No One Home?

But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. Mark 16:3-4

The women approach the tomb with no idea how to get in, but that problem has been solved for them. Someone is home though, just not the dead body of the Lord Jesus they expected. They were alarmed by a young man clothed in a long white robe. Where the women expected to spice up a dead body sat a living young man. But it wasn't Jesus.

Here the reports begin to conflict: in Matthew, Mary sees an angel sitting on the rolled-away stone. In Luke, the women see two men in the tomb. John only reports the discarded graveclothes that he witnessed. Strangely, this accords with other startling events in life. People remember big events differently. Reports can get garbled. In fact, if an investigator receives exactly the same report from different parties to the event, he or she knows that the story has been rehearsed and agreed upon afterwards. So, with such an event as the resurrection of Jesus, we should expect to read slightly different accounts later on. Just imagine receiving the report of angel(s) from three very excited women at the same time. Was it one angel or two or even three?

The shepherds just went with, "Angels We Have Heard On High",

Bucky