Luke 8:1-3
1Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, 2and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
John 19:25-27
25…but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Mark 15:40-41
40There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
Matthew 27:55-56
55There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, 56among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
Mark 15:47
47Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.
Luke 23:55-56
55The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. 56Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
Luke 24:1-12
1But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” 8And they remembered his words, 9and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.
Mark 16:1-8
1When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. 5And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” 8And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Matthew 28:1-10
1Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” 8So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
John 20:1-18
1Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples went back to their homes.
11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.
Harmonizing John and Luke’s Gospel Accounts
And here is where you see the first reason that I explained to you: there’s nothing contrived about this, there’s nothing manipulated about this. It’s not some kind of a thing where they all had a common source and they wanted to make sure they worked really hard to match up every detail. It’s perspective. The sun may have risen over the eastern desert so that you could see the outline of the sun as we see it in Southern California when it’s on the backside of the mountains before we see the sun. But until the sun came over the Mount of Olives to the east of Jerusalem, everything behind the Mount of Olives, west of the Mount of Olives would have been in the shadows. From one perspective it would have been dark; from another perspective you could say the sun has risen. It has begun to dawn. And yet from another perspective, you could say that it was still dark. As the sun finally comes across the top of the Mount of Olives, the light dawns in Jerusalem.
But there’s something even more going on here than that. In fact, there is some specificity in what John says that I think is fascinating. Now, remember, John said it was still dark. Everybody else has got the sun up, beginning to dawn, crack of dawn. John says it is still dark. John says that in this way: in John chapter 20, you can look at it for a moment, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. And so she ran and came to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid Him.” Peter therefore went forth and the other disciple, John, and they were going to the tomb. Now, why am I reading that? Because I want you to notice this is one lady. This is a very singular experience. Mary Magdalene came early while it was still dark. She saw the stone. She didn’t go in. She saw the stone; she drew a conclusion that somebody had taken the body. Without ever going in to see it, she ran, came to Peter by herself. This is Mary all alone. She’s not with a group, she’s not with anyone else, and she gives the report that body snatchers have stolen the body and they don’t know where it is. Peter then, and John after processing this, head for the tomb, which is a couple of miles away. They’re probably in Bethany.
So, the point is this: Matthew says Mary Magdalene didn’t start out alone. Mary Magdalene was accompanied, the Scripture says, with another Mary: Mary, the mother of James and Joseph; Mary also called the wife of Clopas, another Mary. So, these two women, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, also known as the wife of Clopas, they start out together in the early dawn. Most likely, Mary Magdalene is the youngest of all. There are other women, right? Verse 1 of Luke 24, they came to the tomb. Who are they? Back to verse 55, “The women who had come with Him out of Galilee,” and that’s a larger group of women. So, Luke doesn’t mention Mary Magdalene in his opening section, although we’ll get to the mention of Mary Magdalene down in verse 10 in a minute.
Here’s what probably happened. The women all go to anoint the body of Jesus. Mary Magdalene starts out with Mary, the mother of James. They’re moving faster than the rest who may have been older. They’re stringing out in the darkness as they begin. The two Marys head for the tomb together. Matthew 28:1 says, “Those two Marys headed for the tomb,” kind of the first of the women. But John says, “Mary Magdalene came to the tomb,” which means she outpaced the other one. She gets there by herself according to John’s account. It’s still dark at this point and it’s light enough maybe that she can discern when she gets close to the tomb that the stone is gone. She spins on her sandals and head the other direction. She arrives in the dusky dark side of the dawn, but clear enough to see the stone is removed. She’s the first one there. Her companion Mary is somewhere back progressing in that direction. And the other women, perhaps near her, coming in the dark at a different pace.
John says that Mary Magdalene saw the open entrance and immediately left, didn’t go in, bolted. Probably didn’t go back maybe the same way the other women did, so that there’s no indication she ran into them. She heads directly to Peter and John and the apostle, and she gives this report that the body of Jesus has been stolen. That’s an assumption she didn’t check. And for that moment then, when John says it was still dark, it was the darkest part of any experience that these women had because she was the first one there. And as the others came progressively, it became light, and that’s why the other writers when the whole group comes say what Luke says, “At early dawn,” or, “The sun had risen.”
So, the timing is so wonderful, the explicitness of Scripture. The earliest one there is Mary. The rest come, verse 1, to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared. They found the same thing Mary had found. She’s there and gone, headed for Peter and John. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. This is a shocking sight. This is a stunning sight because, frankly, they had been having a discussion on the way, according to Mark 16. Listen to what Mark says. “Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen and they were saying to one another on the way, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?’“ Remember now, they were there on Friday night when Jesus was laid in the tomb, and Joseph and Nicodemus rolled the stone over the entrance. They knew it was there and they asked the question: who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? “And looking up they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large.” So, on the way they’re having the discussion. We’re going to go there, we’ve got all these spices we’ve prepared on Friday, we’re going to do our part to show our love to the Lord by putting spices, more spices on His body, but who is going to roll away the stone?
Remember that they had rolled the stone across the front. Mark 15:46 says that he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb, did Joseph of Arimathea. They had no idea how they were going to get that stone out of there.
From An Empty Tomb with an Angelic Explanation, by John MacArthur
Standing Before God, This We Are and No More 