Every Holy Week I find myself noticing a new detail in the readings — one year it was Pilate’s ‘astonishment’ at Jesus’ answers in the Temple; another it was Christ’s line, ‘All who are on the side of truth listen to my voice’. This year, amid the irresistible drama of the Easter Vigil, two things struck me about St. Matthew’s account of the Resurrection: firstly, the curious detail that, having rolled the stone away from the tomb and frightened the guardsmen almost to death (is it irony, even an outright joke, to say that they ‘looked like dead men’?), the angel is specifically described as ‘sitting’ on the stone — in my mind’s eye I see quite a casual pose. Then, having delivered his Universe-inverting message to the dumbfounded women — ‘He has risen, as he said he would’ — he directs them to Galilee: ‘It is there you will see him.’ But in fact Jesus comes to meet them almost straightaway, before they have even had a chance to tell the other disciples.
Crossed wires on the angel’s part, the first of millions of church muddles over the centuries? Or is Jesus so eager to reveal himself that He makes a last-minute change of plan for the sake of the women, even if the others must wait? Either way, on this third day, in this third garden, all has come miraculously right. The Devil is defeated, and comfortably, emphatically enough that the mighty stone, yesterday a sound and silent seal on death, is now demoted to a convenient park bench for his former, unfallen, fellow.
Happy Easter to one and all!
A setting of the Easter plainchant ‘Christus vincit’ by Martin Baker (until 2019 Master of Music of Westminster Cathedral) sung here by the choristers of King’s College Cambridge and the King’s Singers under Daniel Hyde. An enticing blend of sound-worlds, in that Westminster Cathedral choir has a harder, purer, more Latinate sound, whereas King’s is typically softer and warmer and more Anglican. The chant itself is a rather subversive repurposing of an acclamation originally sung for Roman generals or emperors, but now sung by Christians for the true general, the true emperor, Christ.
It's an interesting question. Angels are immaterial beings, so presumably they take visible form for our sake. So why would the angel SIT on the stone? Yes, this always seemed a bit strange to me, though I've never put my finger on it in the way you did!
ReplyDeleteI have memories of "visions" of angels from my childhood. I don't think these were actual apparitions, I think they were either dreamed or imagined, but they had such a tremendous air of solemnity and grandeur that they've haunted me since. None of them were sitting down.
It is strange, and indeed not something we particularly think of angels doing — yet it is a detail which is specifically mentioned. I take from it that victory was so complete that there was time to spare.
DeleteThank you for the comment!