Easter Sunday
Matthew 28:1-10
Exegetcal Notes by Brian Stoffregen
The Resurrection of Our Lord A: Matthew 28:1-10 -- Exegetical Notes
John 20:1-18 is an optional text.
WHICH STORY? -- INTRODUCTORY NOTES
One might want to use John's account, since most of the readings in
Lent have been from this Gospel and most of the readings in the Season
of Easter are from John. This reading would naturally follow the
Passion account from John that was read on Good Friday.
On the other hand, if the Passion from Matthew was read on Passion
Sunday (and probably heard by more people than the one from John on
Good Friday), it could be beneficial to continue using his account of
the resurrection. Also, all of the Gospel readings during the
Pentecost Season will come from Matthew.
A short-coming of either of these arguments is that many of the Easter
worshipers are not people who have been hearing the Matthew texts
since Advent or John texts during Lent; or will be hearing John
throughout the Easter Season or Matthew during Pentecost. So, you can
preach on whatever text you want.
RESURRECTION THEMES
There are two biblical themes related to the resurrection: (1) finding
the empty tomb and (2) appearances of the risen Christ. There are no
canonical accounts of the actual resurrection (although there is one
in the Gospel of Peter).
The canonical accounts of the empty tomb are fairly similar. Women
(names and number of women differ) come to the tomb early on Sunday
morning. The stone is rolled away and the tomb is empty. The synoptics
also have a messenger (or two) speak to the women.
There is great diversity in the accounts of the appearances of the
risen Christ. It is difficult to harmonize any of them. Perhaps there
is a message in that: Our contemporary experiences of the risen Christ
will differ. There are those who visibly see a white light and others
don't. There are those who experience Christ in a radical
transforming, "born-again," event in their lives. There are those for
whom Christ as been such a reality throughout their lives that they
can't think of a moment when Christ wasn't present to them or when
there was a great turning point in their lives. How the risen Christ
comes to people differ. Our stories about the risen Christ's presence
in our lives differ.
In addition, Keener (_A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew_) quotes
from Sander's argument that "a calculated deception should have
produced greater unanimity. Instead, there seem to have been
competitors: 'I saw him first!' 'No! I did.'" But the divergent
details suggest independent traditions, thereby underling the
likelihood of details the accounts share in common. [p. 697]
MATTHEW 28:1-10
As I noted in the introduction note, there are two themes related to
the resurrection. Both are part of this lesson.
A. Two Marys Discover the Empty Tomb (28:1-7)
B. Jesus Appears to the Two Marys (28:8-10)
WHY WOMEN?
Throughout Matthew's Passion, women have proven to be the model
disciples. There is the unnamed woman who anoints Jesus for his burial
(26:6-13). The men argue about the waste of the expensive ointment.
Jesus commends her for her "good work" for him. (Note: that the women
come to the tomb not to anoint the body as in Mark, for the anointing
has already taken place.)
After all the men have run away and Peter who had followed, but then
denies knowing Jesus, the women remain through the crucifixion
(27:55-56). We are told that they had "provided" for Jesus, which
could also be translated "served" or "ministered to" (_diakoneo_).
This same word is used of the angels serving Jesus after the
temptation (4:11) and of Peter's mother-in-law serving them after her
healing (8:15).
Jesus had said: "Whoever wants to be great among you must be your
servant (_diakonos_) (20:26b) and "The greatest among you will be your
servant (_diakonos_) (23:11). It is only angels and women who actually
serve Jesus in Matthew.
Seemingly out of nowhere these women appear -- and they had been with
Jesus since Galilee. They had been invisible up until this point.
Perhaps they illustrate the truth that the last will be first (19:30;
20:16).
In the first century, women were not allowed to testify in court. They
were not considered reliable witnesses. Keener (_A Commentary on the
Gospel of Matthew_) writes:
Most of Jesus' Jewish contemporaries held little esteem for the
testimony of women; this reflects a broader Mediterranean limited
trust of women's speech and testimony also enshrined in Roman law.
By contrast, the guards' report that the disciples had stolen the
body (28:11-15) might command much greater respect then, and in an
antisupernaturalistic culture like much of modern academia as well.
[pp. 698-9]
A little later he notes: "In view of the prejudice against women's
testimony in antiquity, no one would have invented the testimony of
the women attested in all four Gospels; indeed, Paul even omits it"
[p. 702].
Patte (_The Gospel According to Matthew_) also writes about the
contrast between women and the guards:
Both the guards and the women are confronted with the same
situation, which involves the earthquake, the rolled-back stone, and
the presence of the angel of the Lord who is "from heaven," whose
appearance clearly shows his supernatural origin: His appearance was
like lightning, and his raiment white as snow" (28:3). It is clear
that Matthew here contrasts two responses to the divine
manifestation in the action and person of the angel. [p. 394-5]
The contrasting responses become even clearer in the next section
(28:7-15) of Patte's comments:
Matthew sets another narrative opposition by contrasting what the
woman are supposed to do according to the angel's (28:7) and Jesus'
(28:10) command -- announce Jesus' resurrection to the disciples (as
they start to do, 28:8) -- _and_ what the soldiers are supposed to
do according to the Jewish leaders' command (28:13) -- tell that the
disciples have stolen Jesus' body (as they do, according to 28:15).
... [p. 295]
Both have seen the same thing. Both are commanded to speak about the
event. Both are to report more than what was (originally) seen. For
the women, the events at the empty tomb happened because Jesus has
been raised. For the guards, the events at the empty tomb happened
because they fell asleep and the disciples stole the body.
A great irony in all of this is that the guards were posted and the
tomb sealed with the large stone so that there would not be a
deception about a resurrection following the burial. Now it is clear
that it is the chief priests who have devised the deception.
Patte, in commenting on 27:62-28:2 writes:
The point made by the opposition between being raised (27:63b, 64b)
and stealing the body (27:64) -- two actions that would result in an
empty tomb -- simply contrasts what God and human beings can do. God
alone can fulfill what has been announced by Jesus: "After three
days I will rise again." Acting on their own, human beings perform
only fraudulent actions, as reflected by the use of the verb "to
steal." Similarly, the opposition between sealing the stone (27:66)
and rolling back the stone (28:2) contrasts divine action with human
action. The earthquake manifests, as in 27:51, the awesome character
of God's power, while the description of the "angel of the Lord"
descending "from heaven" (28:2) makes clear what is the origin of
this power. All that human beings can do is attempt to safeguard a
situation as it stands, to preserve the status quo, a futile attempt
because God's intervention is of an earth-shaking proportion, and
intervention that shatters the status quo.
In sum, these two oppositions underscore that human beings by
themselves can only do two things: they can either transform a
situation in a fraudulent manner or strive to maintain the status
quo. In contrast, God through his intervention radically transforms
a situation and shatters the status quo. In short, the resurrection
can be understood and accepted only insofar as one abandons a human
perspective, which can lead one either to contradict the will of God
(as stealing does) or to refuse God's intervention by striving to
maintain the status quo that it would shatter. [p. 393]
In both the crucifixion and resurrection, Matthew has a greater
eschatological flavor: the earthquakes, the splitting of rocks, the
opening of tombs. Boring (_Matthew_, NIB) writes about this emphasis:
The resurrection is an eschatological event, the ultimately decisive
event for human history, not merely something spectacular that
happened to Jesus. Thus resurrection faith is not merely believing
that a dead body came back to life, or that the tomb was empty on
Easter morning. Those who believed that Jesus was John the Baptist
risen from the dead did not have resurrection faith (14:1; 16:14).
The soldiers and chief priests who knew the fact that Jesus had
"come back to life" did not have Christian faith in the resurrection
(28:11-15). [p. 504-5]
Boring doesn't seem to spell out what is needed for resurrection
faith. I think that it is the shattering of the status quo that Patte
talks about. Women, who can't be witnesses, are called by God to be
witnesses of the resurrection. All of the disciples who had run away
and Peter who had denied Jesus, are called "my brothers" by the risen
Jesus (28:10). The women also become agents of reconciliation! Not
only is the believers' attitude about death radically changed -- there
is life beyond death, just as Jesus said; but also their attitude
about people whom society considered "least," such as women and
children, was transformed.
How long would the disciples have to rely solely on the women's word
and witness? However long it would take to walk from Jerusalem to
Galilee. That is where Jesus promises they would see him (and they do
in 28:17).
THE APPEARANCE OF JESUS
It is when the women respond to the angel's command to go quickly and
tell (v. 7) -- and they leave quickly, _running_ to tell the disciples
(v. 8) -- that the risen Jesus appears to them. (Does stopping to talk
with Jesus mean that the women had been sidetracked from obeying the
angel's command?)
Part of Matthew's purpose in this account is to show the reality of
the physical resurrection as the women grab his feet; and the proper
response of worshiping the risen Lord (v. 9).
This scene is an illustration of Jesus' comment: "Just as you did it
to the one of the least of these who are members of my family, [lit.
"these my brothers"] you did it to me" (25:40). Jesus is encountered
in the doing of ministry. Boring notes even more passages:
They [the women] are already en route on their mission when they are
joined by the risen Christ, a paradigm of Matthew's understanding of
the reassuring presence of the risen Christ in the missionary
activity of the church (cf. 1:23; 10:40; 13:37; 14:22-33; 16:18;
17:17; 18:5, 20; 28:20). [p. 500]
DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?
Keener seems to deal with the question of "Did it really happen?" when
he writes:
Those inventing an empty tomb tradition would hardly have included
women as the first witnesses, and "Jesus' resurrection could hardly
have been proclaimed in Jerusalem if people knew of a tomb still
containing Jesus' body" (quoted from Schweizer).
Those who witnessed Jesus alive from the dead (e.g., 1 Cor 15:1-8;
virtually all the narrative accounts also suggest significant
conversation with him rather than fleeting appearances) were so
convinced of the veracity of their claims that many devoted their
lives to proclaiming what they had seen, and some died for it;
clearly their testimony was not fabricated. Supposed pagan parallels
to the resurrection stories are weak. Most pagans would have
preferred to play down a savior's human death. [pp. 704-5]
CONCLUSIONS
I'll end with a reflections from Boring.
Resurrection faith does not arise on the basis of evidence, of which
the chief priests and soldiers had plenty, but on the basis of the
experienced presence of the risen Christ (28:8-10, 16-17), by
testimony of those to whom he appeared (28:10, 16), and by his own
continuing presence among his disciples (28:20). [p. 503]
We need to proclaim a radical resurrection faith in the present, not
just a historical event.
Brian Stoffregen
Faith Lutheran Church, 2215 S 8th Ave., Yuma, AZ 85364
e-mail: brian.stoffregen@gmail.com