The Resurrection of Christ

Thankfully Matthew’s gospel does not end with chapter 27. The story of Christ would be a tragedy if it ended with His death and burial. Chapter 28 is the most important chapter in the book. It describes the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. If it were not for the resurrection the story of Jesus would not be good news. In fact Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:14-19 that our faith is in vain, Christians are liars, we are in our sins and we are miserable if Christ is not risen. Therefore, the resurrection is a pretty important event.

The resurrection was an important part in the preaching of the early church. Peter preached the resurrection of Christ in his first sermon after Pentecost (Acts 2:24). In subsequent sermons he also preached it (4:10, 10:40). He made reference to the resurrection of Christ in his epistles as well telling us that the resurrection of Christ gives believers a living hope (1 Peter 1:3-4).Paul made the resurrection of Christ a gospel theme as well. In the book of Acts he declared Christ as risen from the dead (Acts 13:30, 37). His letters are full of references to the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection was the ultimate proof to the early church that the gospel was indeed the truth.

v.1 Chapter 28 begins with the Sabbath day ending. As the sun began to rise the first day of the week arrived. The Jewish people did not have names for each day of the week. They simply counted them from the Sabbath day. The Sabbath (Saturday) was the seventh day. Therefore, Sunday was the first day, Monday the second, etc. So Chapter 28 opens with the dawn of Sunday. Several women made their way to the tomb of Jesus. Matthew mentions two of them. These were the women that were watching as Joseph and Nicodemus prepared the body of Jesus for burial (27:61). Along with Mary Magdalene and Mary mother of James and Joses there were other women present. Mark 16:1 tells us that Salome (mother of James and John) and Joanna were present (Luke 24:10) at the tomb as well. Luke 24:1 tells us that they had come to further anoint the body of Jesus. I don’t know how they thought they would get to the body. It was sealed by the Roman government. But perhaps they were hoping they would be granted access for religious and personal reasons. Under supervision they were hoping to anoint the body of the Lord. Their love and devotion for the Lord is obvious.

v.2-3 Matthew records that there was another great earthquake. One had already occurred days earlier at the cross (27:51). This earthquake is connected with the rolling away of the grave stone. The Scripture says an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and rolled the stone away. He then sat upon the stone for all to see him. This angel had broken the Roman seal and not fled in fear. He sat upon the stone for all to see that it was him that broke the seal. Verse three describes his countenance. He shone with the glory of the Lord. His countenance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. This implied brightness, a glow that surrounded him.

Some have assumed that the angel came to let Jesus out of the tomb. I don’t think this is the case. In fact I believe Jesus was already out of the tomb. The stone was not rolled away to let Jesus out. It was rolled away so that the women and the disciples could look inside and discover that Jesus body was gone. Jesus needed no assistance in getting out of the grave. The angel and rolling away of the stone was for the followers of Christ.

v.4 The appearance of the angel coupled with the earthquake invoked great fear in the guards. In fact the events were so shocking to them that they violently shook and became unconscious. What a sight that must have been. The powerful Romans lying on the ground passed out from shock and common Jewish women remain standing.

v.5 The angel spoke to the women for comfort. He tells them not to be afraid. This implies that they were! That was the case in Scripture practically every time someone encountered an angel. They are such powerful and brilliant creatures that they intimidate mankind. Perhaps the women thought that the angel was there to protect the body of Jesus and they were in trouble for trying to touch it. I don’t know. But the angel tells the women that he knows why they are there. He knows that they are looking for the crucified Christ.

v.6 The angel tells the women that Jesus is not in the tomb. He then tells them that Christ has risen from the dead. He even invites them to look into the tomb and see for themselves that it is empty. I think it’s important to note that the angel says “He is risen, just as He said”. Christ had continually told His disciples that He would rise from the dead but they just didn’t get it. So now the angel invites them to see something tangible to encourage their faith, the empty tomb. It is sad that we will not believe the Word of the Lord. So many times we need something tangible. But we need to remember that the Word of the Lord is enough. If He says it we can trust that it is true.

v.7 The angel commands the women to go and tell the disciples that Jesus has risen. They are not to hesitate. They are to go quickly. The message they are to give the disciples is that they are to meet the Lord in Galilee. Jesus told the disciples He would meet them in Galilee after His resurrection before He died (26:32). Jesus would meet with the eleven corporately to give them their marching orders. Those orders are in 28:18-20. That is not the first time that He appeared to them however. Peter was the first disciple to see the risen Lord (Luke 24:34, 1 Cor. 15:5), Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus (24:31), to all the disciples except Thomas on Sunday evening (John 20:19) and to all eleven eight days after that (John 20:26) and a number of the disciples on a later occasion (John 21).

It does seem interesting that the first to see the resurrected Lord were women. We may ask “Why?” I think the answer is pretty simple. They were there. Had the disciples been there, they would have seen the resurrected Lord. The women at the tomb reveal a deeper devotion than even the disciples. There is some application we can draw from this. The closer we are to the Lord the more we will see of Him. Think of Thomas. He decided not to go to the assembly of the eleven on the Sunday night after Jesus died and guess what he missed. He missed seeing the resurrected Lord. Stay close to Christ even when days are dark and you may see some awesome things happen. Stray from Him and you may miss some things.

v.8 The women did just as the angel told them. They immediately left to tell the disciples. They were filled with emotion. The text says they had “fear and joy”. The fear was the result of being in the presence of an angel. It could possibly be fear of the religious leaders and the Roman government as well. But they also had joy. They had joy because they now had hope that Jesus was indeed alive. Their excitement is obvious as well in that they run to the disciples.

v.9 As we study all four gospels we are able to piece together a timeline of what happened. Mary Magdalene had not been with the other women when the angel appeared to them. She had went and told Peter and John that the grave was empty. Peter and John came to the tomb, along with Mary and recognized that Mary was telling the truth. They left and Mary Magdalene stayed behind. An angel then appeared to Mary and then the Lord Jesus appeared to her (John 20:16). Mary then went to the disciples to tell them (John 20:18).

As all of this is taking place the other women are en-route to tell the disciples what the angel told them. At this point they encounter Jesus. He gives them a simple greeting. They immediately recognized who he was and fell to their knees worshipping Him. They even grab hold of His feet. This proves that Jesus was not simply a phantom or a spirit. He had risen with flesh and bone. They were not hallucinating. They were in the presence of Jesus.

v.10 Christ calms the women’s fears. He tells them not to be afraid. They have been through a lot on this day! He commands the women to take a message to the disciples. Note the intimacy with which Jesus describes the disciples. He calls them brothers. God’s grace is evident here. You would think the Lord would want to find a new group of guys, or commission these women! But the eleven are still His chosen ones. They are to go into Galilee and wait on the Lord. They will see Jesus there.

Galilee is the region in which Jesus was raised. It was also the region in which He did most of His ministry. It would the region that the Lord commissioned the disciples as well. The elite in Judaism looked down on this region. Matthew 4:15 calls it “Galilee of the Gentiles”. There was a large population of Gentiles in this region. The message of Christ was for the lowly and the Gentiles as well. Perhaps that is the reason Jesus chooses to commission the disciples there.

Thoughts to Consider

1. The Gospel’s do not end with the death of Christ but with the resurrection.

2. No power on this earth can hold back the will of God.

3. If you want to know things about God that others don’t stay close to Him!

4. Christ arose in a body.

In Chapter 28:1-10 we see the resurrection of Christ and the miraculous events that surrounded that event. The resurrection of Christ cannot be overstated. It is not simply a part of the story. it is the story. If Christ is not risen then Christianity is simply a fable. Jesus would be no different than any other religious figure in history. The religious leaders knew that. Matthew inserts an event that illustrates how far the enemies of Christ will go to convince the world that He is not the Savior. This event is a useful one for us because it serves as a reminder that the world will do what it can to keep Christ in the tomb. Even if that means concocting lies and denying logic and clear facts.

v.11 “They” here refers to the women that Christ had spoken to after His resurrection. We see them in verses 5-10. They were on their way to speak to the disciples. Jesus had told them to go and tell the eleven to meet Him in Galilee. The Roman soldiers at the tomb of Jesus were now in a dilemma. It would only be a matter of time before word spread that Jesus had risen. The first place people would go would be to the tomb to see if it was indeed true. The Roman soldiers were stationed at the tomb and they would have some explaining to do.

Most people believe that there were only two guards at the tomb. Probably because of paintings and Easter plays that we have seen. But the Scripture is clear that there were more than two guards present at the tomb. Look at verse 11. It says “some of the watch came into the city”. That means that some of them stayed back. The language would suggest that there were at least four present and probably more. When Peter was arrested Herod had 16 Roman guards watch him (Acts 12:4). The Romans generally stationed at least four guards to keep watch during the night. The night was broken up into four watches. A watch was anywhere from 2-3 hours. While one or more guards watched, the others slept.

The guards that went into the city immediately reported to the chief priests. They probably figured it was safer to go to them than to go to Pilate. Going to Pilate with the news would probably mean losing their lives. They told the chief priests “all the things that were done”. That would be the events mentioned in 28:1-4. There was an earthquake, an angel, the stone rolling away and them becoming as dead men. What a story they had for the chief priests! These guards were in great fear (4) because of the events they had witnessed. Now they were confused and concerned about their own safety.

v.12 You would think this would be enough to convince the religious leaders that Jesus is the Messiah. However, they had willingly shut their eyes to the truth of God’s word and God’s work. Nothing could convince them that Christ is the Messiah. In response to the news from the soldiers they call a meeting of the Sanhedrin. They “assembled with the elders”. “ Taken counsel” means that they made an official decision together as a group. In verses 12 -14 we see the decision of the Sanhedrin. They decided on three things.

First, they decided to bribe the guards. Verse 12 says that they gave the guards a large sum of money. I thought how interesting that they paid the guards more than Judas. But it would have been large probably because the soldiers were splitting it among themselves. Judas was one person. We don’t know how much money was paid but we know it was large. It makes you wonder how accustomed these religious leaders were to giving bribes. In Matthews’s gospel we see them doing it twice. They were certainly not being good stewards of the money entrusted to them by the Jewish worshippers. God’s money was being used to do the devils work. We should also notice that these Roman soldiers were easily bought. It is amazing how money can blind a person. They didn’t care that a miraculous event just occurred. It was an opportunity to profit financially and that was all that mattered.

Second, they enlisted the soldiers as the spreaders of their lie. In verse 13 they instructed the soldiers to tell people that the disciples stole the body of Jesus were they were sleeping. The soldiers would be the only ones that could say what happened. After all, they were the only ones there. Now this tactic was dangerous because it meant that the soldiers had to admit they had fallen asleep on the job. But they really didn’t have any other explanation on how it happened. There had been no fight, no one injured. So zealots couldn’t be blamed.

Third, they would protect the Roman soldiers. The Sanhedrin was used to getting their way with Pilate. The religious leaders promised that if the governor wanted to harm them they would intervene and plead the case for them. The religious leaders didn’t care for the soldiers. That wasn’t their motive. It was more of a “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” These two groups of evil men needed one another so they united in a Satanic scheme.

v.15 The Roman soldiers agreed to the plan. What else could they do? They would become the evangelists for the religious leaders, make a little money and hopefully be protected by the corrupt Jewish religious system. The soldiers began telling people their lies. They lied about themselves, they lied about the disciples and they even lied about the Lord by not sharing the truth of what happened. The lie took root. Matthew probably wrote his gospel in AD 63. So some 30 years later the story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus was still a popular one.

When someone would bring up the resurrection of Jesus naysayers would say “He didn’t rise, His disciples stole His body.” It was a common lie, convenient for the religious leaders. But the Roman soldiers knew the truth and the religious leaders did as well. For the sake of objectivity let’s consider the claim that the disciples stole the body of Jesus.

If they did, why didn’t the Jewish leaders go and get the body back. They had all the resources they needed. It would be nothing for eleven uneducated men to be pursued and arrested. The Jews had their own police force as well as access to the Roman government. But the religious leaders did not pursue the disciples because they knew the disciples did not have the body of Jesus.

As well, why would the disciples want the body of Jesus? Jesus had already been given a very respectful burial. Joseph had given his tomb to Him. The body of Jesus had been anointed and wrapped according to Jewish custom. So there was no reason for the disciples to want the dead body of Jesus for honorable purposes. Some may think they wanted the body of Jesus to make folks think Jesus rose. But that would be foolish too. They didn’t even think Jesus was going to rise from the dead. Why would they risk their life to do something that contradicted their belief in the first place. It seems to me the disciples were ready to get on with their lives. Once Jesus died, they thought it was the end. I don’t think you could have convinced one of them much less all eleven to steal the body of Jesus and act as if He had risen.

Another consideration is this. The soldier’s story doesn’t make sense. First of all how could all of them fall asleep at the same time and sleep through these disciples rolling away a very large stone and stealing the body of Jesus. It seems that in the noise and the time it would have taken to steal the body at least one of them would have woken up. And on top of all that, if they were asleep when it happened how do they even know what happened. How would they know that the body was stolen and that the disciples stole it? The story of the soldiers is not a reasonable store. Any lawyer that put them on the stand could have poked holes in their story.

The story that the religious leaders concocted was not a very good one. And it required that Jewish people believe roman soldiers. However, it was a convenient story and the best they could come up with. We need to remember that those that do not want to believe the truth will always find a way to do away with the truth. The truth is that Jesus rose from the dead. He is alive even now. And without that truth we are without hope. But with it we have a hope that cannot be taken away.

Thoughts to Consider

1. All the soldiers in the world could not have kept Jesus in that tomb.

2. Few things blind man more than money.

3. Lies have a way of spreading more quickly than and sticking longer than the truth.

4. It is amazing how far unredeemed man will go to justify his own sin.