Holy Saturday, April 8, 2023

Matthew 28, 1–10

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow. The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men. Then the angel said to the women in reply, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ Behold, I have told you.” Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

“After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning.”  The moment the Sabbath and its restrictions on movement and labor were over, the women came to the tomb.  Matthew gives us the names of only two of the women, but St. Luke gives us another name too: “It was Mary Magdalen and Joanna and Mary of James and the other women that were with them” (Luke 24, 10).  Comparing the Gospels tells us that the “other Mary” named by Matthew was the mother of James, the relative of the Lord.  John tells us only of Mary Magdalene.  The lists differ because the Evangelists tell us what they are certain of and no more.

“And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.”  The Greek text confirms the “for” in this verse, making the earthquake either a sin of the angel’s descent and actions or caused by them.  The earthquake could have been the sign of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus which preceded the arrival of the angel by an instant.  Earthquakes were often associated, in the Old Testament, with the presence of God.  In Exodus 19, 17–18: “Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God; and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.”  And in Isaiah 29, 5–6: “And in an instant, suddenly, you will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise.”  The angel rolled back the stone not to let Jesus out but to let the women in, to see that it was empty.  The angel sits on the stone to show that Jesus has conquered Death: it is now his slave.  The sitting of the angel reminds of how captured soldiers were treated in the Ancient Near East: they were stripped and forced to lie face down on the ground in a long line, and the victorious soldiers marched over them before leading them into slavery.  “His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow.”  His appearance shows that he is a spiritual being.

“The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men.”. The guard who were hired to guard the Body of a dead man now fall down like dead men themselves at the time the dead man rises to life.  Also, the guards are like dead men because they are unbelievers, whereas the women remain upright because they believe.  “Do not be afraid!”  The angel consoles the women who have come upon a shocking scene: the enormous stone removed miraculously from the tomb, the guards lying on the ground, helpless, and an angel speaking to them while sitting on the stone.  “He is not here, for he has been raised.”  He is not here in the world, subject to suffering and death.  “Come and see the place where he lay.”  The women would see the empty niche where the Lord’s Body was set, but as importantly, they would see the neat condition of the tomb, with burial cloths folded or rolled up.  This was no scene of a grace robbery — if robbers had taken the Body, they would have hardly stopped to unwind the Body from its burial clothes and then rolled or folded them.  “Then go quickly and tell his disciples.”  Perhaps if the angel had not given this command, the women would have gone back to their lodging without telling anyone.  “He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.”  The Lord does not appear to his disciples in Galilee right away. It is at least another ten days before he does this, considering the Gospels together.

“Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples.”  The women were “fearful”, perhaps still feeling the affects of their initial shock.  They would have run down the road back to Jerusalem and through it until they came to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where the Apostles had eaten the Last Supper with Jesus and where the women felt they could be found now.  “Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.”  Presumably he met them before they reentered the city.  The Lord also meets us on “our way”, that is during the course of our lives, whenever we pray, receiving him in Holy Communion, and read the Gospels.  “They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.”  That is, they knew him, loved him, and worshipped him.  This is the progress of faith in the human person.  “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”  Matthew does not relate the appearances to the Apostles and disciples Jesus made on Easter Sunday.  For those we need to read Luke and John.  For Matthew, the key appearance after that to the women was to the Apostles on a mountain in Galilee when the Lord commands the Apostles to preach to all the nations.  This reminds of the episode of the golden calf during the exodus, when God rejected the Hebrews and told Moses that he would instead make a great nation from him (cf. Exodus 32, 9): the Jews had rejected the Son of God, and so the Jewish Christians of Galilee, to whom the Gospel was addressed by Matthew, were to cease working for the conversion of the Jews and now convert the Gentiles, and in this way God would make a great nation from them.

We rest on Holy Saturday with the Lord after his Passion and Death, and in the evening we begin to celebrate his victory over sin and death, which is our victory too, and rejoice that the King of kings shall live and reign forever and ever.