I open to Matthew 28 and see it’s only 20 verses long, compared to the massive 50-75 verse chapters we just did and it’s crazy to think Matthew would dedicate a whole chapter to Jesus visiting a town for a bit but the entire betrayal, passion, and resurrection get crammed into a chapter each. But they said he liked to cluster information very specifically. Tax collector brain? Biblical era autism? The reader is left to wonder. It’s statistically likely that at least 1 saint would have to be autistic, if not one of the original apostles. I’m sure that’s of comfort to someone, right? Nothing to get too hung up on, just another curiosity.

The chapter refocuses on Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” who had been sitting near Jesus’s tomb when last we saw them. They bore witness to Joseph of Arimathea (a wealthy pharisee but supporter of Jesus) and Nicodemus wrapping Jesus’s body, putting it in the tomb, and sealing it behind the stone. This was a rush job, since they needed the body handled before the sabbath started, as it was a huge violation of the law to handle a dead body at all or doing labor on the sabbath. Double whammy. So this was to get Him in there and they could come back later to complete the rest of the procedure when it was allowed. Pilate had granted permission to take down Jesus’s body for this work but also posted a guard for the Pharisees so that no one would steal the body and then claim He had risen.

There’s a huge earthquake and an angel has come down to roll the stone away from the entrance and is sitting atop it. The guards were broken by fear and rendered unconscious. Biblical studies seem to estimate this being anywhere from 4 to 16 men, so if you want to say these 2 women must’ve snuck up behind the guards and bonked them with a rock, you’ll have to factor that number in as well as the strength required to roll the big stone. Despite Mark’s organizational style, this all took place before the women arrived. The scene they saw was incapacitated guards, an open tomb, and an angel, giving them the standard “do not be afraid” greeting we’re all familiar with. This is not because they looked like a million wheels with a million eyes all on fire and spinning. SOME angels looked like this, yes, but for all the “biblically accurate” memes, plenty didn’t. There’s different types of angels and plenty of them look as they’re depicted in art. Probably. The point is that to put your eyes on something holy breaks your wee sinner brain. To such a degree that to lay your eyes directly on God just straight up kills you in most cases. That’s where “be not afraid” comes in. You’re looking at a being so far beyond you and so much more holy than you that fear is an appropriate reaction. That said, the angel says he knows why they’ve come but Jesus isn’t here. He left the door open so they could see for themselves that the tomb is empty because Jesus did what He said: He rose.

The angel directs the women to go find the disciples and tell them Jesus rose and expects to meet them in Galilee, as was planned in advance. They leave in great fear and joy. “Holy” doesn’t always mean comforting to us. You’ll recall that during the transfiguration, after Peter had offered to make tents, God and Jesus were glowing with their whole divinity and the 3 apostles were on their face trembling until Jesus told them to calm down and brought them back to normal human land. Fear is understandable, as is the great joy of knowing that Jesus has risen and all His talk of plans and getting killed and resurrection was correct. I’m not reading anything into this, right? It’s one thing to trust that something will be done, it’s another to be there WHEN it gets done. I imagine finding out it was all definitively real and it has all come to pass as predicted would’ve been really satisfying and vindicating.

So it must be all the more vindicating that they don’t even make it to the destination before bumping into Jesus who gives the most laughably casual greeting considering everything that has transpired. The last time these ladies saw Him alive, He was ripped apart by the scourging and dying nailed to a cross, so naturally He waves hello like they just had coffee the previous morning. They dive on the ground and get to worshipping (also a proper response) because this might be the most normal, casual thing to Jesus, but this is the most divine miracle humanity could witness. He sends the women off to spread the word to meet in Galilee, as the angel said. Between this verse and the last, one of my resources has made an attempt to have a kind of micro feminism going on. It says that Jesus greeted the women cheerfully and first because women were held in low regard back then and He wanted to do differently. Then it says that in a sense, these women are the first evangelists because they are the first to spread the news that He is risen.

2 problems:

1. Jesus greets everyone nicely. I think He’s just nice. I don’t think, and there’s not really evidence to support, that He was trying to make any specific claim to support women in any unique way. I think He just preferred to upend the social ladder so He tended to give attention to the ignored and ignored the people with high status.
2. The women spread the word to the men so they could execute the mission. They had been empowered by Jesus, they would receive the complete marching orders. This is like saying a messenger is a general because he carried the battle plan between points A and B. Jesus could’ve sent an angel directly to the apostles to meet Him, so clearly He wanted the women involved in some capacity, but I would still caution against reading too much modern political thinking into anything here.

Jesus loves women as He loved men. Later in the NT we’ll see that there’s no Jew/Greek or male/female when it comes to God’s love. That’s not a denial of race or gender in this life or the next, it’s just saying on God’s list of priorities how He ranks His love, those details don’t factor at all. He still has different missions for different people and men are suited for some things and women others, but in terms of how much He wants your soul saved, it’s not a factor.

**Note: I just corrected a past tense use about Jesus’s love. People will say “Jesus loved His disciples” as though He stopped. He still does. Jesus is in Heaven and alive not a dead spirit. He’s got a glorified human body with flesh you can poke at. I think when people use past tense or say “If Jesus was alive….” they’re not revealing an error with their theology so much as trying to distinguish between Jesus’s ministry on earth 2 thousand years ago or make a point about Jesus walking among us RIGHT NOW.

Meanwhile, some of the guards have come to and rand back to the city to tell the chief priests what happened. In some sense, I suppose they’re also the first evangelists? See why this doesn’t work? Anyway failure was not tolerated for Roman soldiers so these guys are facing death for this mess. The priests pay them off to just say the body was stolen and to keep all this earthquake/angel/resurrection business quiet and that they’d protect them from Pilate if word got to him. Thus, “Judaism” stayed alive under the false premise of Jesus being a fake messiah who was executed for treason and blasphemy and that was the end of that.

The eleven disciples (Judas hung himself if we remember) meet on the mountain in Galilee as instructed. When they see Him, some rush up to worship Him. You figure that this is because His claim of Godhood is completely true and undeniable now but also I’m sure they’re just happy to see Him in one piece again. There’s a driveby comment about some doubting, which other gospel accounts will cover. He gives them the great commission: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is why Christianity is a UNIVERSAL religion. BREATHING is universal. Needing food and water is universal. The one true God over all things is universal. “I want a god just for whites. I want a god just for men. I don’t want a god that OTHER people also have”. Alright well enjoy hell. All nations means all nations. At the time, this would’ve been difficult for the Jewish people. “This is our God and now we have to share?” Yes, because you blew it and also because this was always the plan anyway. Go make disciples of all and teach them everything commanded. He promises to be with them as they execute this mission until the end of the age.