Sunday 3rd December - #Pause for Advent 1; Surprises

I set up my post for #Pause for Advent on the Saturday, without actually having looked at Luke's Gospel first.

Well, that's because the plan is to start reading on the first Sunday in Advent, of course!

I opened up Luke 24 this morning and discovered;

"Noli me tangere" doesn't occur in Luke's gospel. Jesus doesn't appear to the women in the garden, only the angels, asking the women why they are looking for the living among the dead. So, WRONG PICTURE. I'll have to check out the other gospels now to find out where that bit comes from. Here's a better illustration of the text

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrhbearers

Then I discovered that


verse 9... "When [the women] came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magadalene, Joanna, Mary the mother and James, and the others who were with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed like nonsense." 

That seems a bit harsh, but I suppose understandable under the circumstances. And Peter did go and check out their story afterwards.

I was also disconcerted to find that Chapter 24 is the last chapter in the Gospel. That was unexpected! Luke wraps the story up pretty quickly after the walk to Emmaus bit.


It's such a short passage to read this week, which makes me grateful, because this is my last "full-on" week of teaching. I'll read it again several times - the events are so compressed in the narrative that it is easy to miss something important.

From Monday 11th things will wind down a bit and the following week has even less teaching; just as well as there is an awful lot to read that week!