Matthew 28

The resurrection of Jesus (vs. 1-10)—A lot of the confusion regarding the four accounts of the resurrection of Christ stems from the fact that there are…four accounts. None of the writers purport to tell the whole story. This is not a difficult principle to grasp. If four different people were to report on a common traffic accident they witnessed, no doubt there would be varying details—they would all see, in general, the same events, but they would all notice diverse facets. That’s what we have with the resurrection. When we get to John’s account, and have all the information before us, I’ll put it all together. Until then, we’ll look at each rendering in turn.

Matthew mentions two Marys that go to the tomb very early on Sunday morning after the Sabbath was over (v. 1). Before they arrive, there was an earthquake and an angel came and rolled away the stone (v. 2). “And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men” (v. 4). That’s not a surprise. The angel told the women, once they had arrived, that Jesus “is not here; for He is risen, as He said” (v. 6). I wonder if there isn't an implied rebuke there:  "What are you doing here?  He told you He wasn't going to be here, that He was going to be raised."  Well, regardless, the angel then told the women to go and tell His disciples, and that Jesus was headed for Galilee.

Jesus meets them, they recognize Him, “and worshiped Him” (v. 9). He repeats the order to tell His disciples that He is going to Galilee “and there they will see me” (v. 10).

Now, that’s a very sketchy report of what happened. Again, the other gospel writers will fill in details that Matthew omits. We’ll pick them up as we go along in this study.

The continuing disbelief of the religious leaders (vs. 11-15)—They simply refused to believe. There can be nothing done with this kind of impenetrable heart. The guards at the tomb went and reported what happened; they certainly weren’t biased in favor of a resurrection (v. 11). The chief priests and elders “consulted together, [and] they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, Tell them, His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept“ (v. 11). That is utterly  ridiculous. Roman soldiers, on pain of death, did not go to sleep on watch; even if one of them did, all of them wouldn’t have. Plus, what court of law would accept the testimony of a man who says something happened while he slept? If they were asleep, how did they know the disciples came and stole the body? One would be amazed at this hardness of heart if it wasn’t so common in the world today.

Jesus appears to His disciples (vs. 16-20)—Matthew mentions just one appearance of Christ; there were several. He and his disciples were in Galilee, as He had directed. “When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted” (v. 17). The chief priests and elders weren’t the only ones with incredulous hearts. Why did some doubt? Well, again, we must keep in mind that, for all their lives, these men had been taught, not a suffering, resurrected Messiah, but a glorious, conquering One. It just took a while to wash that out of these men. Someone who is taught a certain false doctrine for decades—say, salvation by faith only—is going to be very hard to convince once confronted with the truth simply because the teaching has been drilled into them for so long. That’s what the disciples faced here. They would learn, especially after the Holy Spirit came upon them in Acts 2. The chapter concludes with what is called “The Great Commission”: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (vs. 18-20). One small point, but it’s worth mentioning. We are baptized “in the name” of Jesus (Acts 2:38), and “into” the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Greek is distinct with the prepositions. Jesus has all authority—that’s what “in the name of” means. “Into the name of” is a relationship—we are baptized into the family of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Both the KJV and NKJV miss that in Matthew 28:19; the ASV has it right. It’s not earth shattering, but it does present a nice picture of one of the things that baptism does for us.