Ep. 145: Jesus has risen

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MATTHEW 28:1-10, MARK 16:1-11, LUKE 24:1-12, JOHN 20:1-18

‍The grey dawn was streaking the sky when they who had so lovingly watched his burial were making their lonely way to the rock-hewn tomb in the garden. It was the first day of the week; according to Jewish reckoning the third day from his death. The narrative implies that the Sabbath’s rest had delayed their visit to the tomb, but we can believe that the relatives and friends of the deceased were in the habit of going to the grave up to the third day (when presumably corruption was supposed to begin), to make sure that those laid there were really dead.

‍Whether or not there were two groups of women who started from different places to meet at the tomb, the most prominent figure among them was Mary Magdalene. She seems to have reached the grave and, seeing the great stone that had covered its entrance rolled away, hastily judged that the body of the Lord had been removed. Wasting no time, she ran back to inform Peter and John of the fact.

‍The Gospel writer here explains that there had been a great earthquake and that the Angel of the Lord, appearing as lightning and in a brilliant white garment, had rolled back the stone and sat upon it. Then the guards, frightened by what they heard and saw and especially by the heavenly presence and power on the Angel, had been seized with mortal fear. They had remembered the events connected with the crucifixion and must have been on a knife-edge with various scenarios haunting their thoughts as they stood guard over that tomb that night.

‍We suppose the event itself to have taken place after the resurrection of Christ, in the early dawn, while the women were on their way to the tomb. The earthquake cannot have been one in the ordinary sense, but a shaking of the place, when the Lord of Life reclaimed his Glorified Body and the lightning-like Angel descended from heaven to roll away the stone.

‍While Mary rushed, probably by another road, to the house of Peter and John, the other women also had reached the tomb, either separately or together. They must have wondered about this huge stone blocking the tomb until it was shown to them that this difficulty no longer existed. They now entered the tomb. Here the appearance of the Angel filled them with fear. But the heavenly Messenger calmed them; he told them that Jesus was not there, nor yet any longer dead, but risen, as indeed he had foretold in Galilee to his disciples. Finally. He urged them to tell the disciples the message, that, as Jesus had already told them, they were to meet him in Galilee. This was a connection between these wonderfully unravelling events with the familiar past.

‍And when the women, dazed and confused, obeyed the command to go in and examine for themselves the now empty niche in the tomb, they saw two Angels - probably as Mary Magdalene afterwards saw them - one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. They waited no longer, but rushed away, without speaking to anyone, to tell the disciples of things of which they could not even yet grasp the full importance.

‍Meanwhile, Mary had run to the lodgings of Peter and to that of John. Her startling story encouraged them to go at once. John, as the younger, outran Peter. Reaching the tomb first and stooping down. He saw the linen clothes. If reverence and awe prevented John from entering the tomb, his impulsive companion, who arrived immediately after him, thought of nothing else than the immediate and full clearing up of the mystery.

‍As he entered the tomb, Peter saw the linen swathes that had been bound around his head. There was no sign of hurry, but all was orderly, leaving the impression of One who had calmly removed all of what no longer was of use to him!

‍Peter now believed in his heart that the Master was risen, for until then they had not yet figured out from Holy Scripture the knowledge that he must rise again. And this also is most instructive. It was not the belief previously derived from Scripture that the Christ was to rise from the dead which led to expectancy of it, but the evidence that he had risen which led them to the knowledge of what Scripture taught on the subject.

‍The two Apostles returned to their home, either feeling that nothing more could be learned at the tomb or to wait for further teaching and guidance. But the love of Mary Magdalene drove her on; she could not rest satisfied while there was doubt over the fate of his body. It must be remembered that she knew only of the empty tomb. For a time, she agonised then, as she wiped away her tears, she stopped to take one more look into the tomb, which she thought empty. It was no longer empty.

‍At the head and feet, where the sacred body had lain, were seated two Angels in white. Their question, so deeply true from their knowledge that Jesus had risen; ‘Woman, why do you weep?’ This seems to have come upon Mary with such overpowering suddenness, that, without being able to realise - perhaps in the semi-gloom - who it was that had asked it, she spoke, only to declare, ‘Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.’

‍As she spoke, she became conscious of another Presence close to her. Quickly turning around, she gazed on One whom she regarded as the gardener. A moment’s pause and he spoke her name. She had not known his appearance, just as the others did not know at first, so unlike, and yet so like, was the glorified Body to that which they had known. But she could not mistake the Voice, especially when it spoke to her, and spoke her name.

‍As in her name, she recognised his Name, the rush of old feeling came over her and with the familiar ‘Rabboni!’ - my Master - she would have grasped him. Was it the unconscious impulse to take hold of the precious treasure which she had thought forever lost; the unconscious attempt to make sure that it was not merely an apparition of Jesus from heaven but the real Christ in his flesh on earth; or a gesture of veneration, the beginning of such acts of worship as her heart prompted? Probably all these and yet in her state of happy confusion she was not at that moment distinctly conscious of either or of any of these feelings!

‍But to them all, there was one answer and that included, a command; ‘Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to the Father.’ Not the Jesus appearing from heaven - for he had not yet ascended to the Father.

‍This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £12 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)

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