The women came looking for a body. Their love was real, but they were looking in the wrong place. The question gently corrects them: the One they seek is alive, so a grave is the wrong place to find Him. Gill puts it plainly: Christ, "though he had been dead, was now living, and not to be sought for in a sepulchre." Matthew Henry notes that "Christians often perplex themselves about that with which they should comfort and encourage themselves." The question also prepares them to remember what Jesus had already told them (Luke 24:6-7).

The angels answer their own question: "He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee" (Luke 24:6). They repeat Jesus' words that the Son of man must be crucified "and the third day rise again" (Luke 24:7). "And they remembered his words" (Luke 24:8), returned, and told all these things to the eleven (Luke 24:9). The apostles thought the report was "idle tales" (Luke 24:11), but Peter ran to the sepulchre and went away "wondering" (Luke 24:12).

The women had watched where Jesus was laid, then "prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment" (Luke 23:55-56). They came very early on the first day of the week, bringing those spices (Luke 24:1).

In Greek, "the living" (ton zonta) is singular, "the living One," while "the dead" is plural. The Gospels describe the messengers in different ways: Luke has two men in shining garments, later called "a vision of angels" (Luke 24:23); Matthew has "the angel" (Matthew 28:5); Mark has "a young man" (Mark 16:5); John has "two angels in white" (John 20:12). Barnes, whose note on Luke sends readers to Matthew 28, explains that Mark names the one who spoke without denying another was present, and that angels who appear in human form are often called men.

This question is the first word of the resurrection in Luke, and it is a word that sends people back to what Jesus said. He had told His disciples plainly that He would be killed and "raised the third day" (Luke 9:22; Luke 18:31-33), but "they understood none of these things" (Luke 18:34). Barnes writes of Jesus, "He had often predicted that he would rise, but the disciples did not understand it, and consequently did not expect it."

Matthew Henry observes that "These angels from heaven bring not any new gospel, but remind the women of Christ's words," and adds that "all our mistakes in religion spring from ignorance or forgetfulness of the words Christ has spoken." God's answer to the women's confusion was not a new message but the old promise, now kept.