On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

——————–

This is the optional Gospel reading that can be selected to be read aloud by a priest on Easter Day (primary service), during the Year C. If chosen, it will follow a mandatory reading from Acts 10, where Peter told the Roman centurion Cornelius, “They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses.” One of two readings will accompany that, with the first possible to be from Isaiah 65, where the prophet sang, “no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in [Jerusalem], or the cry of distress.” The other possibility comes from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, where he wrote: “Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power.” Everything will be joined by the mandatory singing of Psalm 118, where David wrote, “Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter them; I will offer thanks to Yahweh. This is the gate of Yahweh; he who is righteous may enter.”

In the primary choice for the Gospel reading on Easter Day – John 20:1-18 – the focus is only on Mary Magdalene going to the tomb with spices; and, then she runs to tell Peter (and John), before returning herself to the tomb. That focus by John is on Mary as his mother, the wife of Jesus, with Jesus being John’s biological father. The difference now found in Luke, where the focus is on “the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee” is relative to a focus from the perspective of Mary the mother of Jesus. Mary Magdalene did not come from Galilee, as she came from Bethany, just outside Jerusalem. This difference does not mean that two separate trips were made by women to the tomb, as all came from a place they were all staying, which was close to the tomb. Thus, nobody travelled from Galilee or from Bethany, as all travelled from Joseph’s estate nearby, where all were welcomed to stay. Separate perspectives simply says separate groupings experienced the same event differently – with all true.

The preparation of spices would have been a group ritual for burial, in a warm environment that quickly made dead bodies smell of death. Tombs were cut into rock, and that means downward and outward, as a natural cellar that kept temperatures consistently cool. While not refrigerated, they slowed the process of flesh decay. Because Jesus had been placed in a local tomb – one never before used, commissioned by Joseph for his own burial … when that time of need came – Jesus’ corpse was to be removed on Sunday (after the Passover festival was over and the Sabbath had ended), to be transported to a family tomb. Because Luke places focus on the “women from Galilee,” this most likely says the body of Jesus was planned to be taken back to Nazareth, to a tomb near where Joseph (Mary’s husband) was laid. A trip to Galilee would take a couple of days; so, despite the amount of perfumes used when preparing Jesus for placement in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb, the heavy use of perfumes would have been to maintain that ‘never been used before’ ‘new tomb’ smell. The spices prepared by the women would be most likely to drape around the corpse, to mask any odors that would begin, once the corpse was out of a cool environment; and, Sunday was the fourth day of death (like Lazarus), so they knew how bad the smell of death was (from past histories with relatives).

When we read that the women found the tomb already opened, this would not immediately be a sign for alarm. In Mark’s Gospel, Peter remembered the women talking about wondering who they would get to open the tomb for them, which was relative to the earliness of their departure to the tomb (pre-dawn). To find the tomb opened would have been an indication that someone (possibly Joseph) had ordered the tomb opened early, knowing the body would be prepared for removal and then removed. The women did not know of the rolling stone being sealed by Pilate, with a guard of soldiers put in place near it, to ensure nobody opened the tomb without permission. For the women to then find the tomb opened simply meant someone had prepared for the arrival of family and friends, who would prepare the body for removal from the tomb.

When Luke then wrote, “when they went in, they did not find the body” and “they were perplexed about this,” they were “perplexed” by the body not remaining in the tomb. The women tried to figure out where Jesus’ corpse would have been taken. This acts as proof that there was no plan to steal the body of Jesus, to make it seem he had risen and then took off running (presumably to go into hiding). Certainly, any such talk (especially by the rubes of Galilee, who were not the brightest bulbs on the tree) would have been commonly known by those who followed Jesus; and, nobody else would come up with an idea to steal a corpse in a warm environment. By Luke writing “they were perplexed” says no one expected the body to be removed – it had been seen dead as a doornail and wrapped without life – even if someone had been told to open the tomb before dawn. To remove it from a place of coolness made no sense to the women.

When Luke wrote (as the recorder of Mother Mary’s recollections), “suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them,” this needs to be compared to John (whose mother Mary Magdalen had told him), “But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.” (John 20:11-12) In John’s account, Mary Magdalene never entered the tomb, when the other women did enter. When the other women entered the tomb and cried out there was no body, Mary stayed outside tearful, like she had been when Jesus arrived after her brother Lazarus had been buried, showing her “weeping” was from being most close to a loved one that had departed. Hearing that Jesus’ body was gone then made her run back to Joseph’s compound, to alert Peter and John. Those two then took off running, while Mary caught her breath.

Meanwhile, the other women went into the tomb and saw two men dressed in “dazzling [white] clothes.” Later, after Peter left (and John stayed … seeing his mother returning), Mary came back and looked into the tomb. Mary Magdalene then saw what the other women (who had since returned to the compound) had found standing beside them (“two men in dazzling robes”). One was in the tomb (or at its entrance), with the other outside the tomb (Jesus), not initially seen. John called them “two angels,” whereas Luke recalled Mother Mary saying “two men.” The description of “dazzling clothes” says they had no wings; so, the description of “angels” also does not bear that implication. Therefore, “dazzling clothes” (“esthēti astraptousē” literally can say, “robes flashing as lightning”) means the brightness of white light projecting from their forms, made it seem like wings spreading behind them.

Luke then says, “The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground.” The word “emphobōn” translates as “terrified,” but the core verb means “filled with fear.” To then prostrate themselves from fear says the women knew they were in the presence of divinity. They could not look upon such a celestial glow and expect to stay alive. Thus, they were filled with a fear of God (Yahweh). This element of “fear” is found in all of the Gospels, whenever an “angel” appears before humans (those specially selected to appear before), with the angel (usually Gabriel) always saying, “Do not be afraid.”

The women, afraid, are shown to say nothing to these “two men.” To then have the women be speechless means Yahweh’s “messengers” (the meaning of “angelous,” along with “angels”) knew the hearts and minds of the women. Therefore, without the women posing a question (like Mary Magdalen did, from outside the tomb, without her laying face-down on the ground), the “two men” asked them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” This question makes a most important statement, as “the living” is the eternal life of a soul; but the truth of “the living” is a soul that has been divinely elevated by Yahweh’s Spirit to have no more need for a body of flesh (the meaning of “the dead”), because the Spirit has freed it from that ‘tomb.’

The metaphor says the women had gone to a graveyard (a ‘garden’ of tombs hewn into rock) seeking a soul that was the Son, which can never die. The question posed by the “angel” suggests the women should be seeking the soul of Jesus within their souls (living entities seeking eternal life), rather than hanging around a place of death (the metaphor of a soul alone in the tomb that is its own body). The question asked why they sought a dead body (the corpse of Jesus), when they already had dead bodies that their souls were animating until their own deaths. In other words, the question said seek to find the eternally living soul of Jesus within the tomb that is your own body of flesh (and that is not found in graveyards).

This question needs to bring to mind how Jesus confused the Sadducees, when they tried to trick Jesus about whose wife a woman would be, who died after having been without issue (having born a child), after having been married to seven brothers that all died. Jesus told them that Yahweh was “the God of the living, not of the dead.” An “angel” (or “messenger”) dressed in “dazzling robes,” causing one’s soul to immediately feel fear and bow one’s face before it, says the women knew a messenger of Yahweh stood before them. The number “two” always speaks of the duality of self; so, the “two” was the soul of a woman (multiplied to how ever many were there) becoming one with a “messenger” of Yahweh. This means the soul of Jesus was the “angel” who spoke to their souls (without any need to use audible words). Jesus was the Son of Yahweh, as a Yahweh elohim, so his question said, “You have found the one you seek; so, why keep looking here?” When the “two men” then said, “He is not here, but has risen,” the truth of that statement needs very close inspection.

The words written here are these: “ouk estin hōde , alla ēgerthē !” There, the word “estin” is the third-person singular form of the word “eimi,” which states, “I am, I exist.” Rather than show the simplicity of this word’s usage as “he is,” the reference is to a soul, as an “existence.” This then has the soul of Jesus (the “angel” with each of their souls) say, “not it exists here.” This is then followed by an exclamation that says, “but it exists risen!” That says the tomb reflects a place of the body, but the absence of a soul in that tomb-body says the Spirit has rolled away the physical holds on a soul to remain entombed in flesh (released from forever being a soul trapped in a cycle of reincarnation). So, instead of continued captivity of a soul to its tomb of flesh, the divinely raised soul-Spirit had escaped that worldly hold.

This is why Easter Day reading have nothing to do with the Son of Yahweh being (surprise!) “risen,” as his soul was born risen. The story of Easter is about the souls of those who go to a tomb of death and expecting to find death still containing their souls within. The “messengers” of Yahweh were saying, their souls would be just like this empty tomb – “risen” – because they served Yahweh and His Son Jesus. Yahweh did not send His Son to do a circus trick that says, “Na na na na na. Bet you can’t do this!” Yahweh sent His Son Jesus to tell all who have faith, “Do not exist in the tomb state of a soul in a body of death any longer! Be raised to eternal salvation!” That is the message that should be preached each Easter Day.

When Luke then wrote, “Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again,” this assumes the “angels” were just as able as were the Pharisees of Jerusalem and recognize a Galilean by the poor way they dressed … OR it says these “two men” knew their hearts and minds and made themselves (their souls) have this recall of what Jesus said, and where he said it. It says Jesus of Nazareth had been with them in Galilee; so, his soul having entered theirs meant a ‘mind meld’ of mental recall being shared with each connected to Jesus’ soul.

Because of that ‘mind meld,’ where no physical words were spoken, Luke then wrote: “Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.”

With that end of their need to be present at a tomb, when they knew the body of Jesus had risen as them, the soul of Jesus had entered into their souls. The body of Jesus became the bodies of the “women” who so vigilantly stayed with Jesus’ body as it hung on a cross, then taken down and carried to be prepared for burial. The “women” had gone to the tomb with the body of Jesus (to know where to go on Sunday morning), so the raised “body” of Jesus had become one with their physical bodies. There was no purpose for them to be in a tomb as Jesus was “the living” promise that was then one with their souls. Their bodies were no longer tombs for an entrapped soul, because the body of Jesus had become their bodies, raising their souls so their body-tombs had the roll away stone that was Jesus (the cornerstone rejected by the builders of mortal death).

Here is where Mother Mary named the souls that had been “raised” by the presence of Jesus’ soul within, so each of their bodies of flesh were his soul’s new bodies – his body “risen”. They are named as “Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women.” Here, Mary Magdalene is named, so the connection to Galilee was no longer holding. “Mary the mother of James” is how Mother Mary named herself, as she knew she was not the true “mother” of Jesus, although she was the womb in which was placed an already ‘mothered’ soul. Mary was then acknowledging she was a surrogate who delivered the Son of Yahweh into the world (one of many incarnations that soul had made). The naming of “Joanna,” who is said to be “the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod Antipas’ household estate” (ref.), she was one healed by Jesus, who became a devoted follower (one of the many like her, who were not named disciples). She was believed to be a woman of means (from Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee), who helped fund Jesus’ ministry, out of love. Her name mentioned says the wife of Jesus, his biological family, his servants, and his extended family (“the other women”) had all stayed with Jesus throughout his times of trial, through deep, heartfelt love, which had then made their souls be one with his. Jesus’ new bodies of flesh were women and they came by many different names. This multiplicity IS the truth of Christianity: All true members are souls that have been raised from the dead, in bodies of flesh that have been reborn as Jesus.

When Luke then wrote the words that say, “told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them,” the use of “apostolous,” rather than “mathētōn,” says that being told the story of Jesus having been raised from the dead will never lead a soul to have faith, simply from having been told a story. A soul must see Yahweh, so two become one in divine marriage (soul plus Spirit), which cleanses one’s flesh so Jesus can make that his new body. Being told a story does not bring about this transfiguration. It is hearsay, which works until one is given the third degree questioning that screams in your face, “Were you there? Did you witness this event!”

In the same way honesty leads one to disbelief, where being questioned under oath (sworn to God to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing less) means admitting a lack of knowing Jesus is risen. Simply from being told a story by a trusted friend or family member can open one up to doubt; so, Christianity is not a matter of belief. Reading stories about Jesus – which took place roughly two thousand years ago – can never be more than “an idle tale.” This too needs close inspection.

Verse eleven states in Greek, “kai ephanēsan enōpion autōn hōsei lēros ta rhemata tauta , kai ēpistoun autais .” This begins with the word “kai,” which shows importance to follow; and, following an internal comma mark, another use of “kai” says another important statement is made in this verse. The first important statement says, “became clear before the face of themselves as it were silly talk these things spoken this”. This becomes a powerful statement that the souls (“themselves,” where “selves” equates to “souls”) of each of the women “clearly saw” the truth, from “two men” speaking to their hearts and minds. They had lowered their faces “before” the presence of Yahweh (his servant messengers), so when they rose (were “raised”) they each wore the “face” of Yahweh, although that divine “face” “appeared” as their own faces. When they “spoke” the truth to others not so divinely possessed, those “words” sounded like “folly” or “silly talk.” They began speaking “in tongues,” but not as Evangelicals like to think of that. Thus, the second statement of importance says, “the faithless were not the same,” so telling someone what to believe does not transfer to another as true faith.

This important lesson says, “One must bow one’s own soul down in submission to Yahweh. One must personally experience His presence and hear His Word spoken to one’s soul. Then one will be raised to wear the face of Yahweh before others; knowing the only way others will ‘come to Jesus’ is by doing the exact same thing themselves (where a “self” equates as a ‘soul”).”

When Luke then wrote, “Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened,” this confirms that one acting on what others say has wonderful results. Hearing is believing; but seeing brings true faith. That is why the fifth Gospel is the Acts of the Apostles.

Sitting in a church pew, crying tears into a hankie because poor Jesus died, but then was resurrected, is crying tears for oneself, who never goes to the tomb to realize the tomb is one’s own death coming assuredly. One never prostrates before Yahweh’s, as His servant, because one thinks (a curse of a fleshy brain) one is an equal to Jesus and God, simply by confessed belief. All one has to do is listen to a silly tale being read aloud in a church and then say, “Oh I believe that! Praise be to God! Get my heavenly mansion ready!” Doing that is chiseling away a nicely squared cornerstone, which will be locked into place at the doorway to one’s tomb, keeping one’s soul entombed in flesh (or the worldly realm) for as long as an eternal soul exists (forever).

Luke told us to “Go, read what John wrote … and Mark … and Matthew! They all tell of getting their disbelieving asses up and doing something!” The did that because hearing a good story told is not the same thing as proving the good in a story. Proving to oneself the truth is what leads one know the truth oneself. That is when Faith is born, which comes from a divine marriage and a possessing soul of Yahweh’s Son..

As the optional Gospel reading for Easter Day, only to be told in Year C, the same message as is found in all the stories of Easter Sunday morning is the same: to see Jesus has been raised in oneself. It does no good to only believe the story that Jesus was not in a tomb, when the stone was already rolled away when the women first arrived. That fact alone is reason to bring doubt into this wild story. Maybe the Romans stole the body, so nobody else could steal it? The point of all the Easter Day (primary service) readings is to see how those who cared for Jesus got up before sunrise, after having done the preparatory work beforehand, to go speak with “angel messengers of Yahweh.” Tell someone you spoke with an angel and see what their response is. The reason we read these stories of Faith is the same actions that bring about Faith must be continued. Belief alone is doubt buried in a tomb of death, not “the living within the dead.”