After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, two women made their way through the darkened streets of Jerusalem toward a tomb. They carried spices and perfumes — the kind you bring for a corpse. They had no expectation of what they were about to find. And yet what happened next at that tomb would change the course of human history forever.
The Most Important Event Never Described
Here is a remarkable thing about the New Testament: it never actually describes the resurrection itself. There is no account of the moment life returned to Jesus’ body, no dramatic narrative of him emerging from the tomb draped in grave clothes the way Mark’s Gospel records the empty tomb discovery. The Bible draws a veil over that holy mystery. There were no eyewitnesses of the resurrection itself — only of the risen Jesus afterward.
This is, in fact, one of the many incidental evidences of the Bible’s historical reliability. If someone were inventing this story, surely they would have included a breathtaking, cinematic description of Jesus rising from the dead. It would be too good an opportunity to miss. And indeed, some 300 years later, people did fabricate such accounts — fan fiction, almost — filling the gap with spectacular details. But the Gospels don’t do that. They simply tell us what happened after.
And what happened after is extraordinary enough.
The Resurrection as God’s Answer
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most significant event ever to take place in the universe. No scientific breakthrough, no technological marvel, no military victory compares to this awesome demonstration of divine power and grace.
In the Garden of Eden, the curse pronounced on the human race was stark: “You shall surely die.” That is why every living creature dies — the curse brought into the world through Adam’s sin, as Paul explains in Romans 5. But in the resurrection, God reverses the curse. He says to humanity: “You shall surely live.”
Think of the worldwide celebration there would be if it were announced tomorrow that a cure for all cancer had been discovered — 100% effective, every single case. Imagine the rejoicing. Now imagine someone announcing a cure for death itself. Because that is exactly what the resurrection is. As Peter wrote: “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).
Devotion That Puts Us to Shame
Matthew 28 opens with Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” heading to the tomb. What is striking about these women is their extraordinary courage and devotion. While Peter had denied Jesus three times and the other disciples had fled in fear, these women stayed to the bitter end at the cross — a gory, brutal, frightening place that was no setting for the faint-hearted.
They were the last at the cross and the first at the tomb. Luke tells us they spent Good Friday afternoon preparing spices and perfumes for anointing Jesus’ body. As soon as the Sabbath ended, before dawn, they set out in the dark to do what they could for a man they believed was dead.
That is the remarkable part: they were doing all of this for someone whose mission, as far as they knew, had failed. His plans were finished. The movement had crumbled to dust. They had no expectation of resurrection — they were carrying supplies for a corpse. And yet their love and devotion never wavered.
This raises an uncomfortable question. How does their devotion to a dead Jesus compare with our devotion to a living one? The Saviour Christians serve is not dead and buried. The church is not a group of people preserving the memory of some great philosopher. It exists to worship and serve the living, reigning King of kings, the Lord of life. And yet — do we act like it? When we talk about Jesus, do we speak of someone who lived long ago? Or of someone alive and actively involved in every moment of every day?
An Angel’s Commission
When the women arrived, they found the stone rolled away and an angel sitting on it. Matthew fills in the details: the earth shook violently, a shining angelic warrior descended from heaven, and with great ease rolled back the massive stone — a stone set into an inclined groove specifically to prevent it being opened. The tough, battle-hardened Roman soldiers guarding the tomb fainted with terror.
It is a tiny foretaste of the day of judgement. If hardened soldiers collapsed at the sight of one angel, imagine what will happen when heaven opens and the Son of Man comes in all his glory with ten thousand times ten thousand angels to judge the world.
But the angel had not come for the soldiers. He had come for these faithful women. And this is important: he was not rolling the stone away to let Jesus out. If death could not hold him, a cave with a stone in front of it was hardly going to pose a problem. Later that evening, Jesus would appear in the upper room in Jerusalem despite locked doors. No, the angel rolled the stone away to let the witnesses in.
These women — not Peter, not James, not John — were the first people in history to hear the news: “He is not here. He has risen, just as he said.” It was a stupendous privilege given to these faithful women. And it underscores the Bible’s reliability again: if these accounts were invented, no one would have made women the first witnesses. In the first century, women had no legal credibility as witnesses. The only reason they are the first to testify is because it really happened this way.
There is a principle here worth noting: when we serve God faithfully, to the best of our ability, we are always blessed. The disciples who stayed away missed this extraordinary moment. These women fought through grief and exhaustion, picked their way through the city in the dark — and received the most thrilling news the world has ever heard. Faithful service always brings unexpected reward.
The Lord’s Confirmation
The women obeyed immediately. No arguing, no questioning — they simply ran, their minds spinning with fear and joy. And as they were in the very act of obeying, the risen Lord himself met them. They were singled out for yet another blessing because of their faithfulness.
Why did Jesus appear to them personally when the angel had already delivered the message? Because he was rewarding their love and devotion with the very first appearance of his resurrected body. And he did it with characteristic kindness — the angel came first as a kind of preparation, so that the shock of meeting the risen Christ would not overwhelm them entirely.
Then Jesus gave them a message for the disciples. Notice the word he used: “Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee.”
Those two words — “my brothers” — contain the entire gospel of forgiveness. He could have called them cowards, because they were. He could have called them deserters, because that is what they were. Imagine the guilt and shame those men were feeling — every one of them had sworn they would never abandon Jesus, and every one of them had done exactly that. The news of his resurrection must have been bittersweet: Wonderful — he’s alive! But will he want anything to do with us?
And the answer comes: my brothers. Not former disciples. Not failures. Brothers. That is the nature of grace — as Paul would later write, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Go to Galilee — Take It to the World
Jesus told his disciples to meet him in Galilee. Matthew’s Gospel places special emphasis on Galilee throughout, and the reason is the mission to the Gentiles — a theme that runs from beginning to end. Matthew opens with Gentile Magi travelling from the ends of the earth to worship the newborn king. Jesus conducted most of his ministry in “Galilee of the Gentiles.” And the Gospel climaxes with the Great Commission: “Go and make disciples of all nations.”
The risen Jesus is still doing today what he did on that first Easter morning — sending out his church to proclaim the good news to the whole world. The same message entrusted to those women at the tomb is entrusted to every Christian today: He has risen from the dead. This is the answer to all the troubles of the human race. It is the message every city, every nation, and the whole world desperately needs to hear.
The angel said, “Go quickly.” There is an urgency about this news. Christ’s return is a day closer than it was yesterday. People need to hear it. So let us do what those women did on that first Lord’s Day morning — hurry off with the urgency and joy of the message, to tell everyone: He has risen.
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