I have read that Jesus’ appearance first to the women was the full circle correction of the first sin in Genesis 3. In fact, St. Thomas Aquinas was one who thought and taught this.
But Christ appeared to the woman first, for this reason, that as a woman was the first to bring the source of death to man, so she might be the first to announce the dawn of Christ’s glorious Resurrection.
Summa Theologiae
I like this thought quite a bit. It matches, somewhat, the idea that the soldiers who tortured Jesus inadvertently declared Jesus’ triumph over the curse on the ground, “the ground is cursed because of you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, …”
What I like even more about what happened is that the women were the first to see Jesus because they were the first to arrive on the scene, driven past any fear or despair they might have felt, by their love for him.
And so, we have reached the end of Matthew’s account of Jesus’ life, reminded of what Jesus commanded us to do … to go and make disciples, baptizing, and teaching. Yes.
