The chapter
Simply The women go to the tomb at dawn with the spices they prepared, find it open and empty, and are asked why they are looking for the living among the dead. They tell the eleven, who do not believe them. That afternoon two people walking to a village are joined by a stranger who explains the scriptures to them, and they only recognise him when he breaks bread at their table. He appears to the rest, asks for something to eat, and eats it in front of them. Then he takes them out to Bethany, blesses them, and is taken up.
Context The whole chapter happens on one day and ends where the book began, in the temple at Jerusalem, where 1:8 to 9 had started it with Zechariah at the altar. That closes the circle this Gospel opened, and it also sets up the second volume: verse 49 tells them to stay in the city until they are clothed with power, and the Acts of the Apostles begins there. Verses 12 and 51 were each printed in all thirteen offered editions, since both are places where editions sometimes differ, and here they do not: every edition has fifty-three verses, every one has Peter running to the tomb, and every one has him carried up into heaven.
Verses 1-12
Simply Very early on the first day of the week the women come with their spices and find the stone rolled away and no body. Two men in dazzling clothes ask them why they are looking for the living among the dead, and remind them of what he said in Galilee. They remember, and go and tell the eleven and everyone else. The names are given: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women. The apostles think it is nonsense and do not believe them. Peter runs to the tomb, stoops, sees the linen cloths by themselves, and goes home wondering.
Context Verse 10 names Joanna, and that name has been in this book once before, at 8:3, where she is the wife of Herod's steward and one of the women paying for the mission out of her own money. The same person who funded the travelling is at the tomb at the end. Verse 11 is the sentence this Gospel does not soften: the apostles treated the report as NONSENSE and did not believe them. The first witnesses are women whose testimony the men in the room dismiss, and the book records the dismissal rather than tidying it away.
Verses 13-35
Simply Two of them are walking to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles out, talking about everything that has happened. Jesus joins them and they do not recognise him. He asks what they are discussing and they stop, looking miserable. One, called Cleopas, asks whether he is the only person in Jerusalem who has not heard. They tell him the whole story, including that they had hoped he was the one who would redeem Israel. He calls them slow, and starting from Moses and the prophets explains the scriptures to them. At the village he acts as if he is going on, they press him to stay, and at the table he takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and their eyes open. He vanishes, and they walk straight back to Jerusalem that hour.
Context This is only in this Gospel, and it is the longest resurrection scene in any of the four. Two things in it are worth reading exactly. The recognition does not come from the explanation: verse 27 has him go through Moses and all the prophets and they still do not know him, and verse 31 opens their eyes at the moment he BREAKS THE BREAD, using the same four verbs as 22:19, took, gave thanks, broke, gave. And verse 21 is the flattest confession of disappointment in the book: WE WERE HOPING. The text lets them say it to his face without knowing who he is. Only one of the two is named, at verse 18, and the other never is.
Verses 36-53
Simply While they are telling the story he stands among them and says peace to you. They think they are seeing a spirit, so he shows them his hands and feet and tells them to touch him, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones. They still cannot believe it for joy, so he asks whether they have anything to eat, and they give him a piece of grilled fish, and he eats it in front of them. He tells them everything written about him in the law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms had to be fulfilled, and opens their minds. They are witnesses, and they must wait in the city. Then he takes them out to Bethany, lifts his hands, blesses them, and is carried up, and they go back to Jerusalem full of joy and stay in the temple.
Context The fish at verses 41 to 43 is doing work rather than decorating the scene. They have just been told to touch him because a spirit has no flesh and bones, and the eating is the second demonstration of the same point, in a book that has been careful about bodies all the way through, from the trough at 2:7 to the giving of a son back to his mother at 7:15. Verse 44 also names the scriptures in three parts, THE LAW OF MOSES, THE PROPHETS AND THE PSALMS, which is how the collection was described rather than a list this app can open as one book. And the last verse puts the disciples in the temple continually, which is exactly where 1:8 and 1:9 put Zechariah in the first scene of the Gospel.