Angelic guards

Some of the guards from the tomb go back to the city to report to the chief priests ” all that had happened.”  Presumably, tbhey said, “there was a severe earthquake, and an angel descended from heaven, and rolled away the stone, and he looked like lightning with garments like snow, and we fell down like we were dead.  Then some women came and the angel told them that Christ has risen” (cf. Matthew 28:2-7).

That is, the soldiers turn evangelists of the Risen Christ.  Matthew underscores the irony by using the verb apaggello, which obviously contains the word aggelos , “messenger.”  This is the fourth time Matthew has used the verb in a few verses.  The women run away from the tomb to “be angels” to the disciples (28:8); as they run along to “be angels” (28:9), Jesus stops them and tells them to “be angels” to the brethren.  And while they are rushing off to do that, the soldiers are entering the city to “be angels” to the chief priests.  Four uses, a hint that there will be angels to the four corners of the world, spreading the report about Jesus’ resurrection.

Some preach from envy, some from strife, some from selfish ambition.  But, in pretense and in truth, Christ is proclaimed, which is a cause for joy (Philippians 1:15-18).