28:1 The NASB translation of the Greek preposition opseas "late"is misleading. The word can also mean "after,"and it makes better sense if translated as such here.1082The women waited until after the Sabbath to go to Jesus' tomb (cf. Mark 16:1-2). They went early Sunday morning. The "other Mary"was Mary the mother of James and Joseph (27:56).1083Apparently they did not know that the Sanhedrin had posted a guard at the tomb. They evidently went there to remember Jesus but also to anoint Jesus' corpse (Mark 16:1). They must not have known that it had been sealed either.
28:2-4 A second earthquake had occurred (cf. 27:51). The relationship between the earthquake, the descent of the angel, and the rolling away of the stone is indefinite in the text. All of these events have supernatural connotations. An angel had announced the Incarnation, and now an angel announced the Resurrection (1:20-23; cf. 18:10).1084The angel rolled the stone away to admit the witnesses, not to allow Jesus to escape (cf. John 20:26).1085The guards experienced the earthquake and observed the angel who appeared as a young man (Mark 16:5). It was seeing the angel that evidently terrified them so greatly that Matthew could describe them as dead men (vv. 3-4). Perhaps they fainted dead away.
28:5-7 The angel answered the women's fear upon observing the scene by speaking to them (cf. Mark 16:2-7; Luke 24:1-8; John 20:1). Of all the possible reasons for the tomb being open and empty that the women could have imagined, the angel clarified the one true explanation. Jesus had risen from the dead. The angel reminded them that Jesus had predicted His resurrection (cf. 16:21; 17:23; 20:18-19). He then invited them to come and see where He had lain and to go and tell the other disciples that He had risen from the dead. They should go quickly because this was the greatest news. Jesus would confirm His resurrection with a personal appearance in Galilee shortly (cf. 26:32). He would arrive in Galilee before they did and meet them there.
"Earlier in Matthew's story, Jesus twice said to the disciples that whoever loses his life will find it [10:39; 16:25],' and on the cross Jesus held fast to God in trust even as he relinquished his life (27:46, 50). In raising Jesus from the dead, God certifies the truth of Jesus' words and the efficacy of his trust, which is to say that God vindicates Jesus: God resolves Jesus' conflict with Israel by showing that Jesus is in the right."1086
