There are perhaps four explanations for the accounts of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, leaving aside the possibility of the mass hallucination of Jesus’ disciples.
The first is that Jesus did not die. While the Muslims have this belief, they don’t actually believe Jesus was crucified, either, because in their view, it is shameful to think that God would allow the holy Jesus to suffer on the cross. So the Muslims, influenced by their religion’s love of power and force, despise the weakness of the cross.
But another theory has been suggested, the so-called ‘swoon theory’. In this theory, Jesus actually was crucified, but not killed. Jesus only passed out on the cross. But in the cool of the tomb, Jesus revived, and despite his wounds, he pushed away the stone, managed to get the grave clothes off, appeared to Mary Magdalene, whom he later married, and with whom he had children, and his descendants are part of the French aristocracy who carry on this secret to this day— while the Roman Catholic church perpetuates a terrible conspiracy on the world, and fortunately for us all this is revealed by Dan Brown in his book The Da Vinci Code that was inflicted upon us some years ago.
I don’t really think this is very likely, even if as a theory it sells lots of paperbacks and movie tickets. All the gospel writers clearly point out that Jesus died. And Jesus himself said that he would die. Indeed, the opponents of Jesus Christ, the religious leaders, were confident that they had successfully killed off Jesus of Nazareth. And Roman Soldiers didn’t often make mistakes in killing unarmed prisoners when under orders to do so.
A second explanation is that the women who first went to the tomb of Jesus on the first Easter morning made a mistake and went to the wrong tomb. They saw an open tomb, and the grave clothes, but it was the wrong tomb. It is possible. Anyone who has anything to do with burying dead people knows that mistakes can be made. People can be buried in the wrong plots. And Matthew’s account of the resurrection seems conscious of this. For Matthew very carefully points out that the women knew which tomb Jesus’ was laid in. Chapter 27 verse 61 tells us:
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite to the tomb. (NIV)
The two Marys were in prime position to correctly identify the tomb, and they had each other to assist in finding it again. In any case, at most, this theory wouldn’t explain the whole of the resurrection story. It could only explain certain aspects of the events early on Sunday morning. This is because the bold claims of the disciples recorded in Acts that Jesus was risen would have been decisively contradicted by going to the right tomb. The mistaken explanation and its credibility would only last for as long as a new search for the right tomb.
The third is an ancient explanation, and it is that the disciples stole Jesus’ body. And Matthew’s Gospel takes this challenge seriously. Indeed, it is for this reason that Matthew feels the need to include information that Mark, Luke, and John omit.
The fourth explanation is that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament promises and expectation, his own words, and all our hopes, by rising from the dead, paying for our sins, and defeating death. I hope this Easter Day you will find in Matthew’s account of the first Easter Day great reason for believing that this is the real explanation. Today I want to show the reasons why our public holiday celebrates not a myth, but an historical event, that changes everything about our world, and gives us life-changing hope.
As we saw on Good Friday, Matthew has recorded for us Jesus’ cry of dereliction, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”, and then Jesus breathed his last, and many women who had come with Jesus from Galilee were watching all this unfold from afar. We know the names of some of them: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee. These women and others were there at the crucifixion, watching and observing. They watched over the body of their Lord as he hung there dead. They were there as evening approached. They had not fled, in contrast with the eleven disciples. While the men had ‘done a runner’, these women were there in attendance, in constant witness of all that transpired, overseeing the body of Jesus and what happens to it.
All four Gospels record the role that Joseph of Arimathea played in obtaining and burying Jesus’ body. Matthew makes it clear that Joseph was a disciple of Jesus. But Matthew is also the only Gospel writer to inform us explicitly that Joseph was rich, and that the tomb in which Jesus’ body was placed was his own. And this seems to allude to Isaiah chapter 53 verse 9:
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death (NIV)
It was a new tomb, freshly excavated from the rock face. No other body had been laid there. And after wrapping the body of Jesus in a clean linen shroud, Joseph “rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away” (v. 60). And who was there? Verse 61 has those ever-present women again, waiting, watching, overseeing, observing, and witnessing. Verse 61:
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb. (NIV)
Loyal, unafraid, these women were rusted on in their commitment to Jesus, even beyond his last breath. Only the Sabbath command could break their vigil at the tomb. But Jesus had taught them that he had come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Not one jot or tittle of the law would pass away until all things would be accomplished (Matt 5:18).
Now during his earthly ministry, Jesus wanted his disciples to enjoy the Sabbath (Matthew 24:20). Jesus knew that the Sabbath was a provision stemming from God’s mercy (Matt 12:7, esp. vv. 3-4). The Sabbath celebrates rest. It gives humanity an opportunity for a Godlike enjoyment of creation (Gen 2:2-3; Exod 5, fourth commandment). It reminds God’s people of their redemption from slavery (Deut 20, fourth commandment). The Sabbath gives an opportunity to renewal, refreshing, re-creation. In fact, the whole idea of ‘recreation’, of time off to do fun stuff and just play and enjoy God’s good creation, comes from ‘re-creation’, the refreshment that comes from not having to work but having time to enjoy different aspects of God’s creation.
So Jesus Christ declared himself “Lord of the Sabbath” (Matt 12:8). Jesus defended the right of his disciples to pick heads of grain on the Sabbath (Matt 12:1-8). Indeed, Jesus healed on the Sabbath, because it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. For that reason, he completely restored a man’s shriveled hand in their synagogue on the Sabbath, because the Sabbath is about restoring human life, showing mercy, doing good, restoration, renewal, recreation, giving new life, and renewing life.
And what did the Pharisees do when confronted with Jesus’ appropriation of the Sabbath? On the Sabbath, they went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus (Matt 12:14). And now, as Matthew records, they have achieved what they sought, and killed Jesus. So having achieved that much, what do they spend their time doing on the Sabbath? Of all the Gospel accounts, only Matthew’s tells us what they did, how they themselves broke the Sabbath on the first Easter Saturday. Matthew chapter 27 verse 62:
The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. (NIV)
OK, there is something more important than resting for these Jewish leaders. They agreed with Jesus there. Instead of resting, like the disciples, they needed to tidy up some loose ends in the execution of their plan to get rid of the Jesus movement. So off they trot to Pilate again. Verse 63 and 64:
63"Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.' 64So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first." (NIV)
The Jewish leaders believed Jesus’ own words more than Jesus’ own disciples. Jesus’ disciples didn’t really believe Jesus’ prediction of his resurrection—at least, not at this stage. But Matthew has recorded that the Pharisees and chief priests had taken note of the prediction of his resurrection on the third day.
And thus, it is only Matthew who explains that there are guards at the tomb, and why. And it will be only Matthew who provides a counter argument for a long-standing Jewish explanation for the empty tomb. And so the Jews take a guard and make the tomb of Jesus as secure as they could.
But unfortunately, the plan to deploy the guards will not stop the news of the resurrection from the dead. For the guards no doubt could stop the disciples stealing the body, but they cannot stop the resurrection of the Lord. They can’t even stop the angel who turns up. Their response to the angel who is sitting on the stone which they sealed and were meant to be guarding is almost comical. Matthew chapter 28 verse 4:
The guards were so afraid of him [the angel] that they shook and became like dead men. (NIV)
Their knees knocked, they faint and hit the ground. And when they come to, they scarper and head back into the city, breaking all the military rules about not leaving your post. Clearly they were confronted with something completely out of the ordinary. And we read in Matthew chapter 28 verses 11 and 15:
11While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13telling them, "You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.' 14If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." 15So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. (NIV)
Now, John Wenham, a New Testament scholar, says of this account, that of the setting of the guard, and their subsequent bribery, the following.
The story of the setting of the guard is one of the most extraordinary pieces of Christian apologetic ever written. As we have said, it bristles with improbabilities at every point: the Sabbath visit to the governor, the great earthquake, the flashing angel rolling back the stone, the reporting to the chief priests, the bribe to the soldiers to tell the tale that they were asleep on duty – everything invites not belief, but incredulity. And how stupid, having introduced the useful apologetic idea of a closely guarded tomb, to give a handle to the opposition by even hinting that the guards did not do their job! It is a worthless piece of Christian apologetic at whatever date it was written, unless it happens to be undeniably true.[1]
Think about the story that was circulated by the Jewish leadership for a minute. Why would the guards say that they had fallen asleep? That was a crime punishable by death. If the soldiers had been asleep, how could they have told who stole the body? And then leaving your post as a guard was not good for your longevity. The story is a pretty incompetent fabrication on behalf of the Christians, unless it was true.
Matthew says that the Jewish leaders’ explanation of the theft of Jesus’ body was circulating by the time of his writing. And there is some external attestation of at least one aspect of Matthew’s account. In about AD 155, Justin Martyr, who was a Christian born in Palestine, still quotes it. Justin Martyr records, in his disputation with Trypho the Jew, that “‘You have sent chosen and ordained men throughout all the world to proclaim that […] his disciples stole him by night from the tomb” (Dialogue with Trypho, chapter 108). In other words, at least 120 years later, the Jews still asserted that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body. So that gives credibility to Matthew’s account that the Jews at the time were saying that the disciples stole the body.
So the question would be, if the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body, why would they die for it? If the Jewish leaders’ story is right, the apostles would have died for a deception that they themselves perpetuated. Who would die for a lie of their own invention? Ten of the twelve disciples certainly died martyred deaths. Peter, who stands behind Mark’s Gospel and the two letters that bear his names, claims that Jesus is risen. It was Peter who was crucified upside down in the knowledge, that after they kill the body, there is nothing that they can do to the soul, but that it is safe with the risen Jesus. John might have died of old age, but he went to the grave testifying to the resurrected Christ, enduring exile among other hardships.
Well, the Pharisees and High Priests have missed out on their Sabbath. But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary haven’t.[2] They are all rested up, having obeyed the law, unlike the hypocritical Pharisees and priests. And now the women have some work to finish. They have to finish preparing Jesus’ body with spices. And it is only Matthew that will explain how the stone was rolled away. Chapter 28 verses 1 to 2:
1After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 2There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. (NIV)
Frank Morrison wrote a book Who Moved the Stone? And Matthew only of the Gospel writers gives the answer. An angel moved the stone. And not only did the angel move the stone, but indeed the angel caused a great earthquake. The earthquake may have been the means of releasing the rock, or the result of the angel’s powerful dislodging of the rock. The angel sat on the stone, to show that the stone is not going back. He frightened away the guards, who fainted, and who can blame them? And once the guards are frightened away, the angel goes into the tomb. Luke tells us that the angel had a companion angel, who goes into the tomb with him (Luke 24:4). And both Mark and Luke tell us that the angelic message is given to the women within the tomb (Mark 16:5-7; Luke 24:2-9).
The angel was quite happy to frighten the guards away, but not so the women, for the angel’s first words to them are, “Do not be afraid”. Matthew chapter 28 verses 5 to 8:
5The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you." 8So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. (NIV)
The women at this stage only have a word, a report. The report is “Jesus has risen”. But the source of the report is an angel, and that is pretty impressive. With the stone rolled away and the guards having scarpered, and the grave clothes lying there, the resurrection of Jesus is a pretty good explanation. The women[3] might have got up early that Sunday morning, but Jesus got up earlier still. And the angel opened the tomb, not to let Jesus out—as Jesus will later show that locked doors are no problem for his new resurrected body—but because the angel has turned up to open the tomb as preparation for an ‘open house’. The angel is like a real estate agent, showing the witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection the vacated premises. The angel scared off the guards to let the women in and to guide their first inspection of the now empty real estate that was Christ’s tomb.[4] These women run away to tell the disciples of Jesus.
But at this stage, they only have the word of the angel and an empty tomb. That’s not bad evidence. But something better, more solid, more incontrovertible, would be nice. And indeed, these women receive a much better proof of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For as they go on their way to tell the disciples, they have an unexpected encounter with the subject of all their labours. Matthew chapter 28 verse 9:
Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. (NIV)
Jesus’ first appearance is to a group of female disciples. This group probably consisted of the other Mary, the mother of James and Joses, and Salome the mother of Zebedee’s sons. Probably also Joanna and Susana were there. Mary Magdalene was most probably not there, as once she had seen that the stone was rolled away, she went back to Peter and John (John 20:1-2). But these other four women were already experiencing a mixture of fear and elation at the angel’s message. Now with the solid flesh and blood Jesus in front of them, they clung to his feet in worship. The Magi worshipped Jesus as a newborn baby, and now these women, Mary, Salome, Joanna, and Susana, worship Jesus as the firstborn from the dead. They cling to his feet. And the risen Jesus has a message for them to expect another appearance from him. Just like the angel, in verse 10, Jesus speaks to quell their fears: “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid.’” And then Jesus added, “Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me”.
The angel gave them a message to tell the disciples to go into Galilee. Now Jesus himself gives them the very same message.
The first resurrection appearance in the Gospels is probably to at least four women: Mary (not Jesus’ mum, nor Mary Magdalene, but the other Mary), with Salome, and probably also Joanna and Susana. They had followed Jesus from Galilee and cared for his needs. They were not chosen to be among the twelve. Churches are not named after them. Their testimony was not that valuable in court. But it is these who more than likely saw the risen Christ first and worshipped at his feet.
And Jesus draws their attention away from their present experience and towards Galilee. Verse 10 again:
Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me. (NIV)
Matthew’s focus in his Easter story is the risen Christ’s appearance to the disciples in Galilee. We shouldn’t be surprised at this, because Matthew at the beginning of his Gospel emphasized that in Galilee of the gentiles, a great light has dawned for those living in the land of the shadow of death (Matt 4:12-17). Jesus’ Galilean ministry was very important to Matthew. Moreover, Luke tells us that Jesus appeared to the disciples over a period of forty days (Acts 1:3). There was plenty of time for the disciples to travel from Jerusalem to Galilee and back again, and then to Bethany where Jesus would ascend back to the Father in heaven
There are of course, other sightings of Jesus, other appearances that Luke and John record, but that Matthew doesn’t. Matthew completely omits the record of Jesus’ meeting with Mary Magdalene on her return to the garden in which the tomb was situated, leaving it to John to give that account (John 20:11-18; cf. Mark 16:9-11). Paul and Luke, not Matthew, will tell us about Jesus’ appearance to Simon Peter, named Cephas, in Jerusalem (1 Cor 15:5; Luke 24:31). Only Luke tells us about the Emmaus Road incident with the two disciples (Luke 24:13-35). Only John and Luke tell us of Jesus’ appearance in Jerusalem on the first day of the week to the ten (Thomas absent and Judas having gone to his place) in the locked room, where he gives the disciples his peace and he ate fish in their presence (Luke 24:36-49; John 20:19-23; cf. 1 Cor 15:5). Only John records the second appearance to the eleven in Jerusalem about a week later, this second time with doubting Thomas confessing, “My Lord and My God” (John 20:24-29).
Matthew’s focus is almost exclusively on the risen Jesus meeting with his disciples in Galilee. But even of the Galilee appearances, Matthew doesn’t tell the whole story. For John alone records the appearance of Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, as Jesus prepares nine of his disciples a fish breakfast (John 21:1-24). Nor does Matthew tell us about the confrontation between the risen Jesus Christ and James, his younger brother, where James went from a skeptic to believer and leader of the church. For Matthew’s focus on the Galilean appearances of the risen Christ is not on the lake, where John takes us, or to Jesus’ family, where Paul takes us, but to a Galilean mountaintop. Verse 16:
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. (NIV)
In the Sermon on the Mount at the beginning of Matthew’s account, Jesus had given the law to his disciples from the mountaintop in Galilee. And here at the end of Matthew’s account, the risen Jesus will give his great commission from a mountaintop. Perhaps it was the same mountain. This is Jesus’ new Torah, his new instruction to his disciples, if you like.
As an aside, notice how in verse 16, Matthew says that this was all occurring on a mountain to which Jesus told them to go. Matthew hasn’t told us thus far that Jesus directed the disciples to any mountain. In other words, within Matthew’s own account of the resurrection, Matthew implicitly recognizes that the risen Jesus has appeared to the disciples at least one earlier time, to tell them to go to the appointed mountain.
And it also may well be, if we join the dots between Matthew’s account and what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, that there, assembled on that mountaintop in Galilee, were over 500 of the brothers, there at one time, as Paul records (1 Cor 15:6). We cannot prove it, but it is possible. And there on the mountaintop, again the inner circle of the eleven came to him from the crowd, with others there to witness. They worshipped him. It may be that the some who doubted were not the eleven but the others gathered there. And verses 18 to 20 closes the Gospel of Matthew with the famous ‘great commission’.
18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (NIV)
The command in verse 19 is sandwiched between two indicatives, two givens, two realities in which the command is to be obeyed, explained in verses 18 and 20. First is verse 18, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Jesus is the absolute sovereign ruler of heaven and earth, the great and mighty king of everything. He is the Son of Man of Daniel 7:13-14, who all the nations will worship, and whose kingdom will never end. That is the first given. The second is in verse 20, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Jesus the Son, the second person of the Trinity, remains with his people, despite the fact that he has returned bodily to heaven. No matter what, Jesus Christ will not leave his disciples as orphans, but will come to them, in the person of the Holy Spirit, whom the Son indwells.
And so the command sandwiched by these two givens, buttressed by those two realities which encourage the disciples to confidently obey the command, is in verse 19:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The command is “make disciples of the nations”. That is the main verb, “make disciples”. And they and we are to make disciples of all nations in three ways: by going, teaching, and baptizing. Go out beyond Israel, baptize in the triune name, and teach them all that Jesus taught.
The application of the resurrection of Christ is mission. Everyone has to be told. We need to disciple the nations, and bring them under the headship of Christ, even as we have submitted to Christ as Lord. If Jesus is risen, discipling the nations is our mission. We’ve got a job to do.
At the end of the forty days following his resurrection, we will find Jesus in Jerusalem once again. The risen Jesus will return once again to the outskirts of Jerusalem, to Bethany (Luke 24:50-53). And there the disciples also will gather, and see him ascend into heaven. Only Luke tells us about this return to Jerusalem and ascension into heaven. Matthew, Mark, and John don’t recount Christ’s ascension. That is left to Luke, who will tell us what happens next in his second volume, the Acts of the Apostles. Acts tells us that the risen Jesus Christ sends the Holy Spirit on his 120 disciples who returned to Jerusalem to await the promised Holy Spirit.
But what Matthew gives us from the Galilean mountain is the consequences of the resurrection. All authority has been given to Christ. He is with his people always. And the nations owe him their worship. So his disciples must go and disciple the nations. Christ’s resurrection means his disciples are on mission. The empty tomb must be declared to the nations. And the explanation is not that the disciples stole the body. Why would they disciple the nations for that deception? Rather, in Galilee of the gentiles, those in the shadow of death have seen a great light, and for them, the light has dawned. It is too small a thing for the servant Christ to bring back Israel. He must be a light to the nations, and in him the distant islands will put their hope. If you worship the risen Jesus Christ, your hope is Christ, and your task is to make him known.
[1] John Wenham, Easter Enigma, 78-79.
[2] Mark 16:1 says that Salome also went with them.
[3] At first glance, it would seem that the group of ‘women’ to which Matthew refers is the two Marys. However, Wenham convincingly argues that the group of women mentioned does not include Mary Magdalene, and the possibilities are the other Mary and Salome, Joanna and Susana, of which only the first mentioned by Matthew (Matthew 28:1) and who is not included in the appearance at verse 9. Mary Magdalene has probably still run off to tell the disciples: Wenham, Easter Enigma, 88. This is an application of Wenham’s ‘harmonistic exegesis’. Peter Bolt agrees that Mary Magdalene is not included in the reference to the women who see this appearance: Matthew: A Great Light Dawns, 260 fn 23.
[4] In this I follow John Wenham, Easter Enigma, 77-78.