Fresh Look at Matthew: Matthew 28:1-8, second pass
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The passage is unclear as to whether the two
women saw the resurrection here, but I don’t think so. They would probably have passed out too. They
might have been on their way early but it was before they got there because
they were greeted after the fact by the angel.
It has to be admitted that the eyewitness accounts, while multiple and credible, are fragmented; not contradictory but incomplete by themselves. Like a jigsaw puzzle, some of the pieces are so small in the big picture that one wonders if they fit, but in the larger view they do. Each gospel writer did not interview or get information from every character involved. The running facts are: before dawn, the angel rolled the stone away and Jesus emerged, bodily; the guards fainted; the women had interludes with the angels that told them to talk to the disciples immediately.
The women went with “fear and great joy.” That is a contradictory combination to us, but it really should be our general experience. Fear because there are things in the world we do not understand, but we do not have to. Fear because God is greater than we and his works greater. Great joy because unexpected things, or the things we greatly hoped for, do happen. I like that.
It has to be admitted that the eyewitness accounts, while multiple and credible, are fragmented; not contradictory but incomplete by themselves. Like a jigsaw puzzle, some of the pieces are so small in the big picture that one wonders if they fit, but in the larger view they do. Each gospel writer did not interview or get information from every character involved. The running facts are: before dawn, the angel rolled the stone away and Jesus emerged, bodily; the guards fainted; the women had interludes with the angels that told them to talk to the disciples immediately.
The women went with “fear and great joy.” That is a contradictory combination to us, but it really should be our general experience. Fear because there are things in the world we do not understand, but we do not have to. Fear because God is greater than we and his works greater. Great joy because unexpected things, or the things we greatly hoped for, do happen. I like that.
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