And the Angel Sat Down

There’s a phrase in Matthew 28:2 I’ve never noticed before, but last week when I saw it, I laughed to myself.  Here’s the verse:  “There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.”  This is early Sunday morning after Jesus has resurrected, and Mary and Martha are coming to the tomb.  

So there’s all this drama first, with the violent earthquake and angel showing up and rolling this huge stone away to open the tomb.  The guards of the tomb obviously see all this, because they are so afraid they shake and “become like dead men.” (28:4)  And Mary and Martha apparently do, because the angel immediately addresses them, telling them not to be afraid.  

But the action of the angel is what caught my attention.  After he rolls back that enormous stone, he sits on it.  He just hops up there and sits on it.  So casual, so confident, so relaxed, so triumphant.  It reminds me of Jesus’s last words, “It is finished.”  The job is done!  The angel knows what all has been accomplished and he is completely comfortable.

This action, as casually as it seems to be done by the angel, scared the people to death.  I wonder – did it scare Satan?  Did he scream and fall back, seeing that angel open an empty tomb?  Did he momentarily “become like a dead man” as the soldiers did?  Was he stunned into paralysis? Was he infuriated when that angel sat up there on the grave stone?  Enraged that he’d been thwarted and God had reversed and redeemed every evil thing he had planned?

I love that action of the angel, simply sitting on top of the stone.  It’s victorious and settled.  The angel has no fear or furtiveness about him, of course.  He knows who has just won.  He’s not standing there shouting or swinging around his flashing sword or sending bolts of lightning out.  He simply sits.  Today I want to remember this, that “love’s redeeming work is done,” and we can sit here confident, at peace, knowing Who has won.