Alia
1. Matthew 28 (1): The Women at the Tomb, the Angel's Message, and the Bribed Guards
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[0:05] Now, does Thomas divide chapter twenty-eight into two or into three parts? Okay. And in the first epistles of Saint John, the one that was used in the much admired, but anyway, proemium to Dei Verbum in Vatican II. If you look at the very beginning of John's first epistle,

[0:55] what was from the beginning? What we have heard, what we have seen, right? With the eyes of us, what we have beheld, and he mentions the third sense, and the hands of us have what touched, okay? About the word of life, and the life was made manifest, right?

[1:24] And we have seen, and we bear witness, and we announce to you the eternal life, right, which was with the Father and was manifested to us. And then, verse three comes back to two of those senses: what we have seen and what we have heard, right? We announce to you, right? What does Thomas use as the basis of the division of chapter twenty-eight? First, they heard, then they saw.

[1:54] Yes, right. Interesting. Perhaps the significance of the fact that what they have heard comes before what they have seen, because you have to believe, right? Belief is from hearing before you can see. Vision is the reward of belief, and that distinction and even that order of hearing and seeing, which he makes as the basis for the division of the chapter, appears again in the first part of the first part, right, where the woman hears from the angel first about these things, and later on we see Christ.

[2:36] But even with the angel alone, he first hears from the angel, then he shows them the empty tomb. So you have that same order. It's sort of Interesting. But in that first part, Thomas includes not only what they heard from the woman, right. But a little bit of stretch there, but they heard from the guardian, right? Because although they are paid eventually to deny what they first come and announce what has taken place, and of course there tends to conceal this even the way they give testimony to the resurrection.

[3:20] huh? We'll talk about when I get there. Okay. So the first part what they heard is divided into the what they heard from the woman, and then in kind of maybe a roundabout way what they heard from the guardians, right? The soldiers who were there to

[3:42] guard the tomb. So in this first part, the first part the part dealing with the woman, he talks about who the women were, right? And then the appearance of the angel, right? And then the message which the angel gives them, and so on.

[4:11] So, but later on, on the Sabbath at the dawning, which is the first day of the Sabbath, Thomas says a long discussion there about the... what does this mean, right? Because it seems to start with the evening, you might say, or Saturday, right? And go through the early dawn of Sunday, right? And any other accounts, you know, you get an account of them going in the morning, right?

[4:46] Well, one church father says they went at night, and they went in the morning, right? Another one says, well, they started to prepare it in the evening, right? And then they went in the morning. And Augustine says something like that, that you're naming the whole from the part, right? But what's most interesting about that is that it's a little bit like what you have in Genesis. Evening and morning was the first day, and Thomas notes that there is some light at this nighttime, which fits the fact that Christ would rise.

[5:27] But also the transition going from night to day, the opposite of what we did when we sinned. That's what we did when we sinned. We go from night to day to what nighttime, and so the spiritual sense there, the mystical sense, is that we're going from sin to grace. And he quotes what is it? Ephesians chapter five, verse eight. You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

[6:03] So it's signified by this. But also he points out that the things that were somewhat obscure in the Old Testament, but which in fact referred to Christ, they are now made clear, because of the resurrection, and they often refer to Christ when he spoke to the disciples at Emma's. He went through the whole scripture kind of taking all the passages that refer to him. So this is the illumination, right?

[6:37] That's coming as a result of the resurrection and understanding the sacred Scripture of the Old Testament, things that were hidden to darkness. What was that? What was the translation then? I think in the evening I think it is. Is that it? Okay, so some versions do it after. This one comes at the end of the Sabbath, but late on the Sabbath day. Isn't that the last time in John's Gospel?

[7:26] Who came? Well, there was Mary Magdalene, right, and the other Mary who apparently was the what? James. And Thomas sees a lot of significance in the fact that you have a woman here, and you have two women both with the same name, right, and with the name what? Mary, Okay. Now the significance running through the fact that the announcement is first made to women, and then they bring the news to the apostles, is that it's part of the what restoration of man, human, humankind, they say, nowadays, right, but just as our downfall begins with the woman, right, And then led the man, astray so to speak, But now the recuperation, you might say, begins with the woman, right, and then proceeds to the man, the

[8:28] same order. right? Okay, but now for the good rather than for the bad. So um, uh, just as in general, Christ, redeems man, by becoming a man, right, so in redeeming human beings he brings in women and lets them. begin with them just as they began the downfall. That's very significant. The fact that they both have the same name, the two women can represent the church of the Jews and the church of the Gentiles, and they've now become one.

[9:15] You even see significance and a likeness between what they're doing and the Great Mary, because just as what Jesus came first from the womb of the Great Mary, right, passed through walls, right. So likewise, the grave in the sense of the tomb is like another what womb is going to pass through it. Of course, when the angel rolls the stone back, he's not in there, right? So he doesn't arise by having the stone you know pulled back so he can get out, but he passes through just like he does later on around the apostles And the stone's pulled back to show he's not there.

[10:02] Remember, see years ago one of these passion plays, an imitation of Oberammergau or something like that, where they got a huge thing there that's pushed out as Christ comes out, right? But how could they represent really his coming through the? So gives you kind of as a child the wrong impression, right? That you had to push the stone away so you could get out of it, right?

[10:26] No, he passes through, and then the angel rolls back the stone, so you can see that he's no longer there in the tomb. So they came to view the grave with their, what devotion to Christ, right? They couldn't see him, at least they could see the grave.

[10:52] And now we come to the appearance of the angel, right? In the description. The first is coming down, and behold, there occurred a great what earthquake. Now, what's the significance of this earthquake?

[11:13] Thomas gives a couple of reasons in the sense of the letter. One is to simply wake people up, right, for an important moment, and the other is that God always joins something divine with the human, right? So with the human, the death of Christ, right, being in the tomb and so on, he had to join this earthquake, just like he did at the death on the cross, right?

[11:41] The earthquake and the signs showing his divinity, right? While his dying on the cross showed that he was human. But then, what else does he see here in that

[11:59] spiritual sense of the earthquake? It. signifies the shaking of our hearts, right? Yeah, but actually, more he contrasts this earthquake with the earthquake and the Christ died, and that earthquake in some sense signifies our being what freed from our sins. This earthquake has been brought to a kind of glory. and this also has a spiritual sense of the final coming of Christ, which is preceded by earthquakes and

[12:40] things of this sort. And the angel can't come without an earthquake. a fortiori when Christ comes there'll be these signs, in the elements. So an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, right?

[13:05] Now Thomas stops and says, "Why was it appropriate that an angel be involved in this? " Because it's a glorious message, glorious mystery, resurrection. There's two reasons actually. And one is the one by whom the resurrection takes place, which is by God Himself. Resurrection takes place, and the angels, as indicated here, the angel of the Lord, right? They are what His messengers, right? So it's appropriate that the angel do this because he's tied up with the one who's responsible for resurrection.

[13:53] But also the angels, as we see earlier in the book in the gospel, they minister to Christ, right? So the one who rises from the dead is the one to whom the angels have ministered before. So that's the second reason why it's appropriate that. an angel be involved. And then the third reason is that you're joining what earthly things with heavenly things. Those are a few reasons Thomas gives in the commentary here.

[14:24] But other times they talk about how the angels assume a human form, right? To show their what association, and society with us. As Christ said, you know, the guy said about the seven bodies or seven husbands um, will be like the angels, right? Okay, that's kind of implied in the heavenly.

[14:57] Now what did he do? Well, he came and he rolled back the stone from the door, right? And this stone can. um, I mean, since the letter here, the reason why he did this was so we could see that Christ had risen, right? Because Christ is not coming out this time, right? He's come through, the stone, right? But uh, we have to be able to see inside the tomb, so he rolls back the stone.

[15:27] The spiritual senses may be that the stone represents the law which is given to us, which is involved in this law, and we have to see the law.

[15:40] Its fulfillment in Christ, and he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. And he sat upon the stone, right? Okay. Thomas sees significance in the fact that the angel sits. Well, what am I doing there? Yeah, that's appropriate for the one who teaches to sit. And my great teacher there, Charles De Koninck, he always sat and lectured. And even he gave a public lecture.

[16:13] one time being in the Palais Montcalm in Quebec, you know, which is a huge place, I mean there's thousands of people in there, right? And he's sitting down there giving this. And the first time I met De Koninck on the lecture tour down in the United States, he'd sit down every time he lectured. He said people are more relaxed when you sit down. say, You stand up, I don't know."

[16:38] But I mean, I always think about him because the angel here is the teacher of the resurrection. So as a teacher, he sits. Of course, we see that with the, the word cathedral. Cathedral gets his name from like the chair of the bishop. The bishop, the chair signifies, among things, he's the teacher. of his people, right? Now he has two other meanings that he sees in the angel sitting.

[17:13] It signifies also, like power, authority, right? And that's shown in many texts you know when he ascended and sat at the right hand of the Father and so on. But even in our in our court system, say, doesn't the judge sit when he gives a sentence? I mean, the poor guy who's going to trial, he stands up, right? And and the defending lawyer stands up too, right?

[17:50] But the judge, I think, sits. when he proclaims his. Judgment, yeah. So it's the authority there. But then the other sense he sees in the angel sitting is that when you sit you are at rest, right, and now with Christ's resurrection, and so on this anticipates our final rest eternal rest, right? Are we walking around, or are we sitting. My old teacher used to always quote Thomas.

[18:30] The man sitting becomes wise. The man running around does things, right? The man standing up, right. But that's why when Stephen sees Christ, he stands upright. He's about to do something, right? But the man sitting becomes wise. The next life, will be what contemplating God, right? So it'll be like those sitting, and becoming wise and being wise. So those are the three reasons he gives.

[19:04] But in regard to that second reason he gave, and then the third reason he gave, this signifies his authority, right? Then he sees another meaning in the stone, right? And this now is the stone is the devil, right? He sits upon the devil because he now has what the devil is quashed, so to speak, right? By Christ's death and resurrection, he's overcome, right? So,

[19:33] a signification there for the angel sitting. That's when he speaks to you, the man thinking, and the man is sitting there thinking, yeah, yeah. But he's sitting down, right?

[19:52] Okay. Now he gives the rest of his dispositions. Thomas says his face was what as lightning, and this signifies both the the light of the of the angelic mind, which is a lightning that sees things so clearly.

[20:19] Remember when Moses came down from the mountain? How they couldn't look at his face because it shone so brightly, and they had to put a veil over his face it was too bright. To look at him, Well, this is true of the angel who sees God face to face. It represents that. It also represents something of that power and authority, right?

[20:43] To the wicked, huh? There's a certain fear there in the lightning? Imagine if you see Christ then, right? You get a piece of that lightning.

[20:59] And his dress or garments were white as snow. Here it says snow, right? I think that's interpolated in the description of Christ. Yeah, it said snow there, but some of the text says crept in snow. And this signifies what, innocence of life.

[21:28] You take this as anticipating the last coming now. lightning is a word to the wicked, and snow, comforting right to the uh to those who are saved. And the last thing, he talks about before he gives the message of the angel, is the effect this has upon the guards, right? The ones guarding him were shaken from the fear of him, right? And he became as those what dead, which Thomas says was appropriate because it was life itself in the tomb, right?

[22:10] And, uh... Now we get the message of the angel? Thomas stops in that first word in Greek, apokritheis, and answering, right? And Thomas says, "Well, they didn't say anything, woman. Scared too, but he's answering their

[22:34] desire. Yeah, that reminds me that you know Thomas is explaining the psalms sometimes. Some days in the psalms you have a prayer, right? And then God answers the prayer, right? Other times you have a desire expressed, and God answers the desire, right? He answers the heart, not only the prayer but also the intention of the person. something like that here.

[23:03] And the angel said to the woman, "First of all, do not fear, right? " He's trying to calm them down. Thomas compares that to the angel with Zachariah, or even you know he appears to Mary, for the Annunciation. I mean, I was in Europe here. I don't know exactly what it was. It seems to be, but you see, you know, hundreds of Annunciations, right? This one Annunciation's got the angel here.

[23:39] Of course, it's got Mary here. It's got a little wall. It's got a servant girl here, and the servant girl has kind of dropped her her implements, and she's kind of listening, you know. When I first saw it, I looked at it and said, "Just that she's listening in on what's going on in this other room." And then I got some book there, some. descriptions of the things there—that's what it is, right?

[24:01] She's dropped her sewing basket or her implements of household tasks, right? And she's trying to catch it. So that's the first time I've seen that in an enunciation. You ever seen that? Uh, this is the first time I've ever seen it. I mean, I've seen hundreds of ones of the evangelical in all these churches in the Annunciation, but this is the first one where a little bit of I don't want to say poetic license, but painter's license, right?

[24:28] They have this little servant girl in the next room there trying to catch it. Yeah. On in the next room. But but Thomas says whether a good angel or a bad angel or a devil appears, it's going to be what fear, right? But the good angel will calm you and make you composed, while the bad one will not, right? He disturbs

[25:07] So he commends in a sense what they came there for, right? But not their lack of belief so far. I know that you seek, right? Jesus, the one crucified, right? Well, he's not here, right?

[25:28] Notice now the order. of the next words He kind of proves it by word of Christ, right? He was raised or he arose, as he said, right? Okay.

[25:45] And then come see the place where he lay. You have a little bit of that here that Christ said. Now come and see. right? But that would be in a larger cycle, you go from hearing the angel to actually seeing Christ, and the woman, right? And then the whole chapter, right? the apostles hear, and then they see. So it's kind of interesting that division, Thomas. Because notice it's

[26:22] repeated in smaller and smaller parts of the chapter. So come see the place where he lay, right? And now the message of the angel, and going quickly, right? Tell his disciples that he was raised from the dead, right? Second part of the message. And behold, he goes before you into Galilee. There you will see him. Behold, I told you right.

[27:04] Now Thomas will come on this going to Galilee. He'll say a lot of things about that. One is why he's going to go to Galilee to be seen. Why?

[27:23] Well, as far as the sense of the letter is concerned, it's because the one who has written the one who has risen from the dead was accustomed to spend time with them, especially in Galilee. He wants to go to familiar surroundings. Right. Secondly, they're more secure in Galilee than Judea, they're less threatened by the chief priests and so on. Right. So those are two reasons that kind of have the sense of the letter.

[28:00] There's a spiritual sense he sees in that because, from the church fathers, he interprets Galilee to be a transmigration and he mentions three transmigrations, you might say, in various texts. One is we have to go from sin to grace in order to see Christ. right? So our going from Jerusalem there to Galilee right, is going from sin to grace to see Christ. right? could also be a transmigration from this mortal life to the next immortal life where we see him as he is.

[28:45] And um... Refers to the going over to the Gentiles. Yeah, he's going to see it so as going from the Jews to the Gentiles.

[29:02] Now Thomas also raises a question because some of these texts, if all you had was Matthew, you might think, well, they didn't see him until they went to Galilee, right? Thomas, there following Bede and others, right? He mentions you know he was seen. How many times on the day he rose. Yeah, He was seen five times on the day he rose, right? And that would be in Jerusalem.

[29:42] And five ones first he was seen by Mary Magdalene, right? and there's an account of that in Gospel Saint John. Because Luke mentions also doesn't give an account of this being seen by Mary Magdalene, but he was first seen by Mary Magdalene. He says that, and the second appearance is one that Matthew will narrate here to the woman where he places his feet to worship him and so on Now, perhaps the third in time, there's one that Thomas says record an account of that, but it's mentioned in Luke, the disciples of Emmaus, come back to the apostles, and they say that he's been seen by Peter, right?

[30:40] And Saint Paul, in the fifteenth chapter, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, mentions that he was seen by Peter. That might have been the third time, but on the day, and the fourth one is with the disciples of Emmaus. And the fifth one is when he appears to all the apostles with the exception of Thomas is not. Now

[31:23] there are five other appearances that are mentioned in the gospels, and one is the time when he came back to the theater, and Thomas was present there. Another one was up at the Tiberias right Okay.

[31:47] Now the one in Mark, where he's upgrading them, right? Thomas takes that and Peter does too as a second one, right? Because Thomas is there, because he's upgrade them all it's a group. Okay. And then there's the one we'll get later on in Matthew, who's on the mountain there, giving the command before the second ordination, you know, baptizing them, so. And then the last one is the one in John, essentially, which is found in John, essentially.

[32:28] So you have altogether ten appearances in an account of or mention of these appearances in the gospels. And then Thomas refers us to chapter 15 there in Corinthians, where Saint Paul speaks of some of these ones. Wouldn't

[32:55] they be the same? Then he mentions an appearance to Jacob, right? James, and then one to five hundred, James, and last of all to Peter, right?

[33:15] So there is mentioned then at least three other appearances, right? But one, let's see, the twelve in chapter eight, Manchester, the to take five hundred to James. Just look for a second those passages by the head. In Luke,

[33:42] the passages later on. Yeah, verse 34. This is you know the end of the apostles have come back and Emma son to count there

[34:29] which is before that right so three or three says and he rose up the same hour and he turned to Jerusalem and found the eleven gathered together and them that were with them saying the Lord is visiting thee and half appeared to what Simon right

[34:49] And then you go over to first Corinthians chapter 15 About verse four and five there we say you know Christ died for us and so on he was buried he rose again the third day according to scriptures and then number five says and he was seen of Cephas right of Peter number twelve right

[35:24] so perhaps the appearance to Peter although we're not told explicitly was before the appearance of Emmaus that's an important appearance twelve or called the twelve there's only eleven of them right significant that

[35:40] number and after that in verse six he was seen of about five hundred there that's right and then he was seen of what James right then all the apostles that maybe one of them

[35:57] talked about before the last of all maybe right so it's about at least thirteen appearances that are touched upon or described in scripture gospels in the gospels themselves ten I mentioned five on the day and significant the five wounds right at your fingers

[36:34] so if you just had this text here of Matthew right the thing that he didn't appear to them until they went together right so now the women go forth

[36:55] and they departed quickly from the sepulcher In fact we're saying now chapter 28 and they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy and did run to bring his disciples word Thomas sees a spiritual sense in that right. Going out of the sepulcher, soul going out. Sin, you repent quickly of sin. Quickly of sin, and fear is the fear that you sin,

[37:35] having not fully forgiven, right, or the fear that you might fall into it again, and so on. The joy that you have got resurrection from sin,

[37:47] but they had fear because of the angel, the joy, the message of resurrection makes a sense in the letter, but the spiritual sense is the fear one should have for a one's sins, even they're forgiven, right, there's still a way of falling, so joy or resurrection from sin. You're supposed to run quickly, trying to progress from virtue to virtue, right? And share because of all this, what did they see And Jesus meets them right,

[38:27] and what does Jesus say? That's where the translation in this text here, but a pirate day, Greek meaning, but the joy. I don't know what the translation is here. With these translations here, people, pirate, and the joy. That's the way Thomas understands it. So the Greek word means taking the Greek word down himself. Yeah, these parallels. These are we're back in verse eight, caras, caras, right?

[39:41] Well, I don't. Thomas is a little confused there as to what the Greek word is. I mean, the Greek word he says means joy, and that's a different Greek word.

[39:55] So you rejoice in the resurrection, right? It's too good. So they approached and held him fast by the feet, right? Worship, In the spiritual sense here. as the sinners here what? approach God, they might be illuminated, right? Should cling to God, huh? Should cling to Him. Then Jesus gives them a similar message to what the angel gave. Then Jesus said to them,

[40:45] "Fear not, go ye and announce to my brothers, go into Galilee, right, and there they will see me." Then we explain why what it meant to go into Galilee. Mentally, we'll go there. Literally, to Galilee, it's not fully. But also, in spiritual sense, right? Galilee transmigration. But Thomas stops on the word, "What?" Twice adelphois to my brothers, right? And there's three reasons why he calls the apostles my brothers.

[41:29] The first one is that having risen from the dead, which is an unusual thing for human beings to do, might think that this is not a man, right? So he calls them brothers because he shares the same nature. We're all what men, human beings, right? Even this one who is risen from the dead, right, is a human being. That's one reason why he calls them brothers. The same nature.

[42:01] The second reason is that we're brothers in grace, right? And the third reason, some would think to that, is that we are co-heirs, heirs of God, and co-heirs of what Christ,

[42:21] raising us, getting resurrection. So now he calls us brothers because we share His inheritance. Inheritance of God. So those are three reasons Thomas gives why he's called the priest of us sinner's brothers.

[42:39] Let's go back for a second to verse nine, and something I forgot to mention. Thomas touched upon the fact that they actually touch Christ here, right? They hold him by the feet, right? And in that first appearance to Mary Magdalene, he said, "Yeah, Noli me tangere yeah it's a Latin there And Thomas gives a more subtle explanation of that in the Gospel of the Gospel John, which we'll need to get to that going down that.

[43:15] He does quote Augustine saying that Mary at first doubted, and she wasn't there for not worthy of touching the right. But now doubt has gone away, right. And now she can touch it out.

[43:45] Most women are more humble in some sense than men that kind of craft. keep right. Now we come to the second part of the first part, right? Where we and perhaps the apostles sometimes about right, and we're going to hear about this. Should be like soldiers, right?

[44:19] And as they're going, behold, some of the guards coming into the city announce to the chief priests everything that happened, right? And then they're speaking the truth, right?

[44:31] But now we're going to have the first the evil of the priests and song and, the elders, and then the corruption of the soldiers, right? The corruption of the populace who might believe the false story of the soldiers, right? It all begins with the chief priest here, so on. First, even notice they all got together, right? Recent parents, this

[45:07] might say, together with the elders. They took counsel, right? So it's not a sudden act, right? It's deliberation. And they use the money which not used for this purpose, right? And they try to see everybody, right? They give money to the soldiers, saying, "Say that the disciples came in the night, right, and stole him while you were like sleeping, right." This is a rather flimsy thing, and Thomas does two things there.

[45:47] One, he quotes Augustine very briefly, says, "Were you awake or were you asleep? If you are awake, then they couldn't have done it, right? They couldn't have done it. If you were asleep, you didn't know what happened. "

[46:00] But the other one, which is from Chrysostom, yes, this goes into the little things about that. First of all, the apostles were scared stiff, right? They're paralyzed here, right? Because I'm lucky they would come and try to. Steal the body, right? And if they did, they would have come before the guards did. But the scientists, well, yeah, I wasn't right away, right? And third, Thomas was in his class.

[46:35] Remove the rock would have been quite an act. Considering that I'd be able to be done without waking the guards if he were dozing or something. And then third, and then fourth, and last, the garments of Christ were left in there, right? Which would not be something you do in a hurry, right? And they probably would stick to this, but of his body, right? So he's if he moved in

[47:03] it, how they locked up his hands. So the case is pretty good that he rose from the dead. This is rather rather flimsy, so in a sense, there are flimsy stories. But in a sense, it's confirming, right? That he rose. Now I was mentioning a thing again about CS Lewis there in one of his other biographical things. He was an unbeliever at one time, right? Accepting resurrection, just somebody you know who's walking across the campus there, extemporarily, what's keeping you?

[47:36] I think they said, you know, you know the proof for the. Those were actually pretty good. And CS Lewis said, "I have sinking feet inside." You know, just would this be true? You know, and so interested, you know. But you can see something of that here, right? But every so while, you know, as a professor, I get all these you know advertisements for books, you know, and every year you get at least once a year you get some of Prometheus books.

[48:09] These are kind of Prometheus books, so yeah, Prometheus is a great symbol of atheism, right? And the one that Marx took over Prometheus, because Prometheus revolted against the gods. Now, but he always has something in there like the Passover plot or something, you know. There's always a book in there about Saint John the Baptist or somebody, or you know, pop it up some some kind of bolster.

[48:41] There goes to pick up on the story. So and they said, of course, we'll make excuses for you, right? Pilate and, so on. Thomas says, "Well, why would they be able to do that, but Pyle probably didn't care one way or the other, so that they." could uh excuse him.

[49:18] So taking the silver, they did is they were like taught, right? The corruption. then of the high priest means the corruption, of, the soldiers, and then in some way the Jewish multitude, right? This was spread among the Jews. to this very day, right? Until Prometheus. Books are considered.

[49:47] Now that's the end of the first half of the chapter. The apostles heard from the woman, and some more things they asked.