Expository Thoughts (continued)
Sabbath was our Saturday.
2. The stone rolled away. This, according to Matthew 28:2, had been the first great sign accompanying the Resurrection. At the sight of the angels who rolled away the stone, the Roman guards were first terrified and then fled. After this the women came and found the grave empty.
3. The Lord Jesus. Bishop Brownrig remarks that this is the first time in the New Testament that our Saviour is called by this name.
[Editor's note: in the New International Version, this is the second time, the first being Mark 16:19.] Lord, Christ, Jesus are names he frequently had. Here, after his resurrection as a conqueror, St. Luke calls him the Lord Jesus.
4. Wondering about this. They could not tell what to make of the facts in front of them—the empty tomb, the linen clothes lying by themselves, the body gone.
Two men. Here, as in Acts 1:10, we are, of course, to understand angels in the likeness of men. The frequency with which St. Luke mentions angels is a peculiar feature in his Gospel. An angel appears to Zechariah, an angel appears to the Virgin Mary, angels appear to the shepherds when our Lord is born—all mentioned only by St.
Luke.
8. They remembered. Ford quotes a good remark of Cecil's on this: "It is not sufficiently considered how much more we need recollection than information."
9. Told all these things. Augustine remarks that these women were "the first preachers of the resurrection of Christ."
To all the others. Who these were, we do not know. It is clear that our