Matthew 28:11-20 - The gospel goes forward

28:11-15

Looking at Matthew there is a very high “apologetic” element to his account, and this section is directly apologetic. I.e. it seeks to defend the reality of the resurrection against those who say it didn’t happen. We have already noted a number of points as we have looked at earlier verses, this section is overtly apologetic. The guards went to the chief priests to explain what had happened, , no doubt doing this rather shame faced, wondering how on earth they were going to explain things. From the fact that the chief priests gave them “a large sum of money” it would seem likely that the guards initially told them the truth of what they had experienced, or something pretty close to it. The chief priests could never cope with the truth, so they bribed the guards and told them to say the disciples had stolen the body. If we look back over the account we will note that several points make it clear that this did not happen. Ordinarily the guards would have been in enormous trouble, possibly even facing death. The Chief priests promise to clear things for them.

28:16,17

The disciples went to Galilee, as the women had instructed them. There they met Jesus and worshipped Him, but some doubted. Other gospels give a much fuller account of the encounters, especially Luke and John. “but some doubted”. People sometimes say if only they had a direct encounter with God they would believe. Well maybe they would, and maybe they wouldn’t. Our capacity to refuse to see the truth is enormous.

28:18

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”. This is one of the most important facts about Jesus. When we consider who Jesus is we absolutely must be aware of this. And its impact goes far deeper than expecting Jesus to heal or do other things for us or others. It must be fundamental to our whole worldview. Believing in Jesus is not just about seeking to be like Jesus, it is about knowing who He is.

28:19

The previous verse, the fact that Jesus has all authority, is the foundation for our going into the world to make disciples of all nations. Should we seek to convert Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists? Of course we should. Not because of an idea, but because Jesus is the One with all power and authority, so all people are called to be disciples of Him. They are to be baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our mission is a trinitarian mission.

28:20

“And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded them”. Obedience is central to the gospel, yet we so often forget this. We do not want to be “judgmental”. The Bible knows nothing of any “belief” that does not involve obedience. And Jesus will be with us to the very end of the age. We do not embark on this mission alone, Jesus is right there with us. And notice how the focus of 28:18-20 is all on Jesus. All too easily we will take these words and then subtly make them a man centred mission. This is a Christ centred, Christ driven mission.

Matthew 28::1-10 - Ressurrection

28:1-4

We now come to the resurrection. One thing to note is that the first witnesses are women. In the culture of the time a woman’s witness was considered to be worth less than that of  a man, so if the resurrection accounts were made up, surely the writers would have had men as the first witnesses. A stone had been placed across the tomb,  The presence of the angel is the explanation of how the stone was moved. The earthquake is something that everyone could have been aware of, so they knew something had happened. The angel is still there when the women arrive and tells them what has happened.  Verse 4 also makes clear that the guards were still there, so there was no chance of the body having been stolen.  As well as the spiritual lessons, Matthew seems to be making it clear that the empty tomb and the resurrection were real events. The guards became like dead men.

28:5

The angel told the women not to be afraid. This often happens with angelic appearances. It has often been pointed out that the fact the women were the first witnesses was highly significant. For in those days the evidence of women was less important than that of men. So if someone was making this up they would not have put women as the first witnesses. So this all lends to the authenticity of the accounts.

28:6

It is sometimes said the faith is believing things without any evidence, or even against the evidence. This is simply not true, and definitely not a Biblical view. So far we have evidence that Jesus is dead, and His tomb was sealed and guarded. Now the angel shows the women the empty tomb. The empty tomb is extremely important. If Jesus had not risen the Jewish authorities had a very simple answer to the rise of the church, pointing to the dead body. But they could not do this because there was nobody to point to.

28:7

The women were then told to go and tell the disciples, and to do this quickly. Note the importance given to women. This is an aside, but I consider the Biblical evidence for women not preaching to be rather weak. The message they were given was to announce that Jesus was risen from the dead. Remember that Jesus had told the disciples on several occasions that this would happen. Again, evidence would be provided! Jesus would go ahead of them to Galilee and there they would see the risen Jesus.

28:8

“So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy.” Contrary to some who deny the resurrection, the first century people in Israel were not gullible folk believing anything. We have already seen that when Jesus had spoken about the resurrection the disciples basically had no idea what He was talking about. The women maybe had more of an idea, and were overjoyed that it seemed to be true, but they were also filled with fear for this was an absolutely momentous event.

28:9

Jesus Himself then meets the women. So the women were the first to actually meet the risen Christ. Note that they did not just see Him, they met Him, they interacted with Him. Perhaps it is better to say Jesus interacted with the women. This was true of the other recorded appearances. They were all more than just appearances, certainly not a sight of a shadowy figure a long distance off, but a very real meeting. The women clasped His feet. This was an act of humility, but also one that would show that Jesus was real. This was no ghostly apparition. They also worshipped Jesus.

28:10

Jesus repeated the command not to be afraid. This was good news! And the command to go and tell “my brothers” to go to Galilee where they would see Him. There are two things to note here. The first is that the women would be absolutely certain of the truth of their message. If they had not seen Jesus and had just told the disciples that they had seen the empty tomb and the angel, then the disciples may have come up with all the arguments that sceptics come up with, e.g. someone stole the body, wrong tomb, etc. But now they had seen and touched Jesus. He truly was alive. The second thing is the use of the term “my brothers” by Jesus. See the closeness of the relationship.

Matthew 27:45-66 - They think its all over

27:45-50

Darkness covered the land, we can perhaps see this as the wrath of God being turned on Jesus, God turning His back on Jesus. Jesus then quotes from Psalm 22:1. While this first verse is obviously important, we should also read the rest of that Psalm to get a fuller picture of what is happening. The “forsaking” was not the end. His words may have been somewhat indistinct for someone thought He was calling for Elijah. He was offered some wine vinegar, maybe out of compassion. Then Jesus gave up His spirit after a loud cry, which John tells us was “It is finished!”. In the words of that excellent song, “the wrath of God was satisfied”.

27:51-53

The temple curtain was torn in two, signifying the ending of the separation between man and God. Jesus had paid the full price for our sins. There was also an earthquake, and then we get one of the most enigmatic sections in the Bible, “and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people”. And I haven’t got a clue what to make of it!

27:54

We have here the witness of the centurion, and those with him, It is worth noting that it says “saw the earthquake and all that had happened”. This implies that the strange events of 51-53 were not a “narrative device”, but something that actually happened. So seeking to write it off because we find it so odd and difficult to explain is not a viable option. The centurion and those with him declared that Jesus was the Son of God. It was not just the centurion himself, but his fellow soldiers as well. Those who partook directly in the crucifixion were the first to recognise who Jesus is. And of course, they were gentiles. The gospel is for the guilty, regardless of race or gender or nationality. And we are all guilty. See also that “they were terrified”. Fear is part of a proper reaction to Jesus. It is not just “gentle Jesus, meek and mild”.

27:55,56

Most of the men come out badly in the Easter events. Judas and Peter, and the rest of the disciples, the religious leader, Pilate, the soldiers (prior to the previous verse). The women come out rather better. Here they are mentioned as watching from a distance. They are marked out as having cared for Jesus’ needs. 

27:57,58

Is 53:9 says that the suffering servant “was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death”. This seems inherently contradictory, yet it is what happened. He was on the cross between two criminals, now Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, gives Him his tomb. Joseph had become a disciple of Jesus. He had to approach Pilate, that would possibly have been a risky thing to do. So we see that while many of the disciples were not rich, some were. The gospel is for all and we need to utterly reject any teaching that rejects parts of society. All have sinned, and all are called to repent and believe, and all who so will be saved. 

27:59-61

Jesus’ body was wrapped in a linen cloth and placed in the tomb. This tomb had been cut out of the rock. A big stone was placed in front of the tomb. So the body was secure. And the two Mary’s were sitting watching. This counters two of the theories that deny the resurrection. One is that Jesus had not died on the cross, but had merely passed out and was later revived “in the cool of the tomb”. First the idea that Jesus had not died is itself ludicrous, the Romans knew how to kill people! But even if it was true that He had not died, how could He have escaped from the tomb, especially in the terrible physical state He would have been in? Another theory is that the women went to the wrong tomb on Easter Sunday. We see from here that they knew exactly where the tomb was, they had seen Jesus being placed in it!

27:62-66

“The day after Preparation Day” is the Sabbath. This further shows up the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, remember how many of their clashes with Jesus revolved around the Sabbath and not doing “work” on that day! Yet here they are going to the Roman rulers. They are fearful that Jesus’ words about rising from the dead might actually come true. It seems they were more aware of these words than the disciples were! They did not actually expect Him to rise, but thought the disciples might try to steal the body. So they requested that a guard be placed on the tomb. So Pilate ordered that the tomb be made as secure as possible. This counters yet another “theory” about the resurrection, namely that the disciples stole the body. This theory is pathetic. First, the guards on the tomb mentioned here made it impossible. If they had stolen the body it would surely have turned up eventually. Finally, how would a dead body utterly transform the disciples, and lead to a movement that impacted the Roman Empire and has gone on to impact the whole world?

Matthew 27:25-44 - Mocked aand crucified

27:25,26

The people react foolishly, blatantly accepting the “guilt”, almost glorying in it. “His blood is on us and on our children”. So Pilate released Barabbas, had Jesus flogged and handed over to be crucified. Why have Jesus flogged? This was a gratuitous act of violence, but times were violent. Indeed, most of history has been violent. This was a dark day for mankind, but through the grace and power of God it would become the day of our salvation.

27:27-31

If we look at the Easter accounts we see that everyone is implicated. The religious leaders and Roman authorities in the form of Pilate are the most obvious culprits, but the crowds, the ordinary Roman soldiers and the disciples themselves appear in a poor light. In this section it is the Roman soldiers who mock and abuse Jesus. He is stripped and dressed in a scarlet robe. A crown of thorns is put upon His head, all part of the mocking Him as the “king of the Jews”. He was spat upon and repeatedly struck. The robe was taken off Him and He was dressed in His own clothes again.

27:32-37

The victim had to carry the cross beam themselves, this is the source of Jesus’ phrase about carrying our cross. Jesus had been so beaten up that Simon of Cyrene had to carry the cross for Him. Jesus finally arrived at Golgotha. He was offered some wine vinegar to drink, but refused to do so. He was nailed up to the cross, and the soldiers then cast lots for His clothes. Note that Jesus would almost certainly have been naked on the cross. The whole crucifixion system was designed to utterly humiliate the one being crucified. The soldiers sat down and watched Jesus die.  A sign had been placed above Him saying, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews”.

27:38

Crucifixion itself was not unusual, on that day there were two rebels who were crucified with Jesus. Easter tends to make much of the extreme suffering involved in crucifixion, and we certainly must not be unaware of that aspect, and it is important. However, there was nothing particularly unique about the physical suffering. So what was unique? What made it different? What made it different was who Jesus is. He is the Son of God, God incarnate. He did live a life of perfect, love, trust and obedience to the Father. He did take our sins upon Himself, He was made sin, and so He suffered the wrath of God, the righteous punishment, in our place. He paid the price for our sins.

27:39-44

“Those who passed by ...” There was nothing in Jesus nailed to a cross that was attractive (Is 52:14; 53:2). The passers-by, the ordinary people, mocked Him, denying that He could be the Son of God. The religious leaders mocked Him, and the rebels mocked Him. Everyone mocked Him. While in the act of rescuing mankind, mankind was in the act of insulting the One who could save them.

Matthew 27:11-26 - Before Pilate

27:11

Jesus is now before Pilate. The chief priests were not in control of events, both because of the legal situation, and their own fears, but they had a definite agenda, to kill Jesus. Now we come to Pilate. He was another man who was not in control of events, he was also motivated by fear, and he did not want to be faced with the issue of Jesus. Pilate had no agenda except his own survival. He asked Jesus “Are you the King of the Jews?” He asked this to see if Jesus was leading a rebellion. Jesus did not answer him directly, merely saying “You have said so”.

27:12-14

The religious leaders were there, and after Jesus’ response, they made their accusations against Jesus. Much to Pilates’s surprise, Jesus did not give any answer to their accusations. Jesus is treating the religious leaders with the contempt that they deserved, He also knew where things were heading, and why they were heading there. It was the plan of salvation that was being fulfilled.

27:15

Pilate tries to wriggle out of the situation, using political means. This would not work as now was crunch time, one had to make a decision, but Pilate seeks to avoid making a decision and in the end has the decision made for him. It was the custom at the time to release one prisoner a year. This might seem a rather strange custom, but it was done as a sop to the governed people. So some political prisoner would be released. Pilate maybe knew that Jesus was popular among the common people, so hoped they would choose Jesus, and that would be the problem solved.

27:16-18

Pilate had another prisoner, Jesus Barabbas. He was a “well-known” person, presumably in prison for crimes against the Roman rulers. So Pilate offered the people a choice, Brabbas or Jesus. He knew full well that the religious leaders had offered up Jesus to him not out of any concern for the well being of the Roman regime, but “out of envy”. 

27:19

Pilate’s wife warns her husband to having nothing to do with Jesus. She recognises that Jesus was innocent and had a dream about Him. People took dreams very seriously in those days. We should also bear in mind that there are several instances in the Bible where God speaks to people through a dream. So why did this happen and why are we told about it? Maybe it is to show that although the things that happened were decreed by God, man still has responsibility. One could say that Pilate was unfortunate to be in the position, but he knew Jesus was innocent, and he was warned to have nothing to do with it. He should have told the religious leaders to get lost, but he did not do so.

27:20-22

Left to their own devices, the crowds may well have chosen Jesus. But the religious leaders persuaded the crowds to go for Barabbas, though it is not clear who they did this. Anyway, the result was that they shouted for Barabbas to be released. More than that, they shouted for Jesus to be crucified.

27:23

It is clear from all the gospel accounts that Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent and the whole charade was a setup by the Jewish religious leaders to get rid of Jesus. Pilate confronted the crowd with the reality of their actions, “What crime has He committed?”. But the crowd were not for looking at reality. Sin does that to us, it blinds and distorts our thinking. 

27:24

Pilate so he was getting nowhere and infamously washed his hands of the matter.  He was half right in what he said, “It is your responsibility”. The people had to accept responsibility for what they were doing, they were manipulating events in order to have Jesus killed. However, he was wrong when he said “I am innocent of this man’s blood”. He was not innocent. Pilate had the authority to release Jesus, he was the one who ultimately signed the death sentence. There are times when people object to saying the Jews killed Jesus, and terrible things have been done in history using this as a justification for the terrible actions. The Jews were guilty, but so were the Gentiles. We are all guilty. Romans 3:23 sums up the situation, “All have sinned ..” Anytime in history when one group decides that all their problems are the result of someone else's sins is a recipe for disaster. 

27:25,26

The people react foolishly, blatantly accepting the “guilt”, almost glorying in it. “His blood is on us and on our children”. So Pilate released Barabbas, had Jesus flogged and handed over to be crucified. Why have Jesus flogged? This was a gratuitous act of violence, but times were violent. Indeed, most of history has been violent. This was a dark day for mankind, but through the grace and power of God it would become the day of our salvation.

Matthew 27:1`-10 - Judas hangs himself

27:1-10

The chief priests and religious leaders seemed to be getting their way and made their plans to complete the task (as they saw it). Only the Roman occupier could have Jesus executed, so they handed Jesus over to Pilate the governor. 

Judas now started to realise the consequences of his actions, and how he  was being used. He tried to get some self respect back by returning the money he had been paid. The religious leaders weren’t interested. We need to beware when we sin, for there will be one to help us afterwards, only Jesus if we come to God in repentance. Judas went and hung himself. Superficially there seems to be a contradiction between Matthew's and Luke’s account in Acts, The simplest explanation is that after hanging himself the rope broke and Judas fell to the ground.

The chief priests demonstrate their hypocrisy be being fastidious about using the money that Judas had returned. Matthew saw this as fulfilment of scripture (Jer 19:1-13).

Matthew 26:65-75 - Trial and Denial

26:65-68

The high priest knew full well that Jesus was claiming equality with God. There really are only two choices. Either Jesus is the Son of God, and therefore we have to worship Him. Or He is not and is either utterly deluded or utterly evil.  The religious leaders chose the latter response and announced that Jesus is worthy of death. They then mocked, insulted and abused Jesus.  Oh, how foolish they are going to look on the last day. We need to remember that it is the Son of God in whom we believe and trust, the One who will return as Lord of all. We should remind ourselves of this, especially when tempted to give up. Doing so will help us to think clearly, and to avoid making stupid decisions.

26:69-75

The chapter finished with Peter denying Jesus, the very thing he so vehemently denied he would ever do. The denial is made worse by the fact that he denied Jesus before a servant girl, though she may well have spoken to a soldier or someone if Peter had admitted knowing Jesus. It is significant that in 1 Peter 1:13 Peter tells us to prepare our minds for action, or to have sober minds. We can so easily be caught off guard. We will react with our flesh, whose first response will be to avoid danger, so we will lie or deny Jesus. Living by the Spirit is not some mystical way of living, it involves resolving in our minds to put Christ first. In fact, in 1 Peter 3:15 Peter tells us to do that very thing. Peter had clearly learnt from his failure. At the end of it Peter calls down curses upon himself and wept bitterly. Finally he remembered what Jesus had said he would do. 

Jesus knew what Peter would do, but knowing this He did not reject Peter. When He told Peter what he would do, Jesus said that He had prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail (Lk 22:31,32), and that after he had turned back he was to strengthen his brothers. In John 22:17 when Jesus restores Peter He tells him to “feed my sheep”. Likewise, God knew that all of us would fail Him. Like Peter we must not lose our faith, and we must turn back to Jesus.