Luke 23:56

My Notes

What Does Luke 23:56 Mean?

"And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment." The women who followed Jesus from Galilee prepare burial spices — then stop. Because it's the Sabbath. And they observe it. According to the commandment. The world has just changed forever: the Son of God is dead, buried in a borrowed tomb, and the women who love him most stop their grief-work to observe a day of rest because the law says so.

The detail is theologically loaded: the women obey the Sabbath command of the very God whose Son lies dead in a tomb. The obedience operates even when the one who gave the commandment seems to have lost. They rest because the commandment says rest — regardless of what just happened on Friday.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What does the women's Sabbath obedience (resting while Jesus is dead) teach about faithfulness in apparent defeat?
• 2.Where are you being asked to 'rest according to the commandment' when everything in you wants to act?
• 3.How does the Sabbath pause between crucifixion and resurrection model trust in God's timing?
• 4.When has obedience in the dark positioned you for a resurrection you didn't know was coming?

Devotional

They prepared spices. And then they stopped. Because it was the Sabbath. And the commandment said: rest.

The juxtaposition should break your heart: the women who watched Jesus die, who followed the body to the tomb, who are desperate to complete the burial properly — stop working. Not because the grief has passed. Not because the urgency has faded. Because it's the Sabbath. And the Sabbath is the Sabbath. Even when the person who instituted the Sabbath is lying dead in a borrowed grave.

Rested the sabbath day according to the commandment. The commandment of the God whose Son they just watched die on a cross. The law that still operates even when the lawgiver appears to have been defeated. The women's obedience in this moment is one of the most quietly extraordinary acts of faith in the Gospels: they rest because God said rest, even when God seems to have lost.

The spices are prepared. The ointments are ready. Everything needed for the burial is set out — and then set down. Saturday is not a working day. The completion of the grief-work must wait. The obedience to the commandment takes priority over the urgency of the moment. Even this moment.

The women don't know what Sunday will bring. They go to bed Saturday night expecting to finish the burial at dawn. They have no idea that the spices they prepared will never be used — because the body they're preparing to anoint will be alive when they arrive. The rest they keep on Saturday is the pause between the crucifixion and the resurrection. The Sabbath is the comma between Friday's death and Sunday's life. And the women keep the comma. Because the commandment said so.

There's something profoundly beautiful about obedience that doesn't know the outcome. The women obey the Sabbath with a dead Messiah. They rest according to the commandment with no assurance that the commandment's Author is still operative. And the rest they keep — the pause they observe — is rewarded by the resurrection they don't yet know is coming.

Sometimes obedience in the dark — keeping the commandment when the Commander seems absent — is the posture that positions you for the dawn.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture