Day 2: Resurrection and Commission

Reading: Matthew 28

Listen to: Matthew chapter 28

Historical Context

Matthew 28 is among the most consequential chapters in all of Scripture. It opens in the predawn darkness of the first day of the week and closes with a commission that has sent men and women to every corner of the earth for two thousand years. Between those two poles stands the event upon which the entire Christian faith rises or falls: the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead.

Matthew alone records a second earthquake (the first accompanied Jesus’ death in 27:51). The earthquake at the crucifixion cracked rocks and opened tombs; this earthquake rolled away a stone and opened the future. An angel descended “like lightning” (28:3), an appearance that echoes the heavenly messenger in Daniel 10:6 whose face was “like the appearance of lightning.” The guards – Roman soldiers trained to hold their ground under any circumstance – “shook and became like dead men” (28:4). The irony is striking: the living men became as dead, while the dead man became alive. The guards posted to prevent a hoax became unwilling witnesses to a miracle.

The women arrived at the tomb to find it already open. Matthew names Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” (the mother of James and Joseph, cf. 27:56). Their purpose was practical – to see the tomb, perhaps to complete burial preparations. What they found overturned every expectation. The angel’s announcement is a sentence that divides all of history into before and after: “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said” (28:6). Those last three words – “as he said” – are the angel’s quiet rebuke to every doubt. Jesus had predicted his resurrection repeatedly (Matthew 16:21; 17:23; 20:19). He had said exactly what would happen, and it happened exactly as he said.

That the women were the first witnesses is a detail of extraordinary apologetic significance. In first-century Jewish culture, the testimony of women was generally considered unreliable and was inadmissible in court (Josephus, Antiquities 4.8.15; Mishnah, Shebuoth 4:1). If the resurrection were a fabricated story, no ancient author inventing a narrative to persuade a Jewish or Greco-Roman audience would have chosen women as the primary witnesses. The fact that all four Gospels consistently place women at the empty tomb first is powerful evidence that the authors were reporting what actually happened, regardless of how inconvenient it was for their credibility. The risen Christ appeared first to those whom the culture deemed least credible – a pattern entirely consistent with his ministry, in which the last were first and the least were greatest.

The guards’ bribe (28:11-15) is one of the most revealing details in the resurrection narrative. The chief priests paid the soldiers “a sufficient sum of money” to spread a cover story: “His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were sleeping” (28:13). The absurdity of this story is self-evident. Sleeping witnesses cannot testify to what happened while they slept. Roman soldiers who slept on duty faced execution. And the terrified, scattered disciples who had fled at the arrest were hardly candidates for a bold nighttime raid on a sealed, guarded tomb. Matthew records this bribe not merely as historical detail but as evidence: even the opponents of the resurrection did not deny that the tomb was empty. They only disputed how it became empty. The empty tomb is a fact conceded by both sides; the argument is only about the explanation.

The final scene takes place on a mountain in Galilee – a location that resonates with Matthew’s entire theological architecture. Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount on a Galilean hillside (Matthew 5-7). He was transfigured on a mountain (Matthew 17). He refused Satan’s offer of all the kingdoms of the world from a mountain (Matthew 4:8-10). Now, on a mountain, the risen Christ declares that what Satan offered as a temptation has been granted as a reward: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (28:18). The claim is total – pantological, covering every domain of existence. It echoes Daniel 7:14, where “one like a son of man” is given “dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.” The Son of Man has received his kingdom, and his first act as enthroned king is not to punish but to commission.

The Great Commission (28:19-20) is structured with extraordinary precision. It contains one imperative verb – “make disciples” (matheteusate) – modified by three participles that describe the scope, the method, and the means: “going” (into all nations), “baptizing” (into the Trinitarian name), and “teaching” (to obey all that Jesus commanded). The phrase “all nations” (panta ta ethne) shatters every ethnic and geographic boundary. The God of Israel is sending his people to the ends of the earth. The particularism of the Old Testament – God’s election of one nation – was always aimed at the universalism of the New: through Abraham’s seed, all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). The Great Commission is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant.

The command to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” is the most explicitly Trinitarian formula in the Gospels. The singular “name” (onoma) governing three persons points to the unity of the Godhead – not three names but one name, one divine reality expressed in three persons. This is not a systematic theology lecture; it is a commissioning formula that embeds Trinitarian faith into the church’s most basic practice.

And then the promise – the final words of Matthew’s Gospel: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (28:20). This is Matthew’s Emmanuel inclusio, the great literary bracket that encloses his entire narrative. In Matthew 1:23, the angel declared that Jesus would be called Emmanuel – “God with us.” Now the risen Christ himself makes the promise explicit: I am with you. Always. The Gospel that began with God coming to be with humanity ends with the promise that he will never leave. The presence of the risen Christ is not a metaphor. It is the most fundamental reality of the Christian life. He is with us in the going, in the baptizing, in the teaching, and in the suffering. He is with us to the end of the age – and beyond it.

Key Themes

• The empty tomb as historical fact – Both the testimony of the women and the cover story of the guards point to the same conclusion: the tomb was empty, and no naturalistic explanation has ever accounted for it
• All authority, all nations, all things, always – The Great Commission is structured around the word “all” (pas), expressing the total scope of Christ’s lordship, the universal reach of his mission, the comprehensive content of his teaching, and the unending duration of his presence
• The Emmanuel inclusio – Matthew’s Gospel begins and ends with the promise of God’s presence, forming a theological bracket that declares the resurrection to be the permanent fulfillment of the divine name “God with us”

Connections

• Old Testament Roots: Daniel 7:13-14 (all authority given to the Son of Man); Genesis 12:1-3 (all nations blessed through Abraham); Isaiah 49:6 (a light to the nations); Psalm 2:7-8 (ask of me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance)
• New Testament Echoes: Acts 1:8 (witnesses to the ends of the earth); Romans 1:4 (declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection); 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 (the resurrection appearances); Ephesians 1:20-22 (all things under his feet); Philippians 2:9-11 (the name above every name); Revelation 5:9-10 (people from every tribe, tongue, and nation)
• Parallel Passages: Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20-21; Acts 1:1-11

Reflection Questions

1. The angel said, “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.” What does the phrase “as he said” add to the resurrection announcement, and what does it reveal about the reliability of Jesus’ other promises?
2. Why do you think the risen Christ chose a mountain in Galilee – not the temple in Jerusalem – as the location for the Great Commission? What does this setting communicate about the nature of his kingdom?
3. Jesus promises, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” In what specific circumstance in your life right now do you most need to hear and believe this promise?

Prayer

Risen Lord, you have all authority in heaven and on earth, and you have chosen to use that authority not to dominate but to send, not to coerce but to commission. You have told us to go, and you have promised to go with us. Forgive us for the smallness of our obedience and the timidity of our witness. Enlarge our vision to match the scope of your command – all nations, all things, always. You are Emmanuel, God with us, and we will go wherever you send because you have promised never to leave. Amen.