1 ^aIN the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, [See John 20:1] came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. [ What Was the Time of the Resurrection? When Did the Savior Emerge from the Tomb? “Our Lord definitely predicted His resurrection from the dead on the third day, (Matt. 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; Mark 9:31; 10:34; Luke 9:22; 13:32; 18:33), and the angels at the tomb (Luke 24:7), and the risen Lord in Person (Luke 24:46) verified the fulfillment of the prophecies; and apostles so testified in later years (Acts 10:40; 1 Cor. 15:4). This specification of the third day must not be understood as meaning after three full days. The Jews began their counting of the daily hours with sunset; therefore the hour before sunset and the hour following belonged to different days. Jesus died and was interred during Friday afternoon. His body lay in the tomb, dead, during part of Friday (first day), throughout Saturday, or as we divide the days, from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, (second day), and part of Sunday (third day). We know not at what hour between Saturday sunset and Sunday dawn He rose.” (Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p. 697.)

Was Mary Magdalene the Same Who Anointed Jesus at Simon the Pharisee’s House (Luke 7:36–50), or the Same Woman Referred to as Mary of Bethany? “Mary Magdalene became one of the closest friends Christ had among women; her devotion to Him as her Healer and as the One whom she adored as the Christ was unswerving; she stood close by the cross while other women tarried afar off in the time of His mortal agony; she was among the first at the sepulchre on the resurrection morning, and was the first mortal to look upon and recognize a resurrected Being—the Lord whom she had loved with all the fervor of spiritual adoration. To say that this woman, chosen from among women as deserving of such distinctive honors, was once a fallen creature, her soul seared by the heat of unhallowed lust, is to contribute to the perpetuating of an error for which there is no excuse. Nevertheless the false tradition, arising from early and unjustifiable assumption, that this noble woman, distinctively a friend of the Lord, is the same who, admittedly a sinner, washed and anointed the Savior’s feet in the house of Simon the Pharisee and gained the boon of forgiveness through contrition, has so tenaciously held its place in the popular mind through the centuries, that the name, Magdalene, has come to be a generic designation for women who fall from virtue and afterward repent. We are not considering whether the mercy of Christ could have been extended to such a sinner as Mary of Magdala is wrongly reputed to have been; man cannot measure the bounds nor fathom the depths of divine forgiveness; and if it were so that this Mary and the repentant sinner who ministered to Jesus as He sat at the Pharisee’s table were one and the same, the question would stand affirmatively answered, for that woman who had been a sinner was forgiven. We are dealing with the scriptural record as a history, and nothing said therein warrants the really repellent though common imputation of unchastity to the devoted soul of Mary Magdalene.” (Talmage, Jesus the Christ, pp. 264–65.)]

2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. [“Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, had passed, and the night preceding the dawn of the most memorable Sunday in history was well nigh spent, while the Roman guard kept watch over the sealed sepulchre wherein lay the body of the Lord Jesus. While it was yet dark, the earth began to quake; an angel of the Lord descended in glory, rolled back the massive stone from the portal of the tomb, and sat upon it. His countenance was brilliant as the lightning, and his raiment was as the driven snow for whiteness. The soldiers, paralyzed with fear, fell to the earth as dead men. When they had partially recovered from their fright, they fled from the place in terror. Even the rigor of Roman discipline, which decreed summary death to every soldier who deserted his post, could not deter them. Moreover, there was nothing left for them to guard; the seal of authority had been broken, the sepulchre was open, and empty.” (Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p. 678.)]

3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: [ And we know that still does not explain the white. It is purer than our mortal eye can comprehend. ]

4 And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.

5 And the angel [Note that the Joseph Smith Translation of Matthew 28 states, as Luke does, that there were two angels] answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. [ Note how casual the tone of his voice is - just what was expected had happened. So why be surprised that he is not here. ] Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.

8 And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

9 ¶ And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.

10 Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren [This is the first time our Lord called his disciples by this endearing name: What meaning do you think that this phrase would have held for the disciples? That he was one of them and they with him, on the same team, coming from the same father...After all that has transpired ] that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.

11 ¶ Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch [Or guards. Probably the rest still remained at the tomb, waiting for orders to depart, and had sent these to intimate to their employers the things that had taken place. ] came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.

12 And when they were assembled with the elders, [ That is, the senators of the great Sanhedrin or Jewish council of state, elsewhere called the elders of the people; they could now meet, as the Sabbath was over. ] and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, [Why was it so important for the elders to kill the rumor of the resurrection so quickly? What problems would it casue the elders if the rumor was permitted to spread? What Attempts Were Made to Discredit the Resurrection? “The inconsistent assertion that Christ had not risen but that His body had been stolen from the tomb by the disciples, has been sufficiently treated in the text. The falsehood is its own refutation. Unbelievers of later date, recognizing the palpable absurdity of this gross attempt at misrepresentation, have not hesitated to suggest other hypotheses, each of which is conclusively untenable. Thus, the theory based upon the impossible assumption that Christ was not dead when taken from the cross, but was in a state of coma or swoon, and that He was afterward resuscitated, disproves itself when considered in connection with recorded facts. The spear-thrust of the Roman soldier would have been fatal, even if death had not already occurred. The body was taken down, handled, wrapped and buried by members of the Jewish council, who cannot be thought of as actors in the burial of a living man; and so far as subsequent resuscitation is concerned, Edersheim (vol. 2, p. 626) trenchantly remarks: ‘Not to speak of the many absurdities which this theory involves, it really shifts—if we acquit the disciples of complicity—the fraud upon Christ Himself.’ A crucified person, removed from the cross before death and subsequently revived, could not have walked with pierced and mangled feet on the very day of his resuscitation, as Jesus did on the road to Emmaus. Another theory that has had its day is that of unconscious deception on the part of those who claimed to have seen the resurrected Christ, such persons having been victims of subjective but unreal visions conjured up by their own excited and imaginative condition. The independence and marked individuality of the several recorded appearings of the Lord disprove the vision theory. Such subjective visual illusions as are predicated by this hypothesis, presuppose a state of expectancy on the part of those who think they see; but all the incidents connected with the manifestations of Jesus after His resurrection were directly opposed to the expectations of those who were made witnesses of His resurrected state. “The foregoing instances of false and untenable theories regarding the resurrection of our Lord are cited as examples of the numerous abortive attempts to explain away the greatest miracle and the most glorious fact of history. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is attested by evidence more conclusive than that upon which rests our acceptance of historical events in general. Yet the testimony of our Lord’s rising from the dead is not founded on written pages. To him who seeks in faith and sincerity shall be given an individual conviction which shall enable him to reverently confess as exclaimed the enlightened apostle of old: ‘Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.’ Jesus, who is God the son, is not dead. ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth.’ (Job 19:25.)” (Talmage, Jesus the Christ, pp. 698–99.)]

13 Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. [ Let's take a look - what would it take to perfect such a covert operation?

First there are only eleven disciples, who are terrified of the roman soldier in the first place, no skill in warfare, are going to endanger themselves against a number of well armed and trained soldiers - yet right. Oh and they did it while the soldier slept.

Maybe a guard could have fallen asleep but all of them when they were so trained that if they were found asleep it was immediate death, so being well trained soldier that would be hard to happen. Then if they would have fallen asleep the apostles were going to remove the heavy stone and the body in such silience as to not wake a single guard. Then they would to have done this with a very narrow window time wise as they would need to pull off the mission and then return without being noticed by anyone else as well.

Then if we were to believe the words of the guards - you know the one's that were asleep - if they were asleep how did they know who took the body - they were asleep. ]

14 And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. [ Pilate - we will persuade him that this will be in his own interest to join in the deception - as a result you will be safe - trust us! ]

15 so they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. [ Matthew wrote his Gospel some where between eight and thirty years after the resurrection. ]

16 ¶ Then the eleven disciples [ So we know whom Jesus is talking to here. ] went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. [ Fixed; set; established; decreed; ordained; constituted; allotted. ]

17 And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. [ an observation here is that when they first saw him coming he was off in a distance - so the doubt was - is that really him - I am not sure if it is or not! ]

18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, [ To convince them if the work that he needed them to continue, they were all that he had now to spread the word forward. ] saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. [ An authority statement from Jesus. Christ is now bridging the gap for them - he remains the power in both heaven and in earth. ]

19 ¶ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the son, and of the Holy Ghost: [ Jesus the Savior of man is telling them to now go about using the authority in administering the ordinances of the gospel, which you have been given to blees the children of men. You see that I have done as I said that I would do - now building the church is up to you - you have all that you need - so go forth. The authority had been given to the disciples earlier (see Matt. 10:1, Matt. 16:19, Mark 3:14-15, Luke 9:1, John 15:16) ]

20  Teaching them to observe all things [ Or repent, and change their character to become like him. To really take upon themselves his name. ] whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [ Or this not the same promise that we make and receive every week during the sacrament? And why wouldn't he be they are about his work, they are his disciples just as he is with them today - they are special witnesses for and of him. ] even unto the end of the world. [ If you go back to about Matthew 10, Jesus calls his 12 apostles, and then he commissions them to go out to the house of Israel. He says, "Go out to the last sheep of the house of Israel, but unto the Gentiles, do not go. Do not go there." Now we are at a time that is after the resurrection and what does the Savior tell them to do? He says, "Now go to the whole world." What has changed? What has changed between Matthew 10 and Matthew 28? The shedding of Jesus' blood. That's what changed. There's a new blood of a new covenant. That's it. And now he's wanting to invite everybody in. And Paul's going to deal with this over and over again in his letters, Galatians, Ephesians. Ephesians, he talks about Jesus "through his death, breaking the barrier, the wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles, and so we can all become fellow citizens in the family of God, not strangers and foreigners." God's trying to help us become one family. And this is the way, the surprising, shocking way that God had always planned all along that through Abraham's seed, especially Jesus, all the nations of the Earth will be blessed. And so Paul is trying to help everybody see that, both Jews and Gentiles. ] Amen.