Rejoice!

Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.  And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.  His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.  And the guard shook for for fear of him, and became like dead men.  But the angel answered 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 is risen, as He said.  Come, see the place where the Lord lay.  And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him.  Behold, I have told you."  So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.

And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, "Rejoice!"  So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.  Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid.  Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me."

- Matthew 28:1-10

Yesterday we read that at Christ's Crucifixion, many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.  Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.  This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him.  When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed.  And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the tomb.  On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying, "Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise.'  Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, 'He has risen from the dead.'  So the last deception will be worse than the first."  Pilate said to them, "You have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know how."  So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard.

Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.  And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.  His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.  And the guard shook for for fear of him, and became like dead men.  My study bible tells us that the earthquake is a sign of Christ's great victory over death, and that it foreshadows the general resurrection of all humanity.   It asks us to note that the angel doesn't roll back the stone to let the Lord out.  Christ, in His glory, can pass through solid rock (see John 20:19).   That the stone is rolled back instead allows the witnesses in -- so that they may see that Christ has already risen.

But the angel answered 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 is risen, as He said.  Come, see the place where the Lord lay.  And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him.  Behold, I have told you."  So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.  My study bible comments that these women are the first witnesses of the supreme event in all of history; that is, witnesses to the Resurrection of Christ and to the destruction of death.  The angel speaks of Christ as the One who was crucified.   This teaches us that we shouldn't shy away from His death, but rather to glory in the Cross (1 Corinthians 2:2; Galatians 6:14), as the Cross is the weapon which Christ used to destroy death, and it is the trophy of His victory.  In the Paschal liturgical services of the Eastern Orthodox, one hymn is repeatedly sung:  "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life."  St. Paul teaches, "If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile" (1 Corinthians 15:17). 

And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, "Rejoice!"  So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.  Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid.  Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me."  The first word of the risen Christ is "Rejoice!"  Let us note that this is a command.  And the second word is also a command:  "Do not be afraid." 

Jesus' first word to the women, as they run to tell His disciples what the angel in the tomb had said to them, is "Rejoice!"  This word is identical to the greeting of Gabriel, the angel of the Annunciation, to Mary (Luke 1:28).  In the King James Version of the Bible it is translated as "Hail" (as in the words beginning the prayer, Hail Mary).   This word remains today a common formal greeting in Greek.   But literally it is the command, "Rejoice."  The command given by Christ to the women in today's reading is the same, excepting that it is in the plural.  And again, we see a repetition, in that Christ's words that follow to the women is another command, "Do not be afraid."  Shortly after he greets Mary, Gabriel also gives the same command to her (Luke 1:30),  and again the words are identical in the Greek texts, except that, when addressed to the women here it is in the plural.  (For Luke's account of the Annunciation, see Luke 1:26-38).  Why are these ties important?   For one thing, they give us another hint of the important role of women in the full story of the Incarnation and our salvation, and especially here in the Resurrection.  St. Jerome comments here that the greeting to these women affirms that, just as the Bible begins with the sin of a woman (Eve), the Gospel story teaches that that "first sin" is undone by women.   Peter Chrysologus (4th century Archbishop of Ravenna) comments that in this first greeting to His followers, in the persons of these women, Christ does not frighten them with the power of His authority, but rather comes before them with the ardor of His love.  He greets them with the covenant of the Bridegroom (not the right of ruler), and with the love of a brother, which surpasses everything else in Him.  Chrysologus adds, "This greeting itself evidently shows that the full figure of the church abides in these women. They are contrasted with those disciples whom Christ scolds who were wavering over the resurrection."  Thus, we might conclude that the fullness of the Church abiding in these women extols their faith, just as we understand Mary's extraordinary faith through the Annunciation.  And this is one more evidence of the power of the Gospels, that we should understand how these women, the Apostles to the Apostles (who bring the news of Resurrection to the apostles), become the first great examples of faith, just as did Mary.  If we want to look to human beings whose virtue is most highly praised in Scripture, then, we must look to the women.  We must look to Mary, the "blessed among women" and to these women who are the first to hear and spread the news of Resurrection, and the first to be greeted by the risen Christ.  Such a greeting and honor could not be possible except through their tremendous faith -- and thus we look to these women as those most highly praised and honored among all human beings in the Scriptures and in the Church.  We might ask ourselves why this understanding is so often overlooked.  I don't believe it was overlooked by our most ancient ancestors in the Church.  On the contrary, the place of the Mother of God was established from the beginning as chief among the saints.  I would suggest, rather than the conventional answer of misogyny which might easily be given, that the reason they are overlooked is because their power is so fully in serving, waiting, and attending.  They are ministers to the ministers, and they are apostles to the apostles.  Their role is no less for being so, but in a time in which astonishing and vivid action rates all praise and attention, we hardly have time for those whose service is less conspicuous, or less powerful and authoritative in purely worldly or materialist terms.   In overlooking these women, we overlook the truth of our Christian faith, and especially the witness of the Gospels and of Christ the risen Lord.  Let us nurture the things in ourselves these women most fully represent, for to ignore them is to lose the true fullness of the Church and the human beings who must be its living stones.