Luke 24:4

And it came to pass, while they were perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel: and as they were affrighted and bowed their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?

Two men stood by them ... These were angels, as indicated by the dazzling raiment; and it is interesting that commentators generally set themselves in motion immediately to show that this does not contradict the other two synoptics' mention of but "one" angel. Thus, Lamar:

Matthew and Mark mention but one of these, for the reason, perhaps, that only one of them spoke. But in doing so he REPRESENTED both, and therefore it was virtually, as in our text the speech of both.[1]

If indeed this episode is the same as that mentioned in Matthew and Mark, Lamar's words are surely applicable; but the conviction maintained here is that this was a totally different episode, like the appearance to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. As noted under Luke 24:3, the women here were those who "followed him" from Galilee; but of those women mentioned in Matthew and Mark (and also by Luke in Luke 24:10), it is evident that they ACCOMPANIED Jesus in the same manner as the Twelve. See Luke 8:1-3, where this is plainly stated of Mary Magdalene, Joanna the wife of Herod's steward, and Susanna, these being women of wealth who funded the travels of Jesus and the Twelve. It is reasonable to suppose that this particular group of affluent women remained with the Twelve during the first day of the resurrection. Certainly, there were OTHERS besides the Eleven present in that upper room when the disciples returned from Emmaus; for Luke says they "returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together and "them that were with them" (Luke 24:33)! An element of conjecture is in such an interpretation, but certainly far less than in supposing that these women reported two angels, if in fact there had been only one. During those two years of Paul's imprisonment in Caesarea, Luke had ample opportunity to visit some of the women who were in that company; and it must be concluded that these were among the eyewitnesses mentioned in his introduction.

It is also significant that Mary Magdalene, blinded by grief and inattentive to anything else, was not impressed by the angel at all, but here the women were frightened and fell upon their faces. If all of the intensive activities of that day were known, such problems would disappear; but it was part of the Father's wisdom to give men just the amount of revelation which would leave them free to make their own moral decision.

Why seek ye the living with the dead ...? These words particularly impressed Barclay who said:

There are many who still look for Jesus among the dead. There are those who regard Jesus as the greatest man and the noblest hero who ever lived, who lived the loveliest life ever lived on earth and who then died. That will not do! Jesus is not dead; he is alive! He is not a hero of the past, but a living presence today![2]

[1] J. S. Lamar, The New Testament Commentary, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Chase and Hall, 1877), p. 276.

[2] William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1956), p. 305.