Luke 24:1

This final chapter of Luke briefly summarizes the astonishment and perplexity of finding the empty tomb, giving the experience of the Galilean women (Luke 24:1-12), then giving a full and vivid account of an appearance of Christ to the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). Luke then recounted the appearance of Jesus to the Eleven and them that were with them, including the disciples returned from Emmaus (Luke 24:36-43), concluding with a summary statement of Jesus' last words and a brief account of the ascension (Luke 24:44-53).

And on the sabbath day they rested according to the commandment. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came unto the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. (Luke 24:1-3)

See the article at end of chapter on "The Four Witnesses Agree."

Sabbath day ... This was Saturday, the second of the back-to-back sabbaths intervening between the crucifixion and the first day of the week. See under Mark 15:42 in my Commentary on Mark.

They came unto the tomb ... The antecedent of the pronoun "they" is "the women who had followed him from Galilee" (Luke 23:55); and, from a comparison with Luke 24:10, these seem to have been ANOTHER group of women, not necessarily the same as those mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels, though many of both groups were from Galilee.

The stone rolled away ... The seal on the grave, placed there by the Roman government, had obviously been broken, which would have required a deputation from the governor's office to investigate it. Furthermore, the military authorities would have thoroughly investigated the fantastic lie of the guard concerning what happened "while they were asleep"; and with the activities of the Lord's followers beginning at the crack of dawn the same day, and increasing as the day progressed - all of these things, and may others of which we know nothing, made the day of Jesus' resurrection one of the busiest in history. The Sanhedrin, would they have not investigated? They bribed the soldiers to lie about what had happened, for they had witnessed some of the phenomena attending the resurrection; but it may be counted certain that they made their own investigation, decided that they had no case against the soldiers, and attempted to cover up the truth with lies.

Something of the nature of the rock-hewn sepulchre is evident in the stone that closed it, the same having been a large wheel-like rock fitted into a groove parallel to the entrance. It was so large that even a whole group of women would not have been able to move it.

And found not the body ... The empty grave of Jesus, along with the undisturbed grave clothes within, proved the resurrection of Jesus to be a fact; but to minds so long schooled against any possibility of a resurrection from the dead, it was a fact which they, at the time, could not fully believe.