Who rolled away the stone at Jesus' tomb?

from the old testament

• The stone being rolled away from Jesus' tomb is not found in the Old Testament.

from the new testament

• Only Matthew explicitly states who rolled the stone away. It reads, “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. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow” (Matthew 28:2–3). An angel rolled it away.
• Witnessing the earthquake and the angel, the guards on site: “for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men” (Matthew 28:4). Roman guards were strong, well-trained warriors. They were not “pushovers.” Their fainting (“become like dead men”) highlights this as a divine act.
• Matthew then implies that the angel looked past the guards and spoke to the women, saying, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen” (Matthew 28:5b–6a). This reads naturally, as the women were also witnessing the earthquake and the angel rolling away the stone.
• The difficulty is that in the other three Gospel accounts, the stone is already said to be rolled away (Mark 16:3–4; Luke 24:2; John 20:1). In fact, Mark records the women’s conversation before arriving: “And they were saying to one another, ‘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 back—it was very large” (Mark 16:3–4). The natural reading of those other Gospel accounts is that the women arrived after the stone was rolled away and only spoke with the angel after the fact.
• The best way to harmonize Matthew with the other accounts is that Matthew collapsed the two events together, so it sounded like the guards and women saw the stone rolled away, but in fact only the guards did. Then, after some time, the woman arrived on the scene. This is consistent with Matthew’s more compressed account of the resurrection compared with the other Gospels.
• However, the women may have seen the angel roll the stone away, but other accounts focused on the post-resurrection aspects, particularly the empty tomb. Regardless, we can harmonize the accounts by considering the authors’ differing perspectives and the theological purposes behind their Gospels.

implications for today

The resurrection culminates Jesus’ saving work, followed by His ascension into heaven forty days later (Acts 1:3, 9). Because Jesus rose from the dead, His sacrifice was proven sufficient, and salvation is secured for all who trust in Him (Hebrews 10:12–14).

Jesus’ resurrection also confirms the significance of His death. On the cross, Jesus offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for sin, satisfying God’s righteous judgment while making forgiveness possible for those who believe (Romans 3:25–26; Hebrews 4:15). He died for our sins, but He did not remain in the grave—He conquered death and rose again.

And Jesus did not need the stone rolled away to escape the tomb. After His resurrection, He appeared to His disciples even though the doors were locked (John 20:19), showing that the stone was not an obstacle He needed removed. Instead, God moved the stone for our benefit: the open tomb made it unmistakably clear that Jesus’ body was gone. Even the Roman guards were overwhelmed by the angel and earthquake (Matthew 28:2–4), and later the Jewish leaders bribed them to spread a false explanation for the empty tomb (Matthew 28:11–15).

Jesus is not in the tomb today. He is alive, seated at the right hand of the Father, where He intercedes for those who belong to Him (Hebrews 1:3; 7:25). Because He lives, death no longer has the final word for those who trust Him; Jesus holds the keys of Death and Hades and will one day return to raise the dead and judge all humanity (2 Timothy 1:10; Revelation 1:18; 20:11–15).

The stone was rolled away, not because Jesus needed a way out, but because we needed a way to look in and see the truth: the tomb is empty, Jesus is alive, and our Savior has conquered death. Praise Him!