Bible Study on Matthew 28, verses 1 to 10, He is not here: for he is risen

 

Matthew 28:1 ¶  In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. 2  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. 3  His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: 4  And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. 5  And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. 6  He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7  And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. 8  And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word. 9  And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. 10  Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.

 

The first day of the week, the day of Christ’s resurrection, has always held an important place in the history of the Christian church. Notice here how God uses a natural force, an earthquake, as the method by which His angel, His appearance, which we can be assured is Christ Himself unrecognized by the women, as an angel is an appearance of someone whose actual physical person is somewhere else, removes the stone.

Christ is the appearance of God; the angel of the Lord, His presence, as God the Father is a Spirit.

Isaiah 63:9  In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

Galatians 4:14  And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

Who led the Hebrews out of Egypt.

Judges 2:1 ¶  And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.

Also notice His appearance.

 

Revelation 1:14  His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15  And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

 

The guards, whether they were Roman soldiers, Temple guards, or a combination of both, quaked in fear and could not act, frozen in their panic. For what could have been battle hardened veterans serving in a very hostile part of the empire this appearance must have been pretty remarkable.

 

The angel of the Lord declares that Christ is risen, that He is not there for them to see, and that they were to go tell the others that He will meet them in Galilee. First, though, Christ shows who He is to the women. Then, He repeats the order to tell the disciples to meet Him in Galilee as He had already told them He would meet them there.

 

Matthew 26:32  But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.

 

As I said before I did not want to make my study of Matthew a harmonization of the Gospels. There are variations in the eyewitness accounts, which there should be if they are genuine. People remember things differently and witness things differently. It is a testimony to the Holy Spirit’s involvement in the preservation of the Bible that scribes and translators did not feel justified in making every account line up with every other. It is also clear that the Gospel writers did not copy each other as skeptics sometimes say. So, there are some differences in the description of what happened. I would say that is due to the difference of whether a writer was there physically or was reporting the event as it was told to them by someone else. If four different people give an account of an event and the accounts are exactly the same then they all got together to create the narratives they present and are not trustworthy but if there are variations in their accounts the situation is more believable.

 

Notice also in verse 8, the great fear and the great joy the women had. Certainly, these two feelings show this to be an overwhelming event.