Bible reading and the resurrection discussion

St. Matthew 28: 1-10

Now late in the night of the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the sepulcher. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, and drawing near rolled back the stone and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment like snow. And for fear of him the guards were terrified, and became like dead men. And for fear of him the guards were terrified, and became like dead men. But the angel spoke and said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen even as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord was laid. And go quickly, tell his disciples that he has risen; and behold he goes before you into Galilee; there you shall see him. Behold, I have foretold it to you.” And they departed quickly from the tomb in fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Hail!” And they came up and embraced his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; so take word to my brethren that they are to set out for Galilee; there they shall see me.”

St. Mark 16: 1-8

And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb, when the sun had just risen. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll the stone back from the entrance of the tomb for us?” And looking up they saw that the stone had been rolled back, for it was very large. But on entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right side, clothed in a white robe, and they were amazed. He said to them, “Do not be terrified. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he goes before you into Galilee; there you shall see him, as he told you.” And they departed and fled from the tomb, for trembling and fear had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

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I wish to point out several points of remarkable illumination in these two separate telling of the same events. This is such a familiar story that people tend to either gloss over some of the detail, therefore missing key points, or they obsess with wording differences and read into the account differences in the events that do not exist.

You know how when you go to visit family or friends, and they tell you a story of something that happened, that one tends to be the “detail” person while the other “cuts to the chase?” Spouses often interrupt each other’s telling of a story in order to provide a detail that is skipped over, or to correct a detail. Yet nonetheless they are speaking of the same event, but choosing different words and points of emphasis. You can be sure that recounting of these events were repeated many times over the years by the people who were actually there, and so both of these versions are of course correct and authentic (as is everything in the holy scriptures, since the Holy Spirit has guaranteed and guided the penmanship).

Here are things to notice and to learn from these events:

O The arrival of the angel from heaven was witnessed by the guards, not by the women. Matthew details the arrival of the angel with an earthquake, with countenance like lightning, with raiment like snow, and to the terror of the guards and their subsequent fainting into unconsciousness. It’s easy to mistake that the women witnessed the arrival of the angel because Mark immediately goes from describing the fainting of the guards (4) to (5) writing “But the angel spoke and said to the women…” Just because he skips in one sentence from events with one set of people to the next set of people, it does not mean that they were simultaneous. The Bible is full of examples where even years pass between one sentence and the next. It is a collection of books and letters that were written under very sparse and difficult circumstances and so each author, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, crammed into each sentence what he viewed as the essential information, and very little was spent on “scene setting” or specifics of timeframe. Matthew was clearly writing information gleaned from the guards themselves. How do we know this? Matthew gives this great detail about the arrival of the angel, followed by lines 11-15 reporting the private conversations of the guard with the chief priests about what had happened, and how they were paid to be silent. So Matthew wrote “from the guards’ perspective” because he clearly had a source among either the guards themselves or attendants of the priests who witnessed the telling of the guards’ experience with the angel to the priests and the bribe.

O Notice that the angel arrives with a great earthquake and glowing like lightning and with snow white garments. The angel rolls the stone back, but not to let Jesus out, because Jesus had already risen and gone from the tomb, with the stone still in place. The angel arrives in the power of God, and this is another example of what “real angels actually look like.” Angels are made of the spirit of God and therefore they are robust and forceful in their light and power. Too many depictions of angels nowadays are of pussy foot girl angels who have costumes straight out of Hollywood central casting. This is a problem not because I am a spoil sport but because it leads to the sin of underestimating the role and the power of angels as God’s agents and his actual voice here on earth when they appear.

O The angel appears in order to be the witness to what has happened. Remember that “witness” in Biblical times means something different from what it means today. In biblical times to provide witness means to attest to the trust of something; it is a verbal form of contract making and a deposition of what has actually, truthfully occurred. God taught humans how to tell the truth and forge agreements among themselves through the giving of witness. Today people think “witness” means an observer or onlooker. But in biblical times, and this is one reason people know that what is written in the Bible is truthful, a witness is someone who is in the position to attest to the truthfulness and fullness of an event, and provides a “seal of truth” to the events that are related to others. So the angel arrives with a bang and in glory, first to demonstrate being sent by God through his obvious appearance and power, and second to roll the rock aside to point out the truth of what has happened, which is that Jesus has arisen.

O Therefore Mark relates that when the women arrive the angel appears to them as a young man in a white robe, who amazes them by sitting in the tomb, with Jesus missing. It is not God’s intention to frighten and intimidate the women, so the angel has “cooled off” in the sense that he is not appearing to them clad in the power of God, as he had to the guards. God fully intended to give the guards a thump with the thunderous appearance of the angel, in order to force them to run to their superiors, and the priests, and tell the truth what has happened. We know this because the angel reassures the women, reported just about word for word by both Matthew and Mark, while the angel sure was not looking to reassure the guards. The angel fully intended to arrive with a bang of God’s glory to stun the guards and force them to panic and tell the truth of what happened to the priest, which they did. The angel arrived with earthquake and glory to terrify and amaze the guards, stunning them into panicked truthfulness, and therefore they became witnesses to Christ resurrected, even though they were promptly bribed to be silent. Clearly attendants and the priests heard the witness of the guards and that was enough.

O The angel then informs the women that Jesus has risen and that he has gone to Galilee before them. Notice, now, with what I explained about how God taught humans how to bear witness in mind, what the angel says and does. The angel succinctly refers to Jesus by name, that he was crucified and that he has risen. God’s angel knows that humans would be dumbstruck by such a sight and so carefully states for them that they aren’t imagining things, or gone crazy, or been tricked, but that yes, Jesus (of Nazareth) is not here, he was crucified but he is now risen, and that he has gone ahead to Galilee, and that this all occurred as Jesus had foretold to them. Matthew includes the words “Come, see the place” where the angel says to the women to view the place where the Lord was laid in the tomb. Again, this is part of giving witness, to state the obvious and point to the physical truthfulness of what is being said. In Mark he also takes care to record the actual words “Behold the place where they laid him.” When you read the Bible you must understand there is no such thing as conversational dialogue. All dialogue that is included in the Bible operates under the rule of giving witness. So the only “dialogue” that is included is not for context setting, for embellishment, or for dramatic chitchat purposes, but because people were entirely a verbal and visual society at that time, a statement and observation were the component pairs of giving witness. So the angel succinctly provides witness for the women.

O The angel then tells the women to give this message to the disciples. Matthew reports “And go quickly, tell his disciples that he has risen; and behold, he goes before you into Galilee; there you shall see him.” Mark reports “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he goes before you into Galilee; there you shall see him, as he told you.” Notice that Mark reports that the angel refers to Peter by name. This is wondrous and should be a great source of faith to those who notice this detail and contemplate its meaning. The angel is speaking for God (obviously, as angels are entirely the agents and will of God) and he specifies the disciples and Peter, elevating Peter by virtue of mentioning him by name separate from all the other Apostles and disciples. Yet the last we had heard of Peter was the denials before the crucifixion, and the only disciple at the crucifixion was the Apostle John. At that point the resurrected Jesus had not yet appeared to Peter, giving him the primacy to “feed his sheep” as John reports in detail. By the subtle, one word mention of Peter’s name by the angel, spoken in the tomb of the resurrected Jesus, Peter is affirmed by God’s very agent, the angel, to be the leader of the Christians. With two words, “and Peter,” the angel of God is letting the women know that the angel is giving witness to Peter’s role as the primacy of the Church. Before being crucified, Jesus had named and appointed Peter as the rock, giving him “the keys” to bind or unbind. Much is made of Peter’s weakness in denial after that as Jesus is arrested. But before Peter and the risen Jesus are actually reunited, God’s angel “witnesses to” God’s acknowledgment of Peter as possessing the continuing primacy of the Church. John relates how when the Apostles heard from the women that Jesus had risen, that he and Peter raced to the tomb to see for themselves. John was the faster runner and so arrived first, but waited for Peter to arrive and go in first, out of respect. We know from Mark’s detail of what the angel said that the women would have told the disciples that the angel asked for them to be told, “And Peter.” God himself was putting a seal of affirmation on Peter’s continuing role. This would have been abundantly clear to all who heard the words of the angels repeated. Non Catholic Christians often miss these enormously important words by the angel of God, where God’s agent, the angel, states the primacy of Peter while standing in the tomb, before Jesus himself actually reiterates Peter’s role. The angel from God clearly states the name of the man who will become the first Pope, “And Peter.”

Now, I need to clear up this mess about Mary Magdalene. I say it is a mess because there are people who have totally misunderstood the Holy Scriptures and have the nerve to imply a romantic relationship with Jesus as a result of that misunderstanding. Mary Magdalene was a great saint and she deserves a clean and authentic understanding of her witness. Mark mentions that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, while Matthew does not allude to the first meeting. As I’ve explained, the gospels were written in conditions where the gospel writers were concise and targeted in what they recorded, with individual variation as they recalled individual conversations or events, or as their witnesses provided (for example, Luke clearly obtained information from the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus). It is St. John who provides the most detail and where one can truly understand the compassionate chaste love that Jesus had for Mary Magdalene.

St. John 20: 10-18

The disciples therefore went away again to their home.

[This refers to the women telling the disciples and Peter what the angel had told them. Peter and John ran to the tomb, observed for them selves and then returned to their home.]

But Mary was standing outside weeping at the tomb. So, as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb, and saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been laid. They said to her, “Woman, why art thou weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

[If you read this carefully and not jump to some sensational conclusions, the scripture is very clear what happened. Mary Magdalene and other women saw the first angel, heard what he said, and ran to tell the disciples, who then sent Peter and John at a run to the tomb to see for them selves. Mary Magdalene FOLLOWED Peter and John and returned to the tomb a SECOND time. After Peter and John saw for them selves and left, Mary Magdalene STAYED BEHIND at the tomb and LOST HER FAITH. TWO angels now appear and ask her why she is crying. She says “she doesn’t know where the Lord is” despite having been clearly told he is risen and in Galilee by the first angel at the tomb. *Rolls eyes and sighs*].

When she had said this she turned round and beheld Jesus standing there, and she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why art thou weeping? Whom dost thou seek?” She, thinking that he was the gardener, said to him, “Sir, if thou hast removed him, tell me where thou has laid him and I will take him away.”

[Despite being told BY AN ANGEL that Jesus is risen and in Galilee, and even carrying this message to the disciples, Mary Magdalene goes back all weepy to the tomb and thinks that Jesus is still dead and asks “the gardener” for his body. Um, even two angels sitting in the tomb is not a big clue to her that he really is risen and in Galilee as the first angel had said. When two MORE angels do not get through to her, Jesus has to reappear from Galilee to restore her faith, which really is gone. How anyone can hear from an angel that Jesus is risen and in Galilee, carry the message to the disciples, run back with Peter and John, see TWO MORE angels after Peter and John leave and STILL NOT BELIEVE is beyond me. But to be kind, remember that Jesus had to cast seven demons from her. She was not the most stable person on earth, that’s for sure. So Jesus, knowing all this of course, and caring for her as he did for everyone, appears to her in person, “changing his plans” you could say, to go ahead to Galilee and meet them there as the angel had explained he would do. This was not romantic love; this was concern for a disciple who had lost her faith even in the face of the angel telling her, and then the physical presence of two angels in the tomb, witnessing to the Good News.]

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” Turning, she said to him, “Rabboni!” (that is to say, Master). Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene came, and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord, and these things he said to me."

OK? Get it now? The first angel tells the women that Jesus has gone to Galilee and will meet up with them all there. The women tell the disciples and after Peter and John check the tomb, the disciples are ready to obey, baffled as they are. But Mary returns to the tomb in a weepy fit and loses her faith rather than finding it justified and validated. She was a very fragile and troubled woman. It would not be a stretch to say she is prone to nervous breakdowns, and she clearly had one as a result of the crucifixion. How do we know this? By reading what John carefully reported. John had no axe to grind with anyone; you can clearly see that because even though he was the disciple that “Jesus loved” he never let that go to his head in ego, and often would not refer to himself by his own name in major events in the Gospel. John was an incredibly spiritual and mystical teacher (obviously, as one reads the Book of Revelation) and so he tended to include “human detail” in his Gospel that others would not think to include. He knew that it was important that people could read and relate to a woman who, among those who knew Jesus the most, still could not believe over and over again on the day that Jesus arose from the dead. She didn’t believe the first angel, she didn’t take comfort in the disciples’ obedience to the words of the angel, she didn’t believe the silent witness of a SECOND SET of angels who appeared at the tomb after Peter and John left “just for her” AND she did not recognize Jesus when he appeared himself! Jesus “changed his plans” in order to appear to her and stop the erosion of her faith and her implied nervous breakdown. (You don’t see the Virgin Mary having a seizure at the tomb). So Jesus changes his plans in order to appear to her and stop her personal disintegration and he gives her additional information for the disciples as a result. Mary Magdalene wants to hop all over him to touch him (after not believing and after not recognizing him, no less) because when people are going a little bit crazy then tend to grab people and things to try to stabilize themselves and control the other person. Jesus obviously does not permit this. Because this is her reaction Jesus knows he has to explain to her and thus give her a message to deliver that he is not to be viewed as being physically present in the world because he will ascend to heaven soon. Jesus had planned to explain this in person to all the disciples but Mary Magdalene had this freaking meltdown and breakdown at the tomb and would not move on with the other disciples to Galilee as instructed by God’s angel.

Um, OK, so now that you are seeing this with clear scholarly eyes, if Mary Magdalene was like this as a personality, can you imagine what her family was like? It’s not like she was an orphan; no one was in those days in the Christian community. She was a fragile, hysterical and weak in faith woman who nonetheless persevered to become a loyal companion and saint. Those so called “Gnostic” writings and gospels were mostly written by family apologists and descendants who angled to be “in with the in crowd.” So Mary Magdalene’s family, it is a safe bet, were of the exaggerating, hysterical ilk that she was, and thus came up with the, entire well, bilge, that exaggerated her role in her so called “gospel.” You don’t need to be Einstein to understand that.

Let me be blunt. How “close” could she have been to Jesus if she can’t freaking believe the words of the angel of God himself? If she stays and weeps at the tomb after Peter and John have left to follow instructions and meet Jesus at Galilee? If she then insists his body must be hidden somewhere and he’s still dead even though now two angels are sitting in the freaking empty tomb? And then she does not recognize Jesus? This is someone who supposedly had “something something” going on with the Lord? Only a drug, drink or power addled lunatic would believe that. John gently and clearly lays out what happened with Mary Magdalene’s crisis of faith so that equally weak and frail people could learn from it and be heartened in the goodness of the Lord. Jesus patiently changes his plans to meet all of them together at once in Galilee in order to appear to her, stop her obvious breakdown and disobedience of the angel's instructions to go to Galilee, and give her something useful to do to get her back on track, which is to announce that he will ascend and so they should not get used to “touching” him (which means to get used to his continual bodily presence). Mary Magdalene appears to get a gripe and understand once Jesus explains that he is to ascend to heaven soon, and that this is something all the disciples must understand. Again, her ability to pull herself together and understand what is happening is tribute to her disciple and saintly qualities, and is contrary to what would be expected from someone in a “theoretically”(and dead wrong) personal relationship with Jesus. I'm dumbfounded when people claim to read the Bible in plain black and white and then cannot comprehend the events I reiterate above where John explains the circumstances of Jesus' appearance to Mary Magdalene. Jesus was not giving her "first prize" of appearing to her first. He was intervening to prevent her total loss of faith as she refused to believe even after hearing the one angel and viewing the second two angels.

Once you understand that the Bible events and people can be believed literally because it adheres to the principles of “witnessing,” then you stop fantasizing that the Bible does not describe to a T the “historical, real” Jesus, because it does, in total, from start to finish. The four Gospel writers, and the authors of the Epistles, recorded the true and essential information with fidelity and loving compassion for those who would read their writings after them. Even though there was no “Project Workbench” in Biblical times, the Holy Spirit guided their hands and ensured the overlap and cohesion that is essential to proclaiming the truthful “historic” Good News. It was inspiration and a keen sense of responsible witnessing and reporting that led Mark, for example, to carefully record the “disciples and Peter” detail, and for John to record in detail the breakdown and restoration of Mary Magdalene’s faith at the tomb of the risen Jesus. The authentic books of the Bible contain no “agenda.” The only “agenda” creeps in with so called “gospels” and “secret writings” that those who sought spin and personal gain authored, sometimes in innocence as they tried to record some of the lore of those times, but often, as you can see with the so called “Judas” writings, to put spin on a family member’s actions or to advance a cult belief. The Holy Spirit, through the Early Church Fathers, is the ultimate Editor. The Holy Spirit ensured that Peter and his heirs “bound” or “did not bind” only what is true and good, and not individual or cultist agendas. Nothing I’ve written is new or revisionist. In fact I continually take people back to read clearly what is attested to in black and white. I hope this was helpful, though as usual, since I’ve been shunned, my writings appear very late among the whisperers, after much irreparable damage has already been done.