An angel rolled the stone back so that holy fire from God could consume Jesus’ body as a sacrifice. All sacrifices had to end up being either consumed by people or by fire. For instance the remains of the passover lamb Exodus 12:10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning, anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. Most sacrifices needed to be burned with holy fire that is fire whose origin is from God not and in Leviticus 10 fire from God consumes Nadab and Abihu’s bodies but not the linen vestments the were wearing. Also, there was a lot more in the tomb than Jesus’ body and the shroud. John tells us Jesus was buried according to Jewish burial practice, so any blood that Jesus shed that could be collected e.g. on His cross, on the dirt from the base of His cross, on the crown of thorns, etc. needed to be buried with the Body. He was also washed, so that needed to be done in the tomb so that any blood washed off remained in the tomb. So When John looked in and saw only the shroud and the sudarium, much was missing, that is consumed by fire. The word resurrection means to rise of go up, in Hebrew holah the word for holocaust (whole burnt offering) means to rise of go up as the smoke from a sacrifice. So Jesus’ resurrection was His body ascending to the Father as the smoke of His sacrifice. I believe that like Adam Jesus instantly got a new body from the dirt (also an altar) that was buried with Him. The holy fire consumed the rocks, the Bloody water, the dirt, and the Body like Elijah’s sacrifice on Mt. Carmel had done.
It was dark and dawn, I believe because there had been a hard rain at the harvest a sign from heaven of God’s displeasure, like the rain when Saul was made king. The rain cleared suddenly for the resurrection as the weather cleared for Jesus when asleep in the boat, a type of His resurrection.
Now I will speculate a bit. An angel could not/would not sit on a stone that had been rolled back, because it would be a high narrow seat. Rather I believe that the stone was used by Jesus to attack Satan as David used another smooth stone to attack Goliath. I think the angel sitting on the stone was keeping Satan bound.
Another interesting note: I believe that Jesus the gardener was considered so because He was using a bucket and shovel to collect the ashes of a sacrifice that last act when cleaning up from a sacrifice, but because He was outside the tomb it was not His ashes, but the ashes of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the virgin waiting at the door with lit lamp for the return of the groom. She was slain by Satan for not allowing Satan to defile Jesus’ body in the tomb and she the new Eve was resurrected immediately following her being offered as a sacrifice as the red heifer sacrifice Numbers 19.
Grace and peace,
Bruce
