ characterization of the women’s testimony. It’s accurate, but generous. “Leros,” the Greek word in...

The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be...

On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. Of course they did. Rested on the Sabbath, that is. How could they do anything else? They are exhausted. Put yourself in their place for just a moment. Their world has come crashing down around them. Their hopes and dreams crushed before...

It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. It was the day of Preparation, Luke tells us. The day before the Sabbath....

Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph, who, though a member of the council, had not agreed to their plan and action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he...

But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. Luke’s generosity as a story-teller again surfaces. Not just for the crowds of spectators this time, but also for Jesus’ disciples. In most of the gospel accounts,...

And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts. Luke, on the whole, takes a more generous view of the witnesses of the Passion than the other Evangelists. There is little indication in the other gospels, for...

When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, “Certainly this man was innocent.” We gather now around the climax of Luke’s narrative. And as is typical of this moment in grand stories, each sentence, each detail, has meaning. So also here. For immediately after...

Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last. One of the persistent questions we ask when we approach the Passion story is “why?” Why did Jesus have to endure the pain, the suffering, the abuse,...

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Heaven and earth itself give witness to the turn of the ages and climax of history that takes place at our Lord’s death....

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are...