The Resurrection and the Angels
The Resurrection and the Angels
The Lord Christ rose from the dead in a miraculous and wondrous way, at a time known to no one. And He came out of the tomb while it was closed, with a glorified body that could pass through obstacles. And it remained to announce this Resurrection to His holy disciples.
And before the Lord declared His Resurrection by appearing to His beloved ones, He sent the angels to prepare the way before Him.
At His birth, Saint John the Baptist prepared the way before Him, and God considered him an angel, as He said: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You” (Mark 1:2). But in the Resurrection, it was not appropriate that the preparation for the announcement of the Resurrection be done by a human angel, but rather it had to be an angel from heaven to announce the Resurrection.
Thus “an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it” (Matthew 28:2).
He did not do this so that Christ could come out of the tomb, for He had already come out before that… He came out in His Resurrection from a closed tomb, just as in His birth He came out of the Virgin’s womb while her virginity was sealed… Rather, the angel rolled the stone so that people might see the empty tomb, and thus the Resurrection of the Lord Christ would be confirmed…
And the traditions of the Church say that this angel of the Lord who rolled the stone is the Archangel Michael.
As mentioned in the Liturgy of the Resurrection: “The Archangel came down from heaven and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the tomb…” And the Gospel says that when the angel rolled back the stone, there was a great earthquake. And it explains the awe and majesty of the angel of the Lord, saying: “His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men” (Matthew 28:2–4).
These soldiers trembled before the Chief of the Lord’s hosts…
Before the great Michael, chief of the innumerable hosts of the heavenly powers, whose light was wondrous and whose appearance was like lightning. It is said of the angels that they are angels of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). And in the Church’s rite, the lights in the Church refer to them…
The rest of the angels of the Resurrection did not appear in such light as was necessary to frighten the guards…
And although the guards were afraid and became like dead men, the angel of the Lord reassured the two holy Marys who had come to see the tomb. And he said to them: “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…” (Matthew 28:5–6).
Thus he announced the Resurrection to them and confirmed it…
He announced the Resurrection by saying, “He is not here, for He is risen.” And he confirmed it by two things: the first by reminding them of what the Lord had previously said—that He would “suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day rise again” (Matthew 16:21) (Matthew 20:18–19). And he also confirmed the Resurrection by saying, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” And of course they could not have seen it unless the stone had been rolled away beforehand…
Wondrous is that the Archangel called the Lord—even after His Resurrection—“Jesus who was crucified.”
This is because the phrase “who was crucified” has its importance and depth in the subject of salvation. For by His crucifixion redemption was accomplished. And His crucifixion was, and will remain through all generations, proof of His love for humanity, according to His words to His disciples: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).
And since the word (Jesus) means (Savior), then the phrase “Jesus who was crucified” means: the Savior who loves you, who expressed His love for you by His crucifixion for your redemption so that He might save you.
Thus the Lord kept the marks of His wounds…
These which Thomas said about: “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). And the Lord fulfilled this desire or condition for him and said: “Reach your finger here and look at My hands; and reach your hand here and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing” (John 20:27).
And the marks of these wounds remained even in heaven.
For despite the Lord’s glorious Resurrection, and despite His Ascension into heaven in a spiritual body not subject at all to the laws of earthly gravity (Acts 1:9), and despite His sitting at the right hand of the Father (Mark 16:19), Saint John the Apostle says about Him in his vision: “And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne… stood a Lamb as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6)… This being slain is neither a defect nor a weakness, but love, by which He offered Himself for us, and became a sacrifice of love…
And we boast in this Crucified One, and we boast in His Cross.
As Saint Paul the Apostle said: “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). Thus we place the Cross over our churches and altars, adorn all our decorations with it, sign it on our hands, sign ourselves with it, sign the food so that it may be blessed, and the priests sign the people with it to bless them. And the Cross is also on all liturgical vestments, and prayers begin with it, and ordinations are done with it; it enters into all details of our lives, remembering the angel’s phrase “Jesus who was crucified.” Truly I admire the angel of the Lord:
For when he speaks about the Crucified One, he links that with His Lordship.
He says immediately after… “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” He is the Lord, even if you saw Him crucified. We used to chant around His Cross and say: Yours is the power and the glory and the blessing and the might forever. Amen…
And we saw that the angel of the Lord had authority—as an ambassador of the Lord—to deliver a message from Him to the two Marys.
He said to them: “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead. Indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him” (Matthew 28:7). And this was the same message of Christ to them, when the Lord met them as they were going, and they held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. The Lord said to them: Do not be afraid; go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me” (Matthew 28:9–10).
The vision of the angel was a preparation for the vision of Christ.
It is difficult for a person to be surprised by seeing someone before him whom he had previously seen dead… And this is what happened with the two Marys as they witnessed the burial of the Lord. For the Scripture says concerning Joseph of Arimathea, how he wrapped Him: “Then 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” (Matthew 27:60–61).
Therefore God sent His angel to roll away the stone from the mouth of the tomb and uncover it, and to announce to them the matter of the Resurrection, and then show them the empty tomb, so that when they saw the Lord before them, they would have a psychological readiness to see Him after the angel had prepared the way before Him…
Another point we mention regarding the angel of the Resurrection is power.
The power by which he rolled away the stone, as it was said that this stone “was very large” (Mark 16:4). And it is known that angels are strong. David the prophet said about them: “Bless the Lord, you His angels, mighty in strength, who do His word, obeying the voice of His word” (Psalm 103:20), meaning that they carry out His command swiftly upon merely hearing the sound of His word.
And the mere lifting of the very great stone that was on the mouth of the tomb is not something great for an angel. For one angel in the days of Moses the prophet killed all the firstborn of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the maidservant behind the millstone, and all the firstborn of the cattle” (Exodus 12:5). He is the destroying angel.
And another angel struck a hundred and eighty-five thousand from the army of Assyria, as a result of Sennacherib’s pride and threat (2 Kings 19:35).
Another point is that the angels of the Resurrection were wearing white garments, which are a symbol of purity.
It was said of the angel of the Resurrection in the Gospel of Mark that he was “wearing a long white robe” (Mark 16:5). And it was said about the women visiting the tomb in the Gospel of Saint Luke: “Behold, two men stood by them in shining garments” (Luke 24:4). And it was said in the Gospel of Saint John concerning Mary Magdalene as she stood outside the tomb weeping, that she “saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain” (John 20:12). And it was said in the Gospel of Saint Matthew that the angel of the Lord “his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow” (Matthew 28:3).
All this indicates the wondrous purity of the angels.
And therefore we find that the priest-fathers, in the service of the Divine Liturgy, wear white garments, imitating the angels. And those garments symbolize the purity and holiness befitting the service of the holy sacrament of the Eucharist…
Even in the story of the Ascension, forty days after the Resurrection, when the Lord Christ ascended into heaven and the disciples were gazing into heaven as He went up, “behold, two men stood by them in white apparel and said…” (Acts 1:9–11).
We also notice that the angels of the Resurrection, just as they had authority to send the women with a message to the disciples, also had authority to offer gentle rebuke…
For the two angels said to the women bearing spices… in a light rebuke: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again. And they remembered His words” (Luke 24:5–8).
The angels performed several tasks in the Resurrection:
Rolling away the stone so that entry into the tomb would be easy.
Inviting the women to look at the place where the Lord’s body had been laid, to confirm that the body was not there.
Announcing the Resurrection and reminding them of the Lord’s previous words about His death and Resurrection.
Sending the women to inform the disciples about the Resurrection.
Assigning the women also to inform the disciples to go to Galilee, and there they would see the Lord.
Rebuking the women bearing spices, as though Christ were still dead and His body needed spices, while He is alive and has risen as He had said…
Comforting Magdalene as she wept, with the angels saying to her: “Woman, why are you weeping?” (John 20:13).
Through all of this they prepared the way for the appearance of the Lord Christ to His disciples, after the news of the Resurrection had become known to them through the angels’ announcement and their seeing the empty tomb…
Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Watani Newspaper on 7–5–1995
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