While Mary Magdalene ran to tell Peter and John what they had discovered at the tomb, the other Mary who was with her ran to tell others, and quite possibly ran into the other women with whom they had arranged to meet at the tomb early on that Sunday morning when Jesus was raised from the dead. It is also possible that she returned with them to the tomb to show them what they had discovered, since the others may not have known the exact location, especially since they were from Galilee and not Jerusalem. She may also have remained at the tomb while the other women went to tell others, perhaps to keep watch. For Matthew notes that she was with Mary Madgalene when Jesus appeared to her after following Peter and John back to the tomb, and so she must also have returned to the tomb at some point; Mat 28:9, Joh 20:16-17. Whether or not this other Mary was among the other women who arrived at the tomb while Mary Magdalene was on her way to inform Peter and John, Luke seems to describe a different event experienced by them. Whereas the two Marys found an angel dressed in white sitting at the right of where Jesus’ body had been when they entered the tomb, the other women initially found nothing but the empty grave clothes so they were at a loss to understand what could have happened. But “while they were perplexed about this” (Luk 24:4) two angels clothed in dazzling apparel suddenly stood beside them. Their sudden and glorious appearance terrified the women, and they bowed their faces to the ground, a common expression of reverential fear recorded throughout Scripture demonstrating submission to a higher authority.
What did the two angels say to the women in their vision? See Luk 24:5-7. How was what they told them different from what the angel told the two Marys? See Mat 28:5-8, Mar 16:6-7. If the other Mary did return with these other women to the tomb, in what way were the angels’ words in Luke 24:5 especially meaningful and even pointed? Although the earlier vision of the two Marys was so surreal that Mary Magdalene had discounted it by the time she reached Peter and John and reported that “they” had removed Jesus’ body from the tomb, what had the angel earlier told them that in a world of perfect faith would have been sufficient to know that Jesus was not dead but alive, and hence no longer to be found in the tomb? See Mat 28:5-7, especially the angel’s last words to them in Mat 28:7. In what way is the angels’ initial question to the women the same question they would pose to so many today who are drawn to Jesus’ teaching and the positive impact it has had upon the world, but whose study is only intellectual in nature, as if Jesus was just a good man who is long dead and gone? Do we seek Jesus in that way, among the dead, and not as He is, among the living? Compared to a dead father or mother or brother or sister or friend or other mentor to whom we can no longer inquire or ask for help, what very real and incomparable difference does it make to know that Jesus is not among the dead, and is not only among the living, but is the Living One? Cf. Joh 1:4, 5:26, 11:25-26, 14:6,19, Rom 8:2,11, 1Jo 1:1-2, 5:11-12, Rev 1:17-18.
What do the angels’ words also indicate about the clear boundary God has set between the living and the dead, that in our walk with Him among the living we are not to transgress? Cf. Gen 23:4, Deut 18:10-11, 1Ch 10:13, Isa 8:19, Luk 9:59-60, and consider also how that boundary is emphasized throughout Scripture by the defilement of the living by any physical contact with the dead; see Lev 21:1-4,10-11, Num 19:11,14-16, Eze 39:11-16, Luk 11:44. From Saul’s encounter with the dead Samuel through the witch of Endor (1Sa 28:7-19), as well as Jesus’ and His disciples’ encounter on the mount of transfiguration with the dead Moses (Mat 17:3; Elijah did not die but was taken directly to heaven), we understand that the dead have not just ceased to exist, that they are somewhere, and that although they are physically dead having no physical body, they seem to understand and know things that are hidden from us. Why has God placed such a firm boundary between the living and the dead? See also Mat 8:29, Luk 4:34-35,41 and note that the understanding of demons by many first century Jews was that they were the unclean spirits of the Nephilim, the half-breed offspring of rebellious angels (“sons of God”) who unnaturally mated with “the daughters of men”; like men they died in the flood, but like angels they were not subject to the same death and corruption as men and so were still able to interact with the physical world in ways that the dead souls of men could not; cf. Gen 6:1-4, Luk 20:36, Jud 1:6. Note that many Jews believed that through interaction with the spirit world fallen angels had taught men things that God in His wisdom had not intended them to know, perhaps until they had also developed the moral wisdom to more righteously know how to use such discoveries, and perhaps not unlike what we see happening in our present world with recent “discoveries” of genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing; cf. Gen 4:20-24, Dan 12:4. While it is clear that the dead exist in the spiritual realm that is also the realm of angels and demons, besides the potential danger of being deceived and used as pawns of Satan and his kingdom, for what other reason does God seem to have placed such a firm boundary between the living the dead? Cf. Luk 16:27-31, Joh 20:29, Heb 11:6.