“The guards trembled and became like dead men.” The once-dead man in the tomb is no longer dead, and those who formerly used the fear of death to shape the world now tremble and become like dead men. The fear-mongers are afraid and the death-dealers are dead. Everything is reversed! The angel tells the two Marys to “fear not” and then escorts them over the “dead” soldiers to see the empty tomb. The soldiers aren’t really dead (because heaven doesn’t use the banished weapon of death), but the old way of arranging the world is dead and the kingdom of Satan is coming down. This is Easter.
