After three days of rest imposed upon them by the confluence of three consecutive sabbaths, during which there was nothing they could do to address the death of their Lord, on Sunday morning a number of women who had followed Jesus from Galilee made their way to the tomb. They came to complete the care of His dead body that was but hastily attended to by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus Thursday evening as the sabbath for the first day of unleavened bread was about to begin. Mark mentions Mary Magdalene, another Mary who was the mother of James and Joseph (often shortened to Joses, see Mat 27:56, Mar 15:47), and Salome who was likely the sister of Jesus’ mother Mary (Mar 16:1). Luke also mentions Joanna and some other women who were with them (Luk 24:10). Although we tend to imagine that these women were all together and saw the same thing at the same time, this wasn’t necessarily the case. Because of the large number of pilgrims that filled Jerusalem for the Passover feast it is more likely that the “many women” (Mat 27:55) who followed Jesus there from Galilee were staying in different locations with extended family and so came to the grave from different places and arrived at different times, potentially experiencing different things. Because of the spiritual nature of the angelic appearances, later described as a vision[1] (Luk 24:23), as well as Jesus’ resurrection to an entirely new and different spiritual life of which they could not have conceived, even those who were together may have potentially experienced what was happening differently depending upon their own spiritual perception; cf. Dan 10:7-8, Joh 12:29, Act 9:7.
What was a topic of conversation as the women made their way to the tomb early that morning with the intention of anointing Jesus’ dead body? See Mar 16:2-3. What do the gospel writers say they found when they got to the tomb? See Mar 16:4, Luk 24:2, Joh 20:1. How does Matthew say that the “extremely large” stone sealing the entrance of Jesus’ tomb was rolled away? See Mat 28:2. What do his words indicate that an unspiritual, natural or worldly-minded person would say was the physical cause for the removal of the large stone? Cf. 1Co 2:14, Jud 1:19. What do Matthew’s words indicate that he recognized was actually behind the earthquake as the real, ultimate cause? Reading just Matthew’s account we might suppose that the two Mary’s saw and understood with perfect clarity that an angel rolled away the stone from the tomb; but from the other gospel accounts, was this actually the case? See again Mar 16:4, Luk 24:2, Joh 20:1. Although the guards “shook for fear of him” (Mat 28:4), should we suppose that they clearly saw and understood that it was an angel who had removed the stone? See again Dan 10:7, Act 9:7. As Matthew records that the angel who rolled away the stone spoke to the women as the guards shook with fear, when can we surmise that the women arrived at the tomb in relation to when the earthquake occurred and the angel removed the stone? From Mark’s and John’s accounts, what do we gather about a reluctance on the part of the two Marys to believe what they were seeing was real? See Mar 16:8, Joh 20:1-2. While it is evident that upon arriving at the tomb they clearly discovered the stone had been rolled away, the tomb was empty, and experienced what they believed was an angelic vision, considering that they had seen Jesus dead and were not expecting His battered body could be raised again to physical life, and even later when they experienced the risen savior they didn’t recognize Him at first because of the nature of His glorified spiritual body to which He was resurrected, is it surprising that the women would doubt themselves as to what they had experienced? Even later as they recounted it to others and were trying to make sense of it, but the angels and Jesus had disappeared and could no longer be found, wouldn’t we expect that they would second-guess themselves, especially if different aspects of their extraordinary experience struck them differently, as we would also naturally expect, so that their perceptions of what actually happened could easily have differed? Cf. Joh 12:29.
How does Matthew describe the appearance of the angel? See Mat 28:3. How would the breaking of the day with the first gleams of morning light when their experience occurred have contributed to the confusion the women would have had trying to make sense of what happened? How would the “severe earthquake” that happened immediately before they arrived at the tomb have also been disorienting to them about what was actually happening? Note too that earthquake lights are a real but mysterious phenomenon that have occurred throughout history but whose cause remains unknown. The lights may occur before, during, or after an earthquake, often appear directly above a fault line, and may last from a fraction of a second to up to ten minutes. Many videos of earthquake lights can be found on the internet, such as here. As noted in an article in the scientific journal Nature, “In some parts of the world earthquakes are often accompanied by ball lightning.” Ball lightning is itself a mysterious phenomenon of unknown cause, but whose strange behavior, such as appearing suddenly, passing through walls, or exploding with a sulphureous smell, is often described by those who have experienced it in terms of angels, demons, ghosts, fairies or UFOs; cf. Gen 15:17. Although the influence of modern science inclines us to believe such lights are caused by the earthquake, is it possible that a severe earthquake may actually be caused, as Matthew describes, by an angel whose appearance is like lightning?
[1] “An event in which something appears vividly and credibly to the mind, although not actually present, but implying the influence of some divine or supernatural power or agency.” (Louw-Nida Lexicon).