Empty Tomb, Luke 24:6 He Is Risen Wall Art

Inside the garden

The tomb is carved into a mound of sandy stone overgrown with shrubs. Its doorway is dark, and inside, on a stone ledge, lie the linen cloths, one folded on top and another draping down over the edge. To the right leans a massive disc-shaped stone, rolled clear of the entrance.

An olive tree grows over the left side of the tomb, and at its foot bloom three white lilies. In the distance the sun is just clearing a line of hills behind tall cypresses, turning the sky apricot. The lettering is short and centered: “He is not here, but is risen.”

The first Easter morning in Luke

Luke tells the story from the point of view of the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee. At dawn after the Sabbath they returned with the spices they had prepared, found the stone rolled away and went in, but the body was gone. Two men in shining clothes stood by them and asked why they were looking for the living among the dead.

Then this sentence. It is followed at once by a call to memory: remember what he told you while he was still in Galilee. The angels do not give a new teaching; they remind the women of words they had already heard and not understood.

The linen in the painting also comes from Luke. When the women report what they saw, Peter runs to the tomb, stoops down and sees the linen clothes lying by themselves, and he leaves wondering. Round rolling stones like the one painted here survive at a handful of wealthy tombs from that period around Jerusalem, set in a groove so they could be moved across the entrance.

For Easter and beyond

Many families bring this print out for Lent and Holy Week and leave it up through the fifty days of the Easter season. The lilies and sunrise also make it a hopeful choice for a memorial, and a meaningful gift at a baptism, since Christian baptism is tied to sharing in the resurrection. The warm sand tones sit comfortably in an entryway or above a sideboard.