208 Matthew 28 Resurrection from Doubt and Death to Belief and Life

Jesus rests in the tomb and then early Sunday morning the women are coming to the tomb to finish the job of embalming His body when there is a great earthquake, the guards faint and an angel tells them Jesus is not here, go tell the disciples to meet him in Galilee. As they are leaving Jesus meets them and they fall at his feet, clinging to Him. The guards are bribed to say they had fallen asleep and that they disciples had stolen His body. Matthew concedes the book with the great commission that Jesus gave them to go to the world to teach, to make disciples and to baptize.

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SHOW NOTES

Matthew 28 NLT Resurrection, Guards Report, Great Commission

The Resurrection

28 Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Marywent out to visit the tomb.

We have established that this other Mary was the mother of James and Joseph. They had watched whereJesus was entombed and could come back to embalm Jesus’ body with the necessary spices.

2 Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. 3 His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white assnow. 4 The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.

This is the second earthquake. It is apparently caused by this visible angel who moves the stone and sitson it. The description of this angel suggests it is Jesus, although this raises other questions. The title “angel of the LORD” refers to Jesus in the OT and a face that shines like lightening and clothing white as snow are used to describe Jesus in Revelation (1:12-16). The hardened, soldier guards are in shock fromsensory overload.

5 Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. 7 And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.”

There is no need for spices. The women are now also in shock and if this is Jesus, they do not recognize him as the two disciples on the Emmaus Road did not either. They are however convinced by the empty tomb and the reminder of what Jesus had told them. We know he had told the disciples about his resurrection. Now it is certain he told women too.

8 The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great joy, and they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message.

The verbs “quickly” and “rushed” create a sense of urgency. They also have conflicting emotions of fear and joy. This means they can hardly believe what has happened. They want to believe but are afraid it is not true. Jesus understands their conflict and deals with it personally.

9 And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him.

Their fear is now displaced by joy. Why did they grasp the feet of Jesus? We have no precedent for this form of affirmation or worship, or do we? The woman bathing the feet of Jesus with her tears and anointing them appears in the gospels of Luke (7:36–50) and John (12:1–8). According to John this woman was Mary. Jesus washed the disciples’ feet which was symbolic of his love for them and his service to them (John 13). Jesus commands us to love each other and celebrate his love for us by washing each other’s feet (John 13). This practice reminds us he has loved us and washed our sins away (John

13:34).Shaking the dust off your feet also acknowledged rejection by a village or town.

10 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”

The usage of the identical phrase used by the angel, “Don’t be afraid,” adds evidence that the angel who rolled away the stone was Jesus.

The Report of the Guard

11 As the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened.

Had the guards been unconscious while the angel talked to the women and then regained consciousness? They had to report the absence of the body. This meant that the guards had failed in their duty and the military punishment for Roman soldiers was death by fire. This was a serious matter for the guards.

12 A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe.

The bribe meant that the elders knew that Jesus had risen. A large bribe meant this news was of great importance and concern to the leading priests.

13 They told the soldiers, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’ 14 If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.” 15 So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say.

Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today (65-80 C.E.).

The elders must have spoken to Pilate to prevent the guard’s execution. The soldiers spread the lie and it was believed by some up to the time of the writing of this gospel. This also means that many in leadership knew that Christ had risen and would have been greatly troubled.

The Great Commission

16 Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted him!

“Some of them doubted?” This is a demonstration that truth is not always verified by physical evidence. Jesus is physically evident but there is still the possibility of doubt. Our emotional bias can override physical evidence. However, it is the opposite with Thomas who will not believe the reports of the women or the disciples until he has physical evidence.

18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

The authority under question is not about Jesus’ ability to walk on water or raise the dead or feed thousands of people. The issue is his authority to forgive sin apart from the temple and its rites which were mandated by Moses under the authority of God at mount Sinai. Here are a few examples of Jesus’ authority over demons and his ability to unilaterally forgive sin.

1. Jesus forgives the lame man’s sins when he is brought by friends (Matthew 9:1-8).

2. Jesus confirms his forgiveness of all sin through the parable of the unforgiving servant. (Matthew 18:21-35).

3. Jesus forgives Peter before he denies him (John 13/14)

4. Jesus forgives his executioners who never asked for forgiveness (Luke 23:34)

5. In Matthew (26:6–13) and Mark (14:3–9) the woman anoints Jesus’ head. Jesus commends the woman for loving much and associates her love with the forgiveness she has received.

6. Jesus had authority over demons (Luke 8:26-39, 9:1). The woman in Luke 8;2 who had seven demons cast out of her also demonstrates his authority over demons.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The disciple of Jesus, at this point, were all Galileans. Judas was a Judean but had been replaced with a Galilean. None of them had any idea of going to all the nations. They balked at going to the Samaritans, let alone anyone else. The gospel was going to change this parochial attitude. Jesus had after all, repeatedly, found and blessed non-Jews. The Samaritan woman, the Good Samaritan, the Syrophoenician woman, the healing of people from the Decapolis and as far north as Syria, the feeding of the 4000 mostly Gentiles.

The Trinitarian Gospel Formula

The Trinitarian baptismal formula has been challenged repeatedly over the millennia. It is, for instance, not found in 1 John 5:7-8 in the best New Testament Greek documents before 400 C.E. It is recognized that 1 John 5:7-8, where this formula appears in the later Vulgate editions, is an addition by a scribe or copyist. Someone had added what is now called the longer version of verse 7 as a marginal comment and later it became part of the text. Then Erasmus (1469-1536) took the Latin text and corrected his Greek version which was missing part of 1 John. This is why it appears in some later Greek manuscripts. This “corrected” Greek version is referred to as The Textus Receptus and was the reason that the King James Version, which was also based on the later Vulgate version, included the longer form of 1 John 5:7-8. Newer translations include this lengthened version as a footnote.

20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Jesus’ Commands

What are these commands that Jesus refers to? They are not the commands of Moses (John 1:17) which are valuable and necessary for those who have not understood the teachings of Jesus. Jesus’ commands are explicitly stated in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), John 13:34 and this last verse of Matthew. They supersede the laws of Moses in the same way that Jesus supersedes all the prophets (Hebrews 1:1-3).

When Jesus admonishes us not to physically resist an evil person (5:39), he all at once takes away the legitimacy of war and the work of most lawyers. Jesus’ commands are simply ignored in the same way that the fruit of the Spirit was ignored by those who supported slavery and the domination of women.

The Profound Promise of Jesus

“I am with you always . . .” in the person of the Spirit. This is profound as it implies that Jesus as God has never disowned or disfellowshipped anyone. We may disown him but he is faithful to always own us.He washed Judas’ feet on the night of his betrayal and he knew Judas was about to betray him. He did not disown any of his disciples after his resurrection because of their disgraceful behaviour. He is the most faithful of all lovers. He is the One who is most hurt by our fickleness and neglect because he made us so

he would love us and serve us (Matthew 20:28). We love and serve our children because we are made in Jesus’ image.

Treasure this last statement recorded by Matthew. It is profound in its implications. It is the companionship we all long for and to which the fairy stories aspire, “To live happily ever afterwards.”

But they come short because death ends the ever afterwards. Jesus recreates us to live with him for all eternity in deepest intimacy. Only Jesus can make it possible to “live happily ever afterwards” because he resurrects his friends to live forever. He is able to do this because he has life in himself (John 1:4).

Ian Hartley, April 2025.