Matthew 28
Notes
Transcript
The Resurrection
The Resurrection
1 Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
2 And 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.
3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.
4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.
7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”
8 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.
10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
Jesus arose after the Sabbath was over, that is, on Sunday, the first day of the week. Matthew said, “In the end of the Sabbath” which means late on the Sabbath. Matthew was not speaking of strict Jewish time. This would mean the Sabbath had ended at 6 p.m. the preceding evening of Saturday. He was using the common day-to-day idea of time. He was simply adding the night time to the preceding day. Jesus arose before dawn, before the sun arose on Sunday morning. This was significant to the early Christian believers, so significant that they broke away from the practice of worshipping on the Sabbath or Saturday. They began to worship on Sunday, the day of the resurrection of their Lord.
7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.
28:1. It was now dawn on Sunday morning. This resurrection morning is the foundation for the church’s selection of Sunday as the new day of worship, although there is no basis for taking it to be “a new Sabbath.”
The Sabbath ended at sunset the night before. It was now permissible for Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (the mother of James and Joses, 27:56, 61) to care for Jesus’ body, although Matthew did not state this as their purpose. He merely wrote that they went to look at the tomb.
We know from the mention of the two women in 27:61 that they knew exactly which was Jesus’ tomb, as they had watched Joseph and Nicodemus place His body in the tomb and roll the stone over the opening. Therefore, no one can claim that the Resurrection was a case of mistaken identity and that Jesus is still buried in some other tomb that they overlooked.
28:2–4. These verses provide a flashback to events that had happened before the women arrived. When Matthew resumed the narrative in the “present,” as the women arrived at the tomb (28:5), they saw only the after-math of what had happened in 28:2–4.
First, there had been a violent earthquake. This was nature’s way of expressing the force of what was happening. For seems to indicate that the angel’s descent and moving of the stone was the cause of the earthquake. This was an angel of the Lord, a common phrase for God’s powerful beings. He descended from heaven, which was his point of origin. This was also a reference to the Almighty who had sent him.
The stone that would have taken several men to move was nothing to this mighty being. After he had rolled away the stone, he sat on it. This symbolized God’s conquest over all barriers to his will. The angel sat waiting for the women to arrive. He was also on a specific mission.
The stone did not need to be moved for Jesus to emerge. We know from the other Gospels that his resurrection body was capable of traveling through walls and closed doors. Rather, the stone was rolled away so others could look in and witness the empty tomb (see the place where he lay, 28:6).
The angel’s appearance was described in terms similar to those attributed to the transfigured Jesus (17:2). He shimmered like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The angel demonstrated the glory of heaven and the God of heaven.
The angel’s power and brilliant appearance caused the tough, disciplined Roman guards to shake with fear, and they became like dead men. They may have fainted from the shock. Or their intense fear may have caused them to fall to the ground paralyzed with terror.
The guards probably got up and fled as soon as they collected their wits. They did not seem to be present when the angel or Jesus spoke to the women (28:5–10), and they “went into the city” of Jerusalem some time that morning (28:11).
28:5–7. When the two women arrived, they were also terrified by the appearance of the brilliant being sitting on the stone. The angel said, Do not be afraid. Matthew used a construction that usually implies a command to stop doing something that was already being done. The women were to stop being afraid.
The angel next gave the reason they need not fear: I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. Jesus will forever be known as the crucified one. The salvation he wrought through his death, the victory he won, and the obedience he displayed will stand for eternity.
The news the angel brought them was also reason to stop fearing and start rejoicing: He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.
As proof of the angel’s startling announcement, he invited them to look into the open, empty tomb: Come and see the place where he lay. Matthew used the Greek imperfect tense to show that he had been lying there for some time. In Matthew’s abbreviated account, he did not record whether the women actually looked into the tomb, but we can be sure they did. This strengthened their faith and prepared them to serve as eyewitnesses to the disciples.
Once they had become convinced by their own observation that Jesus was gone, the angel gave them these instructions: Go quickly and tell his disciples: He has risen from the dead. These two women were given the honor of taking the news to the disciples. As it turned out, this was a difficult job. Some of the disciples doubted (28:17).
Jesus had gone elsewhere and would be waiting for them. He had gone ahead into Galilee. There you will see him. This was God’s gentle reminder of the instructions Jesus had given the disciples less than three days before (26:32). They would not find Jesus lingering around the place of his burial. There was no use looking for him in Judea. The king was in sovereign control as he had always been.
The women didn’t need to be told twice to go quickly (28:7). They were compelled to leave the tomb, afraid of what they had just experienced, and drawn on by great joy at the unbelievable news they had heard. They ran to tell his disciples.
But along the way they stopped short. Suddenly Jesus, the risen king himself, met them and said, Greetings. The greeting Jesus used was typical, similar to our hello.
Imagine the women’s awe as they approached him, fell to the ground, clasped and held his feet (note he was tangible), and worshiped him. The picture is one of speechless wonder, mixed with overwhelming adoration.
28:10. Fear was still mixed in with their other emotions. Jesus repeated verbatim the first words of the angel (28:5), Do not be afraid. His tone was authoritative and comforting, conveying the strength of security. Jesus then gave essentially the same instructions that the angel had given: Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee. He also repeated the same promise the angel had given: There they will see me.
Now the women went on their way with even more to tell. Not only had a heavenly visitor reported Jesus’ resurrection and shown them proof, but the king himself had appeared to them!
The Report of the Guard
The Report of the Guard
11 While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place.
12 And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers
13 and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’
14 And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”
15 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.
28:11. Matthew reported this episode between the soldiers and the members of the Sanhedrin as taking place while the two women hurried away to report to the disciples.
The phrase some of the guards indicated that some of the Roman soldiers hid from the authorities after the fright they had experienced. But some of them knew they would be in big trouble with the governor when he discovered they had abandoned their post. The penalty for sleeping on duty or abandoning one’s post was execution. So they came quietly into Jerusalem to the chief priests, the head conspirators, to tell them everything that had happened. This may also have been an attempt to figure out a way to save their necks.
28:12–14. The chief priests gathered other members of the Sanhedrin (the elders) together and conferred on how to handle this new development. Matthew portrayed the entire body as unified in their denial.
Their official solution? They gave the soldiers a large sum of money. Then they asked the soldiers to spread a lie. They were to say (“keep on saying,” Gr. present tense) that Jesus’ disciples came during Saturday night and stole his body while the guards were asleep.
The guards were reluctant to agree to this solution. “What if the governor hears our false report? He will have us all killed!” So the Jewish leaders, the masters of deception, assured the guards that if Pilate heard the false rumor and sought to execute the guards, the Jewish leaders would intervene on their behalf: We will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.
It is important to note that the Jewish leaders and the soldiers did not try to deny the empty tomb but only to explain it. Anyone who assumes that Jesus remained in the grave should consider this historical reality. The concocted story was desperate, raising more questions than it answered.
28:15. The soldiers agreed and kept their end of the bargain. This false and ridiculous story of the disciples’ theft and the guards’ sleep was widely circulated, and it remained in circulation even at the time of Matthew’s writing p 482 of his Gospel decades later. In fact, this remains a popular explanation of the Resurrection among skeptics even today.
Whether the guards’ failure was discovered by Pilate, and whether the Jewish leaders went so far as to intervene for them, we don’t know. It was not important to Matthew’s purpose.
The Great Commission
The Great Commission
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew did not record the meeting of Jesus with the 10 disciples later that same day (John 20:19–23) or the appearance 8 days later to the 11 disciples (John 20:24–29). But he did record an appearance occurring some time later in Galilee, where He promised He would meet them (Matt. 26:32; cf. 28:7, 10) at a mountain. Which mountain He specified is unknown. When Jesus appeared they worshiped Him, but some doubted. Since Jesus had appeared to them earlier and verified Himself to them, they were not doubting the Resurrection. There was probably simply a brief question among some of them as to whether this was truly Jesus appearing to them. There was no indication that any miraculous element was involved in His being there and since unusual circumstances had occurred with previous visits, perhaps they wondered.
Their doubts were quickly dispelled, for Jesus spoke to them claiming all authority in heaven and on earth. This authority (exousia, “official right or power”) had been given to Jesus by the Father and now He was instructing the disciples to go on the basis of that authority. Their field was to include all nations, not just Israel (see comments on 10:5–6). They were to make disciples by proclaiming the truth concerning Jesus. Their hearers were to be evangelized and enlisted as Jesus’ followers. Those who believed were to be baptized in water in the name of the Father and of the Son V 2, p 94 and of the Holy Spirit. Such an act would associate a believer with the person of Jesus Christ and with the Triune God. The God whom they served is one God and yet is three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Those who respond are also to be taught the truths Jesus had specifically communicated to the Eleven. Not all that Jesus taught the disciples was communicated by them but they did teach specific truths for the new Church Age as they went abroad. Jesus’ commission, applicable to all His followers, involved one command, “Make disciples,” which is accompanied by three participles in the Greek: “going,” baptizing, and teaching.
The final words of the Lord recorded by Matthew were a promise that He would be with them always until the very end of the Age. Though the Lord did not remain physically with the Eleven, His spiritual presence was with them until their tasks on earth were finished. These final words of the Lord were carried out by the apostles as they went everywhere, proclaiming the story of their Messiah, Jesus Christ, the King of the Jews.
