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Welcome back, my friend! I admit it. I’m struggling to remember to pray before I begin! Even though I use the prayer card to save my place in my journal, I’m so accustomed to just pulling bookmarks out and setting them aside, I find myself digging in before I’m asking for the Spirit’s help! But I’m determined to retrain myself on this—I just need practice, right?

Here’s what I noticed about repetition, special statements, and lists in this passage.

Last Week’s Work

REPETITION

I found two repeated concepts here. First, fear (vv4,8) and afraid (vv5,10) jumped out to me right away. I’m pretty sure I noticed that repetition so quickly because I so easily relate to being afraid! Who in their right mind wouldn’t be if they saw the sight described in v2?!

Much later, I was reading the passage again and thinking about what caused their fear. That’s when I noticed four instances of see. Interestingly, although I linked fear to the sights described, the passage doesn’t—instead, the angel and Jesus both say this word to reassure the women. First, the angel tells them see the place where he lay, so they would know He wasn’t there (v6). Then he predicts they will see Jesus again in Galilee (v7).  And Jesus affirms that prediction with the same word in v10.

By the way, did you notice the angel also says, See, I have told you at the end of v7? What a strange statement! I searched the whole ESV translation to see if Matthew quoted that from somewhere else… and, in fact, he wrote in Matthew 24:25 about Jesus speaking almost the same statement after answering the disciples’ questions about the end of the age. Both statements follow a prophecy. That makes me wonder if this expression might be a way of saying, “wait and watch, this is going to happen!” After all, isn’t it possible having faith about the future—such as looking forward to seeing a dear friend again—could make one less fearful?

SPECIAL STATEMENTS

I found two types of special statements in my study. The first type is command, three of which were issued by the angel in vv5-7, with two affirmed by Jesus in v10:

• Do not be afraid (vv5,10)
• Come, see the place where he lay (v6)
• Go and tell the disciples (v7,10)

The second type is the promise made by the angel and confirmed by Jesus that they would see Him in Galilee (v7,10).

LISTS

Finally, I noticed two lists: the list of three commands to the women by the angel, bulleted above, and the three items (v7) the angel wanted the women to tell the disciples:

1. Jesus rose from the dead,
2. He is going to Galilee, and
3. They’ll see Him there.

Did you find any other repeated concepts, special statements, or lists I didn’t notice? Remember, it’s okay if we have different answers. We are confident that the Spirit is showing each of us exactly what we need to see to learn what God wants us to know from the passage.

That said, I am hopelessly curious about all things Scripture! If you’re willing to share with me, I’d love to know what you’ve discovered. Reach out to me in the comments below, or by email if you don’t want to share with the worldwide web!

Dig-In Challenges

Next week, we’ll be wrapping up Step 3 by looking for three more elements of the lesson we’re learning from Matthew 28:1-15:

1. As always, start with the prayer we wrote for Step 1.
2. MINE: Read through the passage again to see if Matthew uses any comparisons. The quickest way to locate these is to look for phrases containing the words like or as, as well as more than/ less than and better than/ worse than. Do you find any comparisons that connect directly with your personal focus area?
3. MINE: Next, look for causes or motives in the text. These are actually pretty easy to spot, but there is some thinking involved here.
   First, look for these key words or phrases: because, for*, in order to, lest, since, so*, so that, that*, to*, therefore. Finding them almost always means you’ll find an action phrase (noun + verb) with the reason for that action, too. The *exceptions are for, so, that, and to—when these are used as other parts of speech like prepositions or articles, you won’t find an action or a reason.
   Once you’ve located one of those key words or phrases, the next thing to look for is the action (what’s being caused or motivated). With most of these words/phrases, you’ll find the action before the key word/phrase, and the reason will be after it.
   For example, I went to the store because I was out of milk.
   The action = I went to the store
   because
   The reason = I was out of milk.
   Occasionally you may see the order of the statements reversed, but the reason will still follow the key word or phrase: Because I was out of milk, I went to the store.
   However, with therefore and its synonyms so and hence, the action appears after these key words:
   Here’s an example using the same reason and action as above, just changing the key word: I was out of milk; therefore, I went to the store.
   Same reason = I was out of milk [but different location!]
   therefore
   Same action = I went to the store.
   Try it, I think you’ll see it’s easier than all these words make it seem (and, of course, feel free to reach out to me at jen@jencason.com if you have questions)!
4. MINE: Finally, see if you can find any conditions/methods by asking: does the author condition the action you’re studying on something else happening—for example, if this condition is met, [then] that will happen? Or does he describe a particular method by which something happens—for example, specific steps taken to achieve something, or more generally by or through attributes or action (i.e., grace, faith)? Does he use any adverbs (-ly words) that describe how the action was accomplished?

These exercises are a little harder, but I know you can do this—I can’t want to share what I discover next week!

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