And, behold. A wonderful sight met their eyes. The following event took place before their arrival; they saw only the result. No mortal eye beheld, and no pen has recorded, the actual issuing of the Lord from the closed tomb.
There was a great earthquake. St. Matthew does not attempt to give the exact sequence of events. Probably the shock, caused by the sudden advent and action of the angel, befell as the women were approaching the cemetery.
Christ had risen before this occurrence, nothing being a barrier to his spiritual body. For the angel of the Lord … from the door. The narrator accounts for the phenomenon just mentioned. The words, "from the door," are omitted by the best manuscripts, the Vulgate, and modern editors, and seem to be a marginal interpolation.
The angel rolled away the stone which Joseph had rolled up (Matthew 27:60), not in order to afford passage to the body of the Lord, who had already raised himself, but to give the women and others entrance to the empty tomb, and to strike terror into the heart of the soldiers.
In the case of Lazarus the stone had to be removed to give exit to the resuscitated body—a natural body (John 11:39, John 11:41); in the case of Jesus such removal was not necessary, as his was a spiritual body, possessed of supernatural powers and qualities (John 20:19).
And sat upon it. In triumph, and to show that it was not to be replaced; death had done its work, and now was vanquished. Angels' appearances had always accompanied the great events in the history of the chosen people; angels had shown themselves at Christ's birth, at his temptation, at his agony; now they guard his tomb, proving that he was well pleasing unto the Lord, and was raised from the grave by him.
The narration of this awful incident was probably given by the soldiers, who alone witnessed it.