Very early the next day, at the dawn’s beginning — while the sun was rising but also while it was still relatively dark [Matthew 28:1a, Mark 16:1, Luke 24:1a & John 20:1a], the same group of women (including Mary Magdalene, Mary – the mother of James & Joses, Salome & Joanna) headed to the tomb, bringing with them the spices that Salome had bought and that they had all prepared.  [Matthew 28:1b, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1b & John 20:1b]

After arriving, the two Mary’s approached the tomb first, and when they did so they felt the earth tremble and saw what appeared to be an Angel of the Lord descend from heaven, roll back the stone covering the tomb’s portal, and sit upon it.  It was at this time that the guards who were present fainted (“became like dead men”) and fell out of sight. [Matthew 28:2-4]  Shortly thereafter, the other women approached the tomb and found it already opened.  [Mark 16:3-4, Luke 24:2 & 1 Corinthians 15:4]

Upon realizing that the others did not see the Angel, Mary Magdalene then could no longer see him either, and began to believe as well that the stone had already been removed prior to their arrival. [John 20:1b]  Understandably upset by recent events (as well as her possible hallucination), Mary turned immediately and ran away. [John 20:2a]

 

 

And yet the Angel was still visible to several others who remained there, and spoke to them, saying, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here; for he has been raised, just as he said.  Come closer, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” [Matthew 28:5-7]

 

And so they entered the tomb, and could see right away that there was no body.  And at that moment, while they were perplexed by this, suddenly two men dressed in dazzling white robes* were standing by them.  This frightened the women greatly, and they looked away and bowed their faces to the ground.  But the men repeated the angel’s previous message, saying to them, “Do not be afraid; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  But why do you look for the living among the dead?  You see, just like he said, he has been raised, and is not here.  Look, right there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples that he is going ahead of you to Galilee.  There you will see him, just as he told you.” [Mark 16:5-7 & Luke 24:3-7]

 

 

*As a few of the women did not enter the tomb fully, those that did not do so could only see one of the two “men in white”.

And then the other Mary, the mother of James & Joses — who had, like several of the women, remained outside the tomb and had been weeping there, bent over and looked into the tomb.  And when she did so she also saw two men in white (who she took to be angels) sitting near to where Jesus had been lying, one at the head and one at the feet.  And then men in white turned to her and said, “Woman, why are you weeping?” And she said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”  And at this moment, just as she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was him.  And Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?”  And, supposing the man to be the gardener, Mary replied, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him.” And Jesus said to her, “Mary!” And she turned towards him fully and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).  And Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.  But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” [John 20:11-17]

And so Mary — the mother of James & Joses, in fear mixed with great joy, set out quickly with the other women, originally planning to tell no one what they had seen. [Mark 16:8]  And yet on their way, Jesus appeared again, saying, “Greetings!”  And they all came to him, and took hold of his feet, and worshipped him.  And then he said to them, “Do not be afraid.  Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” [Matthew 28:8-10]  And all that these women had been so commanded to tell, they told to those who had been with Jesus, when they returned and found them mourning and weeping. [Luke 24:8-10] And the disciples refused to believe their story. [Luke 24:11]

 

And yet while the women were able to tell most of the disciples, they were not able to tell Simon Peter or the disciple whom Jesus loved, for these two had already been told of Jesus resurrection by Mary Magdalene, after she had left the other women at the tomb to run and tell those two that “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” [John 20:1-2]  And after hearing this, Peter and the other disciple had set out and went towards the tomb. The two had been running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.

 

 

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, he who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture; that said that he must rise from the dead. And then they returned to their homes.  [Luke 24:12 … John 20:3-10]

 

A time after Peter and the other disciple had left to head to the tomb, Mary Magdalene heard the tale of the empty tomb from the other women who returned thereafter, and at that point realized that the Angel she had seen rolling back the stone had been Jesus himself.  So she also told the remaining disciples that she had seen him. [Mark 16:9-10 & John 20:18]  And yet once again, they refused to believe. [Mark 16:11]

 

Meanwhile, some of the guards who had been at the tomb returned to the chief priests and informed them about what happened.  The priests then assembled with the elders and decided to bribe the soldiers with a large sum of money to spread the rumor that Jesus’ disciples had come in the night and taken his body away. [Matthew 28:11-15]

 

Filed under: Exhuming Easter by Scaughdt