The First Witnesses!

Matthew 28:7&8

"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."

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary approached Jesus’s tomb before dawn. A violent earthquake shook the ground as an angel descended from heaven, rolled back the massive stone, and revealed the empty tomb. The angel’s appearance was like lightning. The hardened Roman guards trembled in terror.

The angel reassured the women, acknowledging their faithful devotion. While the male disciples had fled, these women had come to care for Jesus’s body. The angel confirmed that Jesus had not been stolen or moved—He had risen from the dead, just as He promised. He invited them to see the empty tomb for themselves.

In these verses, the angel gives them an urgent command: “Go quickly” and be the first messengers of the resurrection. They were to proclaim Christianity’s central truth: “He is risen from the dead”—a physical reality, not a metaphor. The angel also instructed them to tell the disciples that Jesus would meet them in Galilee, fulfilling His earlier prediction (Matthew 26:32).

The women left the tomb with a powerful mixture of fear and great joy—awe at the divine encounter combined with overwhelming delight at their Lord’s victory over death. Despite their fear, they ran to tell the disciples, becoming the first heralds of the gospel.