On Thursday evening of passion week Mary Magdalene and another Mary who was the mother of James and Joseph saw the tomb where Joseph and Nicodemus had hastily interred Jesus’ body before the start of the required sabbath for the first day of Unleavened Bread. Sometime on Friday, or the seventh-day Sabbath on Saturday, they had made arrangements with some of the other women who had traveled from Galilee with Jesus to meet at the tomb on Sunday morning and complete their burial custom for His corpse. Their plans may have been organized by Salome, likely the sister of Jesus’ mother Mary who was with the two Marys near the cross when Jesus died but left them to be with her sister in her travail. Mark numbers her with the two Marys on Sunday morning and notes that they bought spices, but Matthew mentions only the two Marys in what initially happened at the tomb, from which we surmise that they must have gone on ahead while Salome was purchasing the necessary items, which could easily take some time since the day was just dawning and the sellers would just be getting going. Luke also mentions some other women, including Joanna, who were part of the arrangements but also arrived later.
As day was breaking, just moments before the two Marys arrived, a severe earthquake occurred, which Matthew says was actually an angel removing the stone from the tomb, and which so frightened the guards who had been posted to prevent Jesus’ disciples from stealing the body that they became frozen in terror. The women had just been discussing who would remove the stone, and so were no doubt disoriented to find the stone already rolled away, and the frightened guards whom they were also not expecting. Then, upon entering the tomb, they didn’t find Jesus’ body, but the angel mentioned by Matthew appearing as a young man, which startled them. It was also the day of First Fruits, one of the seven annual feasts commanded in the Law of Moses. Although they would almost immediately come to doubt their experience and it would be some time before they understood the nature of Jesus’ resurrection, God had sent the angel so there would be no doubt that right on time, Jesus had risen as the first-born from the dead, never to die again. Thus the angel calmed their fears, assured them that they were in the right place so there was no confusion, and explained that Jesus wasn’t there, for He had risen. He then commanded them to go quickly and tell His disciples, especially Peter, what had happened and that He would go before them into Galilee where they would see Him. At this time, how would the women have imagined Jesus’ body would look if they saw Him, His physical condition, and where might they have imagined Him to be physically located? Cf. Mar 5:41-43, Joh 11:44. Could they have imagined Him as He actually was, full of life with no hangover from the crucifixion, much less having a glorified, resurrected body that like the angels was physically located in the spiritual realm?
After telling them they had been told, as if to warn them that they would be held accountable for his command to go and tell Jesus’ disciples, what does Matthew say the two women did? See Mat 28:8. How does Mark describe it? See Mar 16:8. What various emotions do these two accounts note that overcame the women as a result of their experience? Note that the NAS astonishment in Mar 16:8 (NET bewilderment, NRS amazement) translates the Greek word ἔκστασις from which we get our word ecstasy, which means literally a displacement of the mind from its normal state; see Mar 5:42 where the same world is used of Jesus’ disciples and the parents of a 12 year old girl who were completely astounded that Jesus had raised her from the dead, Act 3:10 for a similar amazement, and Acts 10:10, 22:17 where the word is translated as a trance. What does Mark’s use of this word indicate about the nature of their experience at the tomb that would leave the two Marys wondering if it was even real or just something they had imagined? What does their experience and the words used to describe it teach us about the nature of such spiritual encounters and what we should expect if we should ever experience one in our own lives? Should we expect to be able to validate it as true in any way other than through the eyes of faith? Does that make it any less real? Cf. Heb 11:6.
Why would the two Marys have been afraid and “fled” from the tomb with fear and trembling? Besides the natural fear they would have felt from the presence of the angel (see Mat 28:5), recall that Jesus had just been executed as a threat to the Jewish leaders. In today’s terminology He would have been branded the leader of a “terrorist” group, so that His followers would have been fearful that they too could be targeted. There were also the soldiers at the tomb, and the two women had just found the tomb empty, so that in spite of the words from the angel, especially as the surreal nature of that experience faded and their natural state of mind returned, just like us they would immediately have begun to wonder what was really going on, where Jesus’ body was, and if it wasn’t some sort of trap to ensnare His disciples; cf. Joh 20:2. How does this help us to understand Mark’s statement that they said nothing to anyone as they “fled” the tomb? Would they have told the guards, who were right there and just coming to their senses, or anyone else they didn’t know or trust? Since the two women fled from the tomb, what then of Salome and the other women they were to meet there?