NOTES for Mar 15:43-16:8

The women’s first reaction to the news of the Resurrection is striking: fear. Such a reaction would be understandable and expected if these were enemies of the Risen One. In this case, however, they were devoted followers who, it would seem, should only have rejoiced at the news that their Teacher was alive. Instead, they are so frightened that they are even afraid to tell the others what they have seen and heard. What is the matter? One could, of course, explain everything by the unusual and, above all, unexpected nature of what was happening. None of Jesus’ disciples actually expected His resurrection, although He Himself had told them about it more than once. It is difficult to say what the women who came to the tomb associated with the news that their Teacher was no longer there, that He had risen. Perhaps they recalled folk legends about the shades of the dead emerging from tombs. After all, when the apostles later saw the risen Jesus, their first thought was that they were seeing a ghost, a shade that had emerged from the tomb. But another explanation is also possible: the women truly decided that the last day had arrived, the very day of Judgment that would be preceded by the resurrection of the dead, who rise precisely in order to stand before God. Such an understanding of the general resurrection on the day of Judgment was widespread at that time and generally accepted in the Synagogue; the women who came to the tomb could not, of course, have been unaware of it. Perhaps they expected that judgment would soon come upon them and upon everyone living on earth. Such a prospect could not fail to evoke holy awe and, at the same time, the fear natural to fallen humanity because of its own sinfulness. None of Jesus’ disciples could yet know that their Teacher’s resurrection was only the beginning of a process that, by earthly standards, would extend over more than one millennium. And the women remain silent, afraid to speak about what they believe lies ahead.