Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Matthew 28:1 - 28:3
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Resurrection of Christ.
The open grave:
v. 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 sepulcher.
v. 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.
v. 3. His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow;
v. 4. and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
As the death of Christ had been attended by supernatural signs to call the attention of the whole world to the redemption then being accomplished upon Calvary, so His resurrection was accompanied by an uproar in nature which pointed to a most unusual happening. In the late hours of the Sabbath-day, the seventh day of the week, as this day was about to merge into a new Sabbath-week, that is, very early on Sunday morning, before the sun rose, the same faithful women that had watched the burial of the Lord went out to see the grave and to take the first steps in the process of embalming the Lord's body. They had not yet reached the garden, when a mighty quaking shook the earth, caused by the fact that an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb, which he then used as a seat for himself. Not to open the grave for Christ was he come, but to show the empty grave to the whole world, to give absolute and undeniable evidence of the fact that the resurrection had taken place in spite of stone and seal and watch. The evangelist says that the appearance of the angel was like lightning, and his garment was white as snow. It was a fearful apparition to the superstitious soldiers to gaze upon one of the holy angels of God. It overwhelmed them; they fell over in a faint, and became as dead men. When God wants to carry out His will with regard to the salvation of mankind, no sinful man, no enemy, may resist Him. The resurrection of Jesus was the seal and final proof for the full atonement gained for the whole world, and all the efforts of the Jews and of Satan to hinder it were unavailing.