In this closing chapter the evangelist illustrates the glorious fact of the resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God. “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.” This was not the morning of the resurrection day, but the evening before, for the Jewish day began after sunset. “As it was the dusk” (JND), “came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.” The disciples had gone away to their homes, but the devotion of these women shines out here. They might naturally have feared to be alone among the tombs in the gathering darkness, but the body of the One they loved was there, and they could not stay away.
What follows next is not necessarily immediately connected in time with verse 1. It does not say the women witnessed the earthquake. “And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.” The rolling away of the stone was in no way necessary to the resurrection of the Lord. It witnessed to men that divine power had intervened. It was also for the comfort and assurance of His sorrowing disciples and to bring to nothing the lying of His enemies. God raised Him from the dead, and He Himself arose (John 10:17-1817Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. (John 10:17‑18)) . “And for fear of Him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.” Instead of proving themselves guards over the tomb, they only became witnesses to the truth of the resurrection. The angel has no word for them, but he speaks peace and comfort to the women who came to the scene in the early morning, saying, “Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” The faithful love of these women is rewarded for they are sent as messengers to His disciples. “Go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead.”
The risen Lord was not content to leave it to the angel to make known His mind to His disciples. He Himself meets the women as they hastened on their way, “saying, All hail. And they came and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell My brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see Me.”
While they were going, some of the guard went and told the chief priests what had happened. Unmoved and with deliberate hardness of heart, these religious leaders, who had bribed Judas for “thirty pieces of silver” to put Christ to death, now “gave large money unto the soldiers” to deny His resurrection, saying, “Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole Him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.” The soldiers accepted the bribe and this saying was commonly reported among the Jews.
The closing scene pictures to us the blessed Lord — rejected by Jerusalem and refused as the Jewish Messiah. He is in Galilee, in company with His eleven disciples, the poor of the flock whom He owns as His brethren — a touching picture of the little remnant of the future day who will own Him as their Messiah, just before the millenium. Conscious of the new place into which He had entered as Man, the Lord addresses them saying, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” He sends them forth in grace, beyond the limits of Israel now, saying, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
Further Meditation
1. Who met the resurrected Lord?
2. What did the covetous Jewish leaders lose?