Matthew 28 – The Dawn, the Message, and the Kingdom

If Matthew had been recording the story of any other person, after the tomb was sealed, all he would have to write about would be the lives of Jesus’s friends over the next few days, months, and years. Such a story could possibly go on after their deaths, but eventually, every person in the story would die. Each new morning might bring the birth of a new soul, some perhaps following in a vague likeness of the footsteps of Jesus, but eventually, the darkness of night would fall for each person, and they would also die.

But Matthew was not writing such a story. Matthew was writing the story of the only begotten Son of God who came to earth to bring the Father’s kingdom, to do the Father’s will, to provide the Father’s sustenance, to forgive us our debts, to protect us from temptation, and to deliver us from evil. This Son of the Father may have experienced three hours of separation from his Father, he may have died and been sealed in a tomb for three days, but, unlike every story of every other person ever born on the face of the earth, after Jesus entered the darkness of death’s night, he woke again, alive, in the light of a new morning. Matthew writes,

1 Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week,

Matthew 28:1a

The last time Matthew wrote of a new day (Mat. 27:1), he told of Jesus’s conviction, scourging, and death, all of which brought hope and an unexpected renewed access to the Father for any who believe in the Son. This time when Matthew writes of a new day, he writes of a day bringing something else, itself also entirely unexpected and something for which others had barely dared to hope. Matthew writes,

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

Matthew 28:1b

Missing from this brief sentence are the remaining eleven disciples, Joseph, the man who put Jesus in the tomb, and any other followers. The only people present at the tomb were from the lowest rung of the social ladder — two women — one of whom had previously been demon-possessed (Mark 16:9). If this had been a story about any other man, it would be safe to assume that those who weren’t there that morning had moved on with their lives. They might visit the tomb in the future, certainly, but with this being the first day of a new work week, they had other things to do. In such a story, we might see these two Marys as sad individuals who couldn’t let go of a dead loved one. But this is not such a story. These two Marys watched Jesus being crucified and put into the tomb, and when the Sabbath travel restrictions were over, they returned to the tomb, not because they were morose and social outcasts, but because they had a lingering sense of hope.

I am not certain, even as I write of their hope, that they fully comprehended what that hope meant. I think they knew their only real hope in this life was somehow rooted in this person Jesus whom they loved and who was now buried in that tomb, but I’m not certain they knew what was about to happen. They had endured the darkness of evil’s night, but now, unbeknownst to them, that darkness was about to be dispelled and they would experience more than just the dawn of a new day. Matthew writes,

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.

Matthew 28:2-4

This earthquake didn’t happen because God descended to the earth as he seemed to have done when he tore the curtain in the temple in two (Matt. 27:51), but because God’s messenger arrived. The guards at the tomb began shaking in their boots when the angel appeared and rolled the stone away from the grave. We must take note of this. The stone did not move by some mysterious invisible force, it was moved by an angel with a physical presence who moved the stone out of the way, sat on the stone, and began talking to the women. This was an actual being, much like us in many ways, who had the capacity to move a rock, sit on it, and speak. This may seem like an unimportant comment to make, but it tells us something we need to know: God’s eternal kingdom is not a vast sea of impersonal forces swirling about in a coalescence of color and emotion; it is a kingdom of individual beings who carry out the specific and personal will of the Father, often in the physical world, and seemingly with joy. Matthew doesn’t tell us about the angel’s face, but I can imagine as the angel sat on the stone, he looked quite pleased with having been chosen by the Father to carry out such an important task. For all of God’s creation, there is joy in fulfilling the will of the Father.

Furthermore, if we think about the mechanics of rolling a large stone — “hand over hand,” “put your back into it,” “push with the legs” — we would have to categorize such an action as “work.” But even with this action being “work,” it doesn’t seem that the angel saw it as an unpleasant thing. I could be wrong on this next account, but he might have even been a little tired because after rolling the stone away he sat down before talking to the women.

This reminds me of the fact that Adam was placed in the garden of Eden and tasked with working the ground (Gen. 2:15). But it was only after Adam sinned that he was cursed to agonize over his work (Gen. 3:19). The will of the Father was that the creatures of his creation would work (Gen. 2), it was only after Adam’s sin that work became difficult and painful (Gen. 3). When the angel rolled the stone away from the grave, he performed this work in a manner similar to Adam’s work before the fall: it was a pleasurable experience. While we are not presently freed from sin’s curse, the angel opening the tomb reintroduces us to what work looks like in the Father’s eternal kingdom where there is no fracture between God and his creation. We might have to wait for the Father’s eternal kingdom to finally and completely appear, but until such time, we must learn to approach our work — the work itself — as a gift from God from which we should derive pleasure because in doing work we are fulfilling the design the Father has for us, his creation.

Then, after the angel rolled the stone away in accordance with the Father’s will, Matthew tells us that the angel spoke.

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.”

Matthew 28:5-7

Even with the great joy this angel probably took in removing the stone, the joy he took when he invited Mary and Mary to examine the empty tomb must have been greater. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and he was the one the Father had selected to show Mary and Mary the place where Jesus had been laid and from which he had been raised from the dead. As an added bonus, he was also the one telling them that Jesus, now alive and walking on the face of the earth, would be meeting his disciples in Galilee. I hope someday I am able to meet that angel in our Father’s eternal kingdom and hear him retell the story. I would love to see the joy on his face when he recounts giving that profound announcement heralding the fact that sin, death, and evil had been conquered. I suspect his eyes would gleam especially bright when he speaks of how that announcement proclaimed the fact that the power and glory of the Father’s eternal kingdom were now on display and that the Father’s kingdom on earth began that day.

The angel, however, was not the only one to speak with Mary and Mary. Matthew writes,

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.”

Matthew 28:8-10

Mary and Mary, filled with fear, and most likely quite a few head-scratching questions, did not hesitate to follow the angel’s command, and as a result, they had an encounter they didn’t expect: they met Jesus. Jesus did not first appear to the upper crust of society who held power, or the wealthy, or the most glorious of the world, Jesus first appeared to the women who adored him. The kingdom of the Father may come with power and glory, but it does not require such for entrance. The only key that will open the gates of the kingdom for us is the love we bear for the Son because of his great sacrifice, all other keys — power, wealth, glory, influence — are ineffectual when seeking to gain entrance to the Father’s kingdom and must be left at the door. Even the history we have of abandoning God will not keep us from entering the Father’s kingdom. Jesus held no ill will toward his disciples who abandoned him in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus wanted to see his disciples again, in fact, he didn’t just call them his disciples, he called them his brothers (Matt. 12:46-50).

Jesus was going to Galilee to see his disciples who had just a few nights before abandoned him, but he was not going there to chide them. He knew that even though they left him in his darkest hour, they loved him and they would do the will of the Father. Jesus went to Galilee to welcome his disciples back as his very brothers. This is the power and glory of the Father’s eternal kingdom: even though we might not be the most powerful, glorious, wealthy, or influential, even though we often abandon Jesus when times get tough, through the shed blood of Jesus, we are welcomed as brothers to the Son and children of the Father.

While this conversation between Jesus and Mary and Mary was unfolding, the guards who had been frozen in fear, left the tomb. Matthew writes,

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.

Matthew 28:11-15

The guards saw the angel and, fell to the ground frozen in fear, and then ran back to the chief priests. The chief priests knew Jesus had claimed that he would rise from the dead but when presented with evidence confirming his resurrection, the chief priests hardened their hearts and instead of rethinking their theology, they chose to embroil themselves in a lie and initiate a cover-up so as to retain their positions of wealth and power. The guards bore witness to the truth of what happened, but when that truth was conveyed to the religious leaders, they wanted nothing to do with it.

This interaction was the first of many battles to be fought on the same field since the resurrection of Jesus. The chief priests did not attack Jesus, whether during his life or after his resurrection, because of his moral teachings. They attacked Jesus because of who he claimed he was — his identity — and what he had done — his miracles and his resurrection. The chief priests, however, are no longer with us, but their dual-pronged attack is. The Father’s earthly kingdom will always be attacked at the points of most importance: the deity of Jesus and his miraculous resurrection. Most people can live quite nicely with a Jesus who is a teacher of morality, but what they can’t handle is a Jesus who claims to be God and has resurrected from the dead. When we pray “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever,” we are praying that even though the battle continues to rage upon the gates of the Father’s kingdom, we know that the Father’s kingdom is the only kingdom that will stand forever regardless of the nature and the number of attacks that are made upon its gates.

While the chief priests were laying the groundwork for the battles that would rage over the next few millennia, Matthew takes us to the disciples where we can see their reaction to the message relayed to them from Mary and Mary. He writes,

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

Matthew 28:16

We don’t know how the disciples were feeling, we only know that the disciples followed the directions given to them by Jesus through the mouths of Mary and Mary. As simple of a sentence as Matthew 28:16 might be, it tells us that for anyone to come to Jesus, they must first be invited, and then after the invitation, they must take action and go. I don’t mean to suggest that people must be invited to a church or some other seemingly holy place, but what the disciples did with their feet each person must do with their heart: when the Father calls us we must respond by going to where Jesus stands.

However, even though many will approach Jesus, that does not mean there is always belief. Matthew writes,

17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.

Matthew 28:17

Even after approaching Jesus, some will still have their doubts. I realize it may be difficult to imagine those who had lived with Jesus for years, seen him captured, and heard of his crucifixion and burial would have any doubts when Jesus stood in front of them, but obviously, some did. Even though the book of Acts, as well as many other works of history, tell us that the eleven remaining disciples did believe and follow Jesus, in that initial moment, some still retained doubt. But Jesus was not incredulous, nor was he angry or surprised by their doubts, he merely accepted their worship before giving them his final instructions. I suspect that any doubts of those present that day disappeared slowly over the following days as they began acting on Jesus’s instructions and seeing the results. Sometimes the best way to confront our doubts is to have faith and follow the Father’s will, but if we are wondering what the Father’s will might be, Jesus puts that question to rest when he said,

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.

Matthew 28:18-20a

Jesus did not overthrow the Romans, unseat the scribes, Pharisees, chief priests, or elders, or even take over his local synagogue. Jesus, the Son of the Father, the living God, was born in a manger next to sheep and cattle and spent his last three years on earth teaching a handful of followers how to become like him. These followers were lowly fishermen, one was a zealot, one was a tax collector, one was a thief, and some were women. One betrayed him to the authorities and the rest abandoned him in his darkest hour. He was judged, beaten, crucified, and buried, and then three days later some women said he was alive. He met his disciples before leaving the planet, but he didn’t instruct them on how to take over the government or upset the religious establishment. Jesus told them that they should go about their lives and make disciples of other people from every nation in the same way he made disciples of them. They were to teach others what he had taught them, they were to baptize those who believed, and they were to do this until the end of the age, an end that would be reached when they finished their task (Mat. 24:14).

When we pray for the coming of the Father’s eternally powerful and glorious kingdom, we are raising our voices, not just to ask that the Father brings his kingdom, but to say that we will participate in the task Jesus left to his disciples some 2,000 years ago on that mountain near Galilee. We are saying we are a believer and, even though we might have some doubts, we will follow the will of the Father and join the continuing chain linked by those communicating the Father’s kingdom. We join with Jesus, who followed the will of the Father when he came to earth to teach the Father’s kingdom. We join with the angel who told Mary and Mary about the resurrection. We join with Mary and Mary who told the disciples to go and meet Jesus in Galilee. We join with the disciples who, after that meeting, went out and told others about the Father’s kingdom and about his Son who gives them access. We join with those who responded to the disciples’ teaching, and we join with those who responded after them.

The Father’s kingdom comes to earth every time we tell others about Jesus and how to become like him. The Father’s kingdom comes every time we help the poor and the needy, every time we forgive others, every time we follow the Father’s guidance away from temptation, and every time the Father delivers us, directly or indirectly, out of the hand of the evil one. But we do none of this on our own. The last words Jesus spoke give us the authority and the strength we need to accomplish this great task, the work assigned to us by the Father. He said,

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:20b

We pray the Lord’s Prayer for the coming of the Father’s eternally powerful and glorious kingdom and we do its work, not just because he told us to, but because the Father’s kingdom is the only kingdom with the power and the glory that will be with us always, even to the end of the age.

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