The angels met the women very early on that first resurrection morning at the tomb, and they said, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ And they remembered His words” (Luke 24:5-8).
What a strange kind of greeting: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” And what a great question! We might ask ourselves such a question today: Why are we looking for Jesus in the wrong place? And next the angels say, “Remember?” How often we forget what He has told us!
One of the common ways we look for Jesus in the wrong place is by looking for Him in our feelings. Sometimes I hear women say, “I just don’t feel like Jesus is close.” But He never told us to look for Him in our feelings. He didn’t say to meet Him at the tomb, He said to meet Him in Galilee. If we think we must look for Him in our feelings, we can try to “do” certain things that will generate a spiritual feeling to reassure ourselves. We have not remembered what He told us.
He has told us where to find Him. Remember? He is Risen! We are raised with Him, and He is above, sitting at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). This is why we “seek those things which are above, where Christ is.” Jesus dwells in us through His word (Col. 3:16) and helps us remember all He has told us. So we “eagerly wait for the Savior” (Phil. 3:20) and look for Him in the Word, in the Supper, and in the weekly celebration of His triumph over the grave. And when we look for Him there, we are obeying what He told us to do.