AFTER 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. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
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. 9Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
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.
16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 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.”
Original Meaning
THE PAX ROMANA, the famed “peace of Rome,” was a surface condition imposed by Caesar Augustus and the Roman military might, but it did not bring freedom to all her subjects. Just below the surface swirled tides of discontent and insurrection. Matthew opens his Gospel by declaring that in one of the remote regions of the empire, where a variety of disturbances repeatedly surfaced, the hoped-for freedom finally arrived in a most unexpected way. A rival to Augustus was born in Bethlehem. But this rival did not appear with fanfare, nor would he challenge directly the military and political might of Rome. The revolution was brought by Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah of Israel, who fulfilled the covenantal promises of an anticipated Davidic king and the covenantal promises of Abrahamic blessings through Israel to all the nations of the earth (1:1). But throughout his life’s mission Jesus disappointed many of his own people, because his was a revolution of the heart, not a revolution of swords or chariots.
Jesus resolutely set about bringing the kingdom of God to earth in his own way, with his own anticipated conquest of the ultimate enemy, Satan and his forces. But that conquest once again did not come in the way that many within Israel expected. It came through Jesus’ execution. In the longest extended narrative of this Gospel, Matthew tells the stunning tale of Jesus Messiah’s final betrayal, denials, arrest, trials, and crucifixion (chs. 26–27). That narrative ends on such a somber note that readers might assume that all Jesus came to accomplish was lost. But in one of the shortest narratives in his Gospel, Matthew gives an equally stunning account of Jesus Messiah’s resurrection from the dead (ch. 28).
The brevity of the resurrection account is almost anticlimactic. But like the brevity of the announcement of Jesus’ conception, the resurrection was a well-accepted historical fact for Matthew’s readers, so there was no need for extensive narrative. The resurrection declares that Jesus is who he said he was, that what he came to accomplish at the cross was efficacious, and that he now lives to be the faithful Companion, Master, and Lord of all who respond to his Great Commission. That is what brings the ultimate peace, the forgiveness of sins that reconciles humans to God and humans to humans, a revolution that the Roman Empire could never crush. The new age of real peace, pax Dei, the “peace of God” that transcends all understanding (Phil. 4:7), has begun for all who dare to become Jesus’ disciples.
Matthew’s concluding chapter climaxes the amazing story of Jesus Messiah. He was conceived in a miraculous manner as the Savior of his people. He lived a sensational life in the Spirit’s power, announcing the arrival of the kingdom of heaven. But he was tragically betrayed by his own people and crucified by the Roman government. Would that be the end of the story? Indeed not! Jesus Messiah is found missing from his grave, just as he predicted. The angel announces the resurrection, his women followers are the first to witness both the empty tomb and the risen Jesus, the authorities try to concoct a tale to counteract the miracle, and all of his followers now have a commission to invite people to enter into a relationship with the risen Jesus as his disciples.
As the astonishing verification of his divine identity as Son of God (Rom. 1:4) and of the efficaciousness of his atoning work on the cross, Jesus’ resurrection figures prominently in all four Gospels. While we cannot resolve all of the differences between the resurrection accounts, their variations strengthen the truth that these Gospel writers are independent witnesses and are not attempting to reproduce a concocted deception.1 “The proposal that Jesus was bodily raised from the dead possesses unrivalled power to explain the historical data at the heart of early Christianity.”2 Indeed, the variations add to the historical plausibility of this most momentous event of history.3
Three elements are common to all four Gospels: the empty tomb, the announcement of the resurrection to the women, and the meeting of the disciples with the risen Jesus.4 A further plausible synchronization of the events surrounding Jesus’ resurrection and appearances found in four Gospel versions and in Paul’s account in 1 Corinthians 15:1–11 is as follows:5
1. A group of women come to the tomb near dawn, with Mary Magdalene possibly arriving first (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1–3; Luke 24:1; John 20:1).
2. Mary and the other women are met by two young men who actually are angels, one of whom announces Jesus’ resurrection (Matt. 28:2–7; Mark 16:4–7; Luke 24:2–7).
3. The women leave the garden with a mixture of fear and joy, at first unwilling to say anything but then resolving to report to the Twelve (Matt. 28:8; Mark 16:8). Mary Magdalene may have dashed on ahead, telling Peter and John before the other women arrive (John 20:2).
4. Peter and John run to the tomb and discover it to be empty (Luke 24:12; John 20:3–5).
5. Mary also returns to the tomb and sees the angels. Jesus then appears to Mary, although at first she supposes him to be a gardener (John 20:11–18).
6. Jesus meets the remaining women and confirms their commission to tell the disciples, with the reminder of his promise of meeting them in Galilee; the women obey (Matt. 28:9–10; Luke 24:8–11).
7. During the afternoon Jesus appears to Peter individually, in or near Jerusalem on the Sunday afternoon of the resurrection day (Luke 24:34; 1 Cor. 15:5).
8. Later in the day Jesus appears to Cleopas and his unnamed companion on the road to Emmaus. They return to Jerusalem to tell the Eleven (Luke 24:13–35; cf. Mark 16:12–13).
9. While Cleopas and his friend are in the Upper Room with the disciples (without Thomas) behind locked doors, Jesus appears to them (Luke 24:36–43; John 20:19–25).
10. Sunday evening a week later Jesus appears to the Eleven at the same place in Jerusalem, with Thomas now present (John 20:26–29; 1 Cor. 15:5; cf. Mark 16:14).
11. Perhaps three days later Jesus appears to seven of the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1–14).
12. Jesus appears to the apostles as well as about five hundred believers in the hills of Galilee (1 Cor. 15:6). Further appearances take place over a forty-day period (Luke 24:44–47; Acts 1:3; 1 Cor. 15:6).
13. Probably during this time in Galilee, Jesus appears to James, his half-brother (1 Cor. 15:7).
14. Jesus gives his climactic Great Commission to the Eleven (and others?) on a mountain in Galilee, commanding them to make disciples throughout the world (Matt. 28:16–20; cf. Mark 16:15–18).
15. Back in the Jerusalem area, Jesus gives parting instructions to the disciples to await the coming Holy Spirit. He ascends into heaven near Bethany on the Mount of Olives, outside of Jerusalem (Luke 24:44–53; Acts 1:4–12; cf. Mark 16:19–20).
The Women Disciples of Jesus Discover an Empty Tomb (28:1–4)
MATTHEW LEFT OFF the crucifixion narrative with Joseph of Arimathea wrapping the body of Jesus in burial cloths and placing him in Joseph’s own tomb. At least two of the women disciples of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, watched these beginnings of the preparations of the body for burial. Perhaps these women, along with others who had followed Jesus from Galilee, worked together with Joseph and Nicodemus to prepare the corpse for burial.6
Mark 16:1 tells us that at the conclusion of the Sabbath, the women disciples went to purchase materials for anointing Jesus’ body. Sabbath restrictions limited the women’s travel and ability to purchase all of the necessary materials. They apparently began before the Sabbath to gather what burial elements they had available (cf. Luke 23:56), and after sundown, the women were able purchase the remaining materials when the shops reopened.
After the Sabbath, at dawn (28:1). Matthew begins his narrative of the resurrection scenes by recounting how certain women come to the tomb “after the Sabbath.”7 Jesus repeatedly said he would be raised “on the third day” (16:21; 17:23; 20:19). Keeping in mind that the Old Testament regularly reckoned a part of a day as a whole day,8 we understand that Jesus was in the tomb for a part of three days. Dying at approximately 3:00 P.M. on Friday, he was placed in the tomb before sundown (day one). He remained in the tomb all day Saturday (day two) and from sundown Saturday until his resurrection on Sunday morning (day three). Thus, he was raised on the third day, as he prophesied (see comments on 12:40; 26:16).
Most of the same women who courageously witnessed Jesus’ gruesome crucifixion and burial plan to visit the tomb in order to assist the family in finalizing the body for burial. Jewish custom permitted both men and women to prepare corpses, with women allowed to attend to corpses of either gender but men not allowed to attend to women’s corpses.9 The women go to the place where Jesus was laid prior to the Sabbath (see comments on 27:60–66). Mary Magdalene takes a prominent role here again, but accompanying her is “the other Mary,” the mother of James and Joses (cf. 27:56). While Mark and Luke cite other women as well (see comments on 27:55–56), Matthew focuses only on Mary Magdalene and this other Mary.
An earthquake, an angel, and a rolling stone (28:2–4). Another earthquake (see comments on 27:51) now rocks the Jerusalem area, apparently before sunrise. While not uncommon in this region, this second earthquake surrounds the supreme supernatural event, the resurrection of Jesus. A. T. Roberston quotes Cornelius à Lapide as saying, “The earth, which trembled with sorrow at the Death of Christ as it were leaped for joy at His Resurrection.”10
The conjunction “for” (gar) that begins the phrase “for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven” (28:2) suggests that the earthquake accompanies the appearance of the angel or is the means used by the angel to roll the stone away, or perhaps the angel’s moving the stone causes the earthquake.11 The miraculous conception, birth, and infancy of Jesus were superintended by an angel of the Lord (1:20–21; 2:13, 19), so it is not surprising that an angel of the Lord now superintends the resurrection, thereby framing Matthew’s story of the divine message God gives to his people in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. As in the infancy narrative, this angel is one of God’s privileged messengers, perhaps Gabriel, who seems to have a special role in announcements (see Luke 1:11–20, 26–38).12
Entrances to burial tombs were sealed in a variety of ways; this one was sealed by a cylindrical stone that rolled up a trough, which was wedged open while a body was being attended inside the chamber. Matthew alone relates that as the angel of the Lord rolls away the stone, he sits on it. The stone that was sealed by the guards to assure that the body of Jesus would remain in the crypt now becomes the seat of triumph for the angel. The stone is rolled away, not to let the risen Jesus out but to let the women in to witness the fact of the empty tomb.
The dramatic appearance of the angel is “like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.” The brilliance of the angel of the Lord is often associated with descriptions of lightning (cf. Rev. 4:5; 16:17–18), as is Jesus’ own return (24:27). The white clothing symbolizes angelic, brilliant purity. The women have come to the tomb with the fear that someone might steal the body; now they find the stone rolled away and an angel seated inside. Quickly they discover that something very different is occurring: Jesus has been raised and is alive again.
The appearance of a fiery angel often terrified people (Judg. 13:19–20; 4 Ezra 10:25–27). When the guards see the angel, they are so afraid that they shake and become “like dead men.” “Shake” is the same verb as used for the earthquake at the crucifixion (seio, 27:51). Their becoming “like dead men” is the same expression used of John’s reaction to his vision of the ascended Jesus in Revelation 1:17. Perhaps they faint from the shock of the angelic visitation, but Donald Hagner points to the inescapable irony: “The ones assigned to guard the dead themselves appear dead while the dead one has been made alive.”13 These guards are battle-hardened veterans, used to facing fearful situations. But nothing has prepared them for this encounter. After the angel speaks to the women, the guards hurriedly go into the city to report to the chief priests.
The Angel Announces the Resurrection of Jesus (28:5–6)
THE ANGEL CALMS the women (28:5). For the first time the angel speaks to the women: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.” Luke includes a second angel, but Matthew and Mark focus only on the one who speaks for both.14 The angel of the Lord told Joseph not to fear at the events surrounding Jesus’ conception and birth (1:20), which is the same message needed at the events surrounding Jesus’ resurrection. No prior experience could adequately prepare humans to handle emotionally the supernatural events of the incarnation and resurrection. These women have come for Jesus in whom they placed their hopes of messianic deliverance, but who is now merely the One “who was crucified.”
The perfect participial phrase “who was crucified” is used substantivally in apposition to Jesus. We can render this “Jesus, the Crucified One.” The perfect tense generally indicates an ongoing result as a result of the completion of past action. Here and elsewhere in the New Testament, Jesus remains the Crucified One (cf. 1 Cor. 1:23; 2:2; Gal. 3:1). Matthew has demonstrated the power of the cross, and he does not negate that. Here, however, there may also be a sense of irony in the appellation. The women are seeking Jesus as the one who was crucified, but he is no longer in that state. He is not there as the Crucified One.
The angel announces Jesus’ resurrection (28:6). The angel goes on to announce the reason for the empty grave: “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” While other stories will be concocted to try to cover up the truth (cf. 28:11–15), God’s word of revelation through the angel tells the real story—Jesus has indeed been raised from the dead. Judaism hoped for the bodily resurrection of all people; now Jesus is the dramatic firstfruits of that expectation (cf. 1 Cor. 15:20, 23). These events are not unfolding haphazardly. The angel bears testimony to the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecies of his death and resurrection (16:21; 17:23; 20:19), which forcefully verify Jesus’ words about his mission and identity.
The agent of the passive voice “was raised” (not “has risen” as in NIV) is not expressed, but this is a clear use of the “divine passive,” where agency is left unexpressed since it is obvious from the context that God the Father is the One who raised Jesus from the dead.15 He has made the final affirmation and declaration of the Son’s identity and ministry by raising Jesus (cf. Rom. 1:1–3), completing a theme of approval in his baptism and transfiguration.16
To complete the verification of the resurrection, the angel invites the women to enter the tomb to see the place where Jesus was laid just a few short days earlier. Jesus was not just raised spiritually; he was resurrected physically; his body was no longer in the tomb.
The Angel’s Instructions to the Women Disciples (28:7)
THE ANGEL THEN instructs the women to go immediately and tell Jesus’ disciples about this remarkable news and tell them that they will see him in Galilee. The expression “his disciples” probably refers to the Eleven. They will go to Galilee to spend concentrated time with their resurrected Lord, who will clarify his role in salvation history in relationship to the arrival and nature of the kingdom of God and so prepare them for their leadership role in the church (cf. Luke 24:44–47; Acts 1:3).
Women witnesses. One of the most important perspectives on the women here is that God uses them as witnesses not only to the central redemptive act of history, Jesus’ death on the cross, but also to his resurrection. Since the women were present for Jesus’ death on the cross and his burial by Joseph of Arimathea (cf. 27:55–56, 61), they can verify that he was truly dead, not just unconscious. Several of them witnessed the sealing of the tomb (27:60–61; Mark 15:46–47; Luke 23:55), and they are the first witnesses of the empty tomb and the resurrected Jesus (Matt. 28:1–6; Mark 16:1–6; Luke 24:1–8; John 20:1–16). They are designated by both the angel and Jesus to carry their witness to the other disciples as the first to testify of the reality of the resurrection (Matt. 28:10; Mark 16:7; John 20:17).
Galilee. Galilee was the location of Jesus’ boyhood, but even more importantly the central location of his earthly ministry (cf. 4:12). Now Galilee continues as a central place of his ascended ministry. This fulfills Jesus’ own prophecy that after he was raised, he would go before them to Galilee (26:32). Jesus will appear to his disciples over the course of about a week in Jerusalem until they can fully comprehend the fact of his resurrection (cf. Luke 24:11; John 20:24–25). Then they go to Galilee, where he appears to them over the course of about thirty days (cf. Matt. 28:16; John 21; Acts 1:3).
The Risen Jesus Appears to the Women Disciples (28:8–10)
THE WOMEN RUN to tell the disciples (28:8). The women heed the urgent directive from the angel to go quickly to tell the disciples of Jesus’ resurrection. They came to the tomb expecting to find the death of their hopes, but now everything is turned upside down, and even their wildest dreams pale beside the astonishing message that Jesus has been raised. Their reaction is one of “fear,” but yet of “great joy.” The empty tomb, the appearance and message of the angel, and the urgency of informing the disciples produce fear. Moreover, the uncertainty of the future also produces fear of the unknown. These women disciples probably only have a faint awareness of all that this means, but they have followed Jesus long enough to know where it has gotten him—rejection from his own people and death. Their own lives will never be the same.
Yet there is great joy. Something deep within them is beginning to recognize that all they hoped for in Jesus is actually beginning to come true. These women know just enough of what the future now may hold, for the prediction of Jesus’ resurrection has been fulfilled. Jesus is alive. Their future now includes the risen Jesus, the long-anticipated and now fully realized Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world.
The risen Jesus appears to the women, who worship him (28:9). As the women go, the risen Jesus meets them to confirm the reality of their hopes. He “suddenly” appears and gives an ordinary greeting, one they must have heard him utter on many occasions but which now prompts them to fall at his feet to “worship” him. The presence of the risen Jesus turns their fear into worship. By mentioning that they “clasped his feet,” Matthew subtly emphasizes that this is no mere spiritual vision but a physical resurrection.
The reality of Jesus’ resurrection tells the women something about him that evokes their profound adoration. The word for “worship” (proskyneo) in Matthew can either indicate kneeling before an esteemed religious figure (e.g., 8:2) or, when linked with the action of grasping of feet, worship. By allowing this act of worship here and in 28:17, something which neither angels (Rev. 22:8–9) nor apostles allow of themselves (Acts 10:25–26; 14:11–15), Jesus accepts the acknowledgment of his deity. Only God is to be worshiped (cf. Matt. 4:9–10; 14:33; Rev. 22:9), and these women now prostrate themselves before the Risen One, who is rightly to be accorded that honor.
The risen Jesus commissions the women as the first witnesses of the resurrection (28:10). The women are probably still afraid because of the extraordinary events they have just encountered, and the appearance of Jesus escalates their apprehension. Events are unfolding at a pace that outstrips their ability to maintain their grip. So Jesus calms their fear by repeating the same word of comfort from the angel (“Do not be afraid”), but he also repeats a charge from the angel: “Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Jesus switches from “disciples” to “my brothers.” This may simply be a stylistic variation to refer to the Eleven, or it may indicate the larger group of disciples, who also will witness the risen Jesus (e.g., 1 Cor. 15:6). The latter may explain the reaction of “some” who doubt (see comments on 28:17).17
In 12:49–50, Jesus’ disciples are called his “brother, and sister, and mother,” indicating not only their relationship to him but also to each other. They are now brothers and sisters of one family of faith. There are still functional differences within the family of faith, especially with reference to positions of leadership (e.g., 16:16–19; 1 Tim. 3:1–15; 5:17–20; Heb. 13:17; 1 Peter 5:1–5). But emphasis is placed on the equality of all brothers and sisters in Christ. All who believe on Jesus as the Risen Savior are his disciples, his brothers and sisters.
Many scholars consider God’s choice of these women as the first witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection to be one of the bedrock truths of the resurrection narratives and the historicity of the resurrection itself.18 It is unlikely that any Jew would have created such a story as fiction. (1) There was disagreement among some of the rabbis as to the acceptability of a woman giving testimony in a court of law. Some rabbis did not accept women as valid witnesses, for they were said to be liars by nature.19 However, this seems to be a minority opinion, for a number of others did allow women to give testimony.20 But because of that disagreement, it would seem unlikely that a Jew would fictionalize a woman’s testimony in the case of Jesus’ resurrection.
(2) The cowardly picture painted of the men hiding away in Jerusalem while the women boldly carry out their responsibilities to prepare Jesus’ body for burial would certainly offend the sensibilities of Jewish readers and doubtless would not have been recorded unless it were true.
(3) The listing of the names of the women weighs against being fiction, because these women were known in early Christian fellowship and would not have easily been associated with a false account.21
They will see Jesus in Galilee (28:10). Matthew does not specify where in Galilee Jesus intends to meet with the disciples, but he later records that the Eleven go “to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go” (28:16).Insofar as they have spent so much time together, they would know the spot to rendezvous. They will soon be so taken with the reality of the resurrection that they will know that the risen Jesus is able to find them wherever they may be.
Jesus’ intention in directing these women to call for his brothers to meet him in Galilee marks an important salvation-historical turning point. Since they are the first witnesses to the resurrection, this suggests that they should be regarded as equal in value to men and be restored as coworkers with men in the community of faith, a role they had been assigned from creation (Gen. 1:26–28). The mention of “my brothers” likewise reiterates that all Jesus’ disciples are equal in value within the family of faith. Moreover, the return to Galilee harks back to the region of “Galilee of the Gentiles” (cf. 4:15–16), thus preparing the way for Jesus’ commission to make disciples of all nations (28:16–20). The historical precedence of going to Israel (10:5–6; 15:24) has been fulfilled. Now the family of faith includes all who are Jesus’ disciples, from every gender, every ethnicity, and every religion.
The Conspiracy to Deny the Truth of Jesus’ Resurrection (28:11–15)
JESUS’ WOMEN FOLLOWERS immediately obey their risen Master by hurrying to tell the miraculous story of the resurrection, but Jesus’ enemies scurry to put an end to the history-altering events of the empty tomb. This incident about the conspiracy to deny the truth of Jesus’ resurrection continues the earlier incident in the crucifixion narrative when the chief priests and Pharisees go to Pilate to request a guard be placed at the tomb (see 27:62–66).
Matthew is the only Gospel writer who recounts these incidents, which has led some to doubt their historicity because of their obvious apologetic nature.22 However, if no rumor had ever been circulating, it is difficult to imagine why Christians would make up such a story and put this idea into other people’s minds. And if the tomb were not empty, the religious leaders would have pointed to the evidence of a body.23 Rather, Matthew is writing for a Jewish-Christian audience who have presumably heard about the charges circulating among the Jews that Jesus’ body was stolen by his disciples, while the audiences of the other evangelists may not have been aware of such charges. Therefore, rather than being a late legend created by the Christian community, in this story Matthew addresses a situation that is of uniquely pressing concern to his readers.24 As N. T. Wright comments:
The point is that this sort of story could only have any point at all in a community where the empty tomb was an absolute and unquestioned datum. Had there been varieties of Christianity that knew nothing of such a thing—in other words, if Bultmann was right to say that the empty tomb was itself a late apologetic fiction—the rise both of stories of body-snatching and of counter-stories to explain why such accusations were untrue is simply incredible.25
Therefore, behind the story as Matthew tells it seems to lie a tradition-history of Jewish and Christian polemic, a developing pattern of assertion and counter-assertion like the following:
Christian: “The Lord is risen!”
Jew: “No, his disciples stole away his body.”
Christian: “The guard at the tomb would have prevented any such theft.”
Jew: “No, his disciples stole away his body while the guard slept.”
Christian: “The chief priests bribed the guard to say this.”26
The guards report to the chief priests (28:11). While some of the guard apparently stay at the tomb since they have not been officially relieved of guard duty, others go into the city to report to the chief priests.27 With such a serious breach of their responsibility to maintain the integrity of the sealed tomb, the guards need to inform their superior officers. These are Roman military personnel assigned by Pilate to the temple authorities for security, which is why they report to them and not to Pilate (see comments on 26:48; 27:65). Their report presumably includes what transpired up to the point when they fainted away—the earthquake, the stone being rolled back, the appearance of the brilliance of the angel, and the empty tomb. They apparently did not see the risen Jesus, only the results of his resurrection. But they know that they have failed their orders to secure the burial scene, because the tomb is empty.
The chief priests conspire with the elders (28:12). As soon as the chief priests hear the guards’ report, they gather together with the elders for an immediate attempt at damage control. They must account for the empty tomb. Once again the religious leadership conspires to rid themselves of Jesus’ ministry (cf. 16:21; 21:23; 26:3–4). As in the earlier scene where the chief priests and Pharisees laid aside their theological and political antagonisms to collaborate in securing the tomb (27:62), the religious leaders again conspire together because of the threat to their religious and political power base if the truth of Jesus’ resurrection gets out. If Jesus were known to be raised, as he predicted, it would be a validation of his messianic claims, and the people will turn to him—which thousands do at Pentecost and thereafter (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 6:1, 7).
Why do these Jewish religious leaders try to prevent the verification of Jesus’ messianic identity? We need to remember that they truly believe that Jesus’ ministry is satanically empowered (12:22–32), and they undoubtedly think that they are doing the right thing in preventing what they believe to be another satanically empowered event to deceive the people. Overall, however, the Jewish leaders are themselves sadly deceived. Yet, the wonderful good news is that God can break through any hard heart, if one truly repents, as is demonstrated in the earliest days of the church when even priests became obedient disciples of Jesus (e.g., Acts 6:7).
Even as the chief priests and the elders bribed Judas to betray Jesus (26:3–4, 15), so now they bribe the guards to concoct a story. One might wonder how these deliberations became known to the Christian community until we recall that some of Jesus’ own followers, such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea (see comments on 27:55–61), were privy to the highest echelons of the Jerusalem religious elite.
The concocted story (28:13). The specific plan that the chief priests and elders devise is to have the guards say, “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.” This is an extremely dubious story. It is unlikely that all of the guards would have been asleep on guard duty, because the penalty for falling asleep while on duty could be execution (cf. Acts 12:19). Further, would not rolling the stone away have awakened at least some of them? And if they were asleep, how do they know the disciples have stolen the body? Besides, the disciples did not have sufficient courage to attend the crucifixion and even denied Jesus. Would they have mounted up a plot to steal his body from a well-guarded tomb?
Why then do the religious leaders concoct such a dubious story? And why do the guards agree to be implicated for negligence of duty? As noted above, the religious leaders are desperate and want to hide what really happened. The guards are likewise in a predicament. If they accept the plan of the Jewish religious leaders, they are putting themselves in jeopardy with their Roman superiors for falling asleep. But at the same time, they are already in jeopardy because they have allowed the security of the tomb to be breached. They cannot deny the tomb is empty, and who would believe them about some angelic being? Additionally, they failed to put up a fight. Either way, therefore, they face possible execution for dereliction of guard duty. Thus, with the backing of the Jewish religious leaders, they at least have a chance to escape punishment, and the religious leaders see in their proposal a crafty way of accounting for the empty tomb.
The Jewish leaders’ ruse (28:14–15). The religious leaders must thus keep the guards out of trouble with Pilate. So they tell the guards, “If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”There has been a devious collaboration between the religious leaders and Pilate already, in which both sides have attempted to use the other for their own purposes (see comments on 27:1–2, 21–25). It would do Pilate no good to have rumors circulating that Jesus has been raised from the dead, so the Jewish leaders are confident that they can maintain a collaboration with Pilate to hide the truth of the empty tomb and at the same time cast the disciples in a negative light for trying to perpetuate a deception of Jesus’ resurrection.
Military personnel are trained to do as ordered without asking questions of their superiors. These soldiers know well enough the truth of the empty tomb, but they do not know the significance of the threat to the religious establishment or the religious significance of the empty tomb. If both Jewish and Roman superiors are agreed, there is no threat to the guards from either of them if they simply take the bribe and keep quiet. So they accept it and carry out the Jewish leaders’ ruse.
Matthew writes upwards of thirty years after these events, and yet he states, “And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.” This Matthean aside indicates an active attempt by the Jewish leaders to counteract the increasingly widespread declaration that Jesus was raised from the dead in vindication of his claim to be Messiah. Nearly a century later the rumor was still being spread among the Jews, as is evident in the writings of Justin Martyr.28 The truth is often harder for a person to believe than a lie, and many then, and even now, fall for this conspiracy to avoid the radical truth of Jesus’ resurrection.
Jesus’ Great Commission (28:16–20)
THERE ARE VARIATIONS on the theme of commissioning in the other Gospels and Acts (cf. Luke 24:44–49; John 21:15–23; Acts 1:8), but this concluding paragraph is unique to Matthew’s Gospel and bears his unique emphases. Themes that have characterized this gospel are here culminated and united:29
1. Jesus’ unique authority as the divine Son of God demands the worship of his followers (e.g., chs. 1–2; 3:17; 4:1–11; 14:33).
2. Jesus’ form of discipleship transcends ethnic, gender, and religious boundaries to form a new community of faith called the church (e.g., 12:46–50; 16:18–19;18:17–18).
3. Jesus’ final move, from particularism in fulfilling the covenantal promises to Israel, to universal salvation offered to all the nations, is proclaimed in preaching of the gospel of the kingdom of God (e.g., 1:1; 10:5–6; 15:21–28).
4. Jesus’ call to inside-out righteousness is experienced through obedience to his teachings as the fulfillment of God’s will for his people (e.g., 5:20–48; 15:1–20).
5. Jesus’ promises of his eternal presence with his disciples is fulfilled because he is Immanuel, “God with us” (e.g., 1:23).
The brevity of the final narrative in comparison to the length of the rest of the Gospel accentuates, by understatement, the radical importance of these events. It starkly highlights the miraculous resurrection of Jesus as the cause of the empty tomb, and then just as starkly emphasizes the universal authority of the risen Jesus as the One who begins the alteration of human history with the universal invitation to personal discipleship and transformation through the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom of God. The five short verses that comprise this Great Commission passage are among the most important to establish the ongoing agenda of the church throughout the ages. That sentiment is caught by the early church father Chrysostom:
Observe the excellence of those who were sent out into the whole world. Others who were called found ways of excusing themselves. But these did not beg off. . . . With Jesus’ resurrection his own proper glory is again restored, following his humiliation. Jesus reminded his disciples of the consummation of all things, so that they would not look at the present dangers only but also at the good things to come that last forever. He promised to be not only with these disciples but also with all who would subsequently believe after them. . . . So let us not fear and shudder. Let us repent while there is opportunity. Let us arise out of our sins. We can by grace, if we are willing.30
This is also our clarion call to hear and obey Jesus’ final words in this magnificent Gospel according to Matthew.
The risen Jesus appears to his disciples in Galilee (28:16–17). Matthew cites only Jesus’ resurrection appearances to the women on resurrection morning in Jerusalem (28:9–10) and then his appearance in Galilee to (at least) the eleven disciples. Approximately ten days after the resurrection, the eleven disciples arrive in Galilee to meet with Jesus as he and the angel instructed them (28:7, 10). Thus “Galilee of the Gentiles,” an expression laden implicitly with importance at the beginning of Matthew’s narrative of Jesus’ ministry (4:15–16), comes to explicit fulfillment as the gospel will go to all the nations (28:19).31
For the first time those who had been designated as the Twelve (cf. 10:1–2) are called “the eleven disciples.” The designation “eleven” has poignant significance. Judas has betrayed Jesus and hanged himself (27:3–5), so he is excluded. But although Peter denied his Lord and hid away at the moment of testing, he is still numbered among the disciples (Luke 24:9–12, 33–34) and is restored to a position of leadership among them (cf. Acts 1:15–26; 2:14–39).
As the eleven disciples proceed to Galilee, the region where they spent the most time with Jesus, they go to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. Mount Tabor is the traditional site associated with this appearance, but for the same reasons as it was most likely not the site of the Transfiguration (cf. 17:1–8), it is most likely not the scene of this resurrection appearance. Rather, Jesus arranges to meet with the disciples at some spot known to them in the many hills surrounding the Sea of Galilee, which has never been specifically identified.
For the first time in Matthew’s narrative, the disciples encounter the risen Jesus, and appropriately their response is to “worship” him. All along Jesus has been leading them to understand his true identity as the Son of God, a fact in his earthly ministry that was difficult for them to comprehend. But now that he has been raised, which is the declaration that he is indeed God’s Son, and they have received at least two to three appearances from the risen Jesus prior to this in Jerusalem, they are prepared to give him the homage that is due him.
But then Matthew strikes a jarring, although remarkably believable, note when he comments further that “some [hoi de] doubted.”32 Since Matthew mentions only the eleven disciples, is he saying that some of them doubted? How many are “some”? This appears inconsistent with the previous phrase, where the eleven worship Jesus. Commentators are divided on how best to understand what Matthew intends here.
(1) Many scholars contend that Matthew means that some of the Eleven doubt (taking hoi de in a partitive sense).33 The cause for their doubt may be that Jesus is and is not the same as prior to the resurrection. While some among the Eleven have a fuller understanding, others are still puzzled, perhaps even fearful, of all of these events. Doubt takes over, hindering them from giving over their full confidence to the One whom they understand Jesus to be.
(2) Other commentators take the hoi de as a pronoun meaning “they,”34 which implies that all of the Eleven doubt.35 In this view, the verb distazo
should not be rendered as “doubted” in the sense of unbelief or disbelief, for which other terms are used,36 but rather more like “were uncertain.” Distazo can indicate uncertainty or hesitancy about a particular course of action.37 In other words, with all that has transpired, the disciples are not sure what to do. Too much has happened too fast for them to understand fully what is going on.38
Either of these views accords with the disciples’ actions at Jesus’ transfiguration (17:5–8), where at the voice of the Father the disciples had a mixture of worship and fear until Jesus appeared to them with a touch and word of admonition and commission.
(3) But other scholars suggest that hoi de points to others not among the eleven disciples. They argue that if “worship” (proskyneo) is intended in its most complete sense, then its separation from “some” indicates two separate groups. Carson notes that “doubt about who Jesus is or about the reality of his resurrection does not seem appropriate for true worship.”39 The most likely identity of these others is the unexpected use of “brothers” in 28:10, distinct from “disciples” in 28:7. When Jesus instructed the women disciples to tell his “brothers” to go to Galilee, where they will see him, this likely indicates the wider group of disciples beyond the Eleven. The Eleven will be privileged to see Jesus in Jerusalem, but the broader band of disciples who have not yet encountered the risen Jesus will see him at the gathering in Galilee.
This latter view seems more in line with the broader resurrection appearances of Jesus. The eleven disciples, who have received at least two or three appearances from the risen Jesus in Jerusalem prior to this appearance (Luke 24:36–49; John 20:19–28), are prepared to worship him. However, those disciples in Judea and Galilee who have not yet seen the risen Jesus (i.e., “brothers” in Matt. 28:10) doubt, much like Thomas (John 20:24–29), until Jesus appeared to them bodily. It is difficult to grasp how those who question Jesus here could be those very eleven who have witnessed the dramatic removal of Thomas’s doubt.40
This reminiscence stresses the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection, which is not met by gullible enthusiasm but by logical hesitancy until people are convinced by the facts. Were not all the dead to be raised together? What does it mean that Jesus Messiah alone is raised? These are the kinds of questions that many Jews have until they personally see Jesus raised bodily. If this last view is correct, this passage may well be an allusion to the group of more than five hundred persons to whom Jesus appeared (see 1 Cor. 15:6). This would further correspond with Jesus’ directive to the disciples to meet him in the mountainous area (28:16), a place where he had often met with large groups of people (e.g., 5:1; 15:29–30). Once the doubt of these people is removed by seeing Jesus, they too will fall down in humble worship of the risen Son of God.
The risen Jesus gives his Great Commission to the disciples (28:18–20). As Matthew comes to the final three verses of his Gospel, he encapsulates the primary thrust of the whole book. Otto Michel perhaps overstates the significance of these verses, but he catches their importance to Matthew’s purpose for writing his Gospel:
It is sufficient to say that the whole Gospel was written under this theological premise of Matt 28:18–20 (cf. 28:19 wit. 10:5ff.; 15:24; v. 20 wit. 1:23; also the return to baptism, cf. 3:1). In a way the conclusion goes back to the start and teaches us to understand the whole Gospel, the story of Jesus, “from behind”. Matt 28:18–20 is the key to the understanding of the whole book [his emphasis].41
Hagner likewise states that these verses are “the hallmark of the gospel of Matthew. For these words, perhaps more than any others, distill the outlook and various emphases of the gospel.”42 In this famous “Great Commission,” Jesus declares that his disciples are to make more of what he has made of them. In that sense, the Commission encapsulates Jesus’ purpose for coming to earth, and its placement at the conclusion of this Gospel indicates Matthew’s overall purpose for writing.43 Jesus has come to inaugurate the kingdom of God on earth by bringing men and women into a saving relationship with himself, which heretofore is called “discipleship to Jesus.”
All authority in heaven and on earth. In the mixed state of worship, hesitation, bewilderment, and astonishment found among the broader group of disciples, Jesus comes close to them and addresses them to bring strength and calm. He was and is and always will be their Master, whose presence and words are what bring meaning and guidance to their daily lives. His first words are an essential foundation for the disciples’ personal security, but also for the commission to follow. The all-inclusiveness of the Great Commission for the present age is indicated by the repetition of the adjective pas (“all”): “all authority,” “all nations,” “all things” (NIV “everything”), “all the days” (NIV “always”). Several points flow from Jesus’ declaration of his all-inclusive authority.
(1) Jesus now possesses all authority. In his earthly ministry Jesus declared his authority as the Son of Man to forgive sin (9:6) and to reveal the Father (11:27). Now as the risen Messiah he clearly alludes to his fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy of the Son of Man who has been given all authority, glory, and power, who is rightly worshiped by all nations, and whose dominion and kingdom last forever (Dan. 7:13–14). Jesus can make this claim only if he is fully God, because the entire universe is contained in the authority delegated to him.44 During his earthly ministry he had absolute authority, but his exercise of it was restricted to his incarnate consciousness. In his risen state he exercises his absolute supremacy throughout all heaven and earth.
(2) This authority, as emphasized by the (divine) passive voice, “has been given” to him by the Father. The Son of God is the mediatorial King through whom all of God’s authority is mediated. The resurrected Jesus appears before the disciples to initiate a new order of existence that anticipates his future glorious exaltation and enthronement at God’s right hand (Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9; Phil. 2:9–11).
(3) As the One with all authority, Jesus rules the plan of establishing God’s kingdom throughout the earth. The particularism of the gospel message restricted to Israel during his earthly mission is fulfilled and lifted, as he now authoritatively directs his disciples to a universal mission.45 A. T. Robertson states:
It is the sublimist of all spectacles to see the Risen Christ without money or army or state charging this band of five hundred men and women with world conquest and bringing them to believe it possible and to undertake it with serious passion and power. Pentecost is still to come, but dynamic faith rules on this mountain in Galilee.46
The structure of the Great Commission. The Great Commission contains one primary, central command, the imperative “make disciples,” with three subordinate participles, “go,” baptizing,” and “teaching.” The imperative explains the central thrust of the commission while the participles describe aspects of the process. These subordinate participles take on imperatival force because of the imperative main verb and so characterize the ongoing mandatory process of discipleship to Jesus.47
Jesus’ Great Commission implies more than securing salvation as his disciple. Implied in the imperative “make disciples” is both the call to and the process of becoming a disciple.48 Jesus spent a great deal of time guiding and instructing the disciples in their growth. He now sends them out to do the same. The process will not be exactly the same as what Jesus did, for the circumstances after Pentecost change the process. However, the process will be similar in many ways. As a person responds to the invitation to come out of the nations to start life as a disciple, she or he begins the life of discipleship through baptism and obedience to Jesus’ teaching.49
Make disciples. Even as the Son of Man exercises dominion over all nations in Daniel’s prophecy (Dan. 7:13–14), so Jesus demonstrates his messianic authority to call people of all the nations to be his disciples. Jesus committed his earthly ministry to “making disciples” within Israel (cf. John 4:1), and he commissions his disciples to “make disciples” among the nations.
This is the third time in Matthew’s Gospel that he uses the verb matheteuo (“to make disciples”; cf. 13:52; 27:57). In the first two uses, matheteuo has a passive flavor: “has become a disciple, has been made a disciple.” Here the verb takes on a distinctively transitive sense, “make a disciple,” in which the focus is on calling individuals to absolute commitment to the person of Jesus as one’s sole Master and Lord.50 This command finds remarkable verbal fulfillment in the fourth and final occurrence of this verb in the New Testament as the early Christians proclaim the message of Jesus and “make disciples” (Acts 14:21; NIV “won . . . disciples”). The injunction of the Great Commission is given both to the Eleven and to the broader circle of disciples.
To become a disciple was a common phenomenon in the ancient world, but throughout his ministry Jesus developed a unique form of discipleship for those who followed him. He broke through a variety of barriers—gender, ethnic, religious, social, economic, and so on—by calling all peoples into a personal discipleship relationship with himself. Being a disciple of Jesus was primarily not an academic endeavor like the Pharisees (e.g., 22:16), nor even commitment to a great prophet like John the Baptist (e.g., 9:14). A disciple of Jesus comes to him and him alone for eternal life and will always be only a disciple of Jesus (cf. 19:16, 25–30; 23:8–12; John 6:66–71). The expression is virtually synonymous with the title “Christian.”
All the nations. The object of making disciples is “all the nations.” People of every nation are to receive the opportunity to become Jesus’ disciples. When we read the Commission here in the light of Luke’s Gospel, that “repentance and forgiveness of sins . . . be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47), we understand that Jesus’ ministry in Israel was the beginning point of a universal offer of salvation to all the peoples of the earth.51
Some suggest that “all the nations” means only “Gentiles,” not “Jews,” since Matthew normally refers to Gentiles by this title.52 Many often appeal to this view because of Jesus’ harsh statements about the rejection of the Jewish nation (e.g., 21:43). Most scholars, however, recognize that Jesus’ overall intention is to include Jews in his commission, and Matthew intends his readers to understand their inclusion.53 The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day experienced punishment for their failed leadership and for their culpable role in conspiring to bring Jesus to the Romans for execution (see comments on 27:25). However, God continues to love the whole world, for whom Christ died, which includes Jews (cf. John 3:16; Rom. 5:8).
The rest of the New Testament clearly presents the evangelism of Jews as part of missionary strategy (e.g., Acts 2:22; 13:38–39; Rom. 1:16; Eph. 2:11–16). Although Israel has been rejected for the present time as the instrument and witness of the outworking of the kingdom of God, individual Jews are still invited to participate in the salvation brought by Jesus.54 Matthew uses the full expression “all nations” in settings that most naturally include all peoples, including Jews (cf. 24:9, 14; 25:32). Most important, Matthew here returns to the universal theme of 1:1, where the blessings promised to Abraham, and through him to all people on earth (Gen. 12:3), are now being fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah. Matthew’s theme of universal salvation through Jesus (e.g., 1:1; 2:1–12; 4:15–16; 8:5–13; 10:18; 13:38; 24:14) thus climaxes this Gospel in the command to “make disciples of all the nations.”55 Therefore go. The first participle that modifies the command to make disciples is “go.” Because Jesus now exercises universal authority, “therefore” his disciples must go out and engage in the universal mission to make disciples of all nations. And because of that authority, they have the utmost confidence that he is sovereignly in control of all universal forces.
The disciples had been focused on assisting Jesus in establishing the kingdom on earth, but now that he is crucified and raised, they do not know what they should be doing. According to Acts 1:6, they are still expecting Jesus to restore the kingdom to Israel, even after the resurrection. So Jesus now gives them their marching orders for the present age. The entire earth is to be their mission field “as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (24:14).
To obey Jesus’ commission may require some to leave homeland and go to other parts of the world, but the imperatival nature of the entire commission requires all believers to be involved in it. The completion of the commission is not simply evangelism. Rather, it means calling unbelievers to be converted and embark on the process of being transformed into the image of Jesus in lifelong discipleship.56
Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Even as one is called from among the nations to begin life as a disciple, one must in turn follow the Lord through baptism and through obedience to Jesus’ teaching. As a person responds to the invitation to believe in Jesus, she or he is regenerated to start life as a disciple. The participle “baptizing” describes the activity by which a new disciple identifies with Jesus and his community, and the participle “teaching” introduces the activities by which the new disciple grows in discipleship.57
Purity washings were common among the various sects in Israel, either for entrance to the temple or for daily rituals. Proselyte baptism increasingly indicated conversion from paganism to Judaism. At first Jesus and John the Baptist carried out baptism side by side, marking the arrival of the kingdom of God (cf. John 3:22–4:3). But with the initiation of the new covenant through Jesus’ death and resurrection and the arrival of the Spirit, Jesus’ form of baptism is unique. It is the symbol of conversion, indicating a union and new identity with Jesus Messiah who has died and been raised to new life (cf. Rom. 6:1–4).
In the act of baptism, the new disciple identifies with Jesus and his community of faith and gives public declaration that she or he has become a lifelong adherent to Jesus. The earliest converts on Pentecost in Jerusalem would quite likely have undertaken baptism in the public mikveh baths surrounding the temple, a powerful, public testimony of their newfound commitment to Jesus Messiah (cf. Acts 2:41).58
The uniqueness of Jesus’ form of baptism is emphasized in that new disciples are to be baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (28:19). The use of “name” is common in Scripture for God’s power and authority.59 Jews were not baptized in the name of a person. Baptism in the “name” (note the singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit associates the three as personal distinctions, an early indication of the Trinitarian Godhead and an overt proclamation of Jesus’ deity.
This is the clearest Trinitarian language in the Gospels and is often accused of being a later theological “formula” inserted by Matthew, because it is purported to be too theologically developed to have been used by Jesus at this stage. However, this is not the earliest such Trinitarian expression in the New Testament (cf. Gal. 4:4–7; 1 Cor. 12:4–6; 2 Cor. 13:14), and even in Jesus’ earlier ministry and teaching we catch beginning hints of the plurality of the nature of the Godhead (e.g., Matt. 3:17; 11:27; 12:28).
We have noted regularly how difficult it was for Jesus’ followers to move from strict theological monotheism to recognize the plurality of the Godhead in the person of Jesus in relation to his heavenly Father. Now in his risen state, however, the cognitive dissonance is so profound that the shock has enabled a more complete paradigm shift to occur. This alone explains the ability of the strictly monotheistic Pharisee Paul, after being confronted by the risen Lord Jesus, to grasp the plurality in the nature of the Godhead. As God’s Messiah, now revealed to be divine, Jesus wields all authority given him by the Father, and the mode by which that authority is exercised is through the Spirit.
Jesus’ commission regarding baptism is also congruent with what we find in the rest of the New Testament.60 In the book of Acts baptism is normally “in” the name of Jesus (e.g., Acts 2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:3–5) and in Paul’s writings “in” Christ (e.g., Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27).61 The risen Jesus is at the heart of the Christian life and the tangible picture of the living God. He is not so much giving a formula as he is emphasizing a theological truth symbolized with baptism. Baptism is a ceremony of entry into the family of God, the family of the new covenant, so what one does in the name of Jesus one does in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Paul explicitly links baptism to what the living God has accomplished in Jesus’ resurrection.62 Baptism marks the profound truth that with the new covenant, all new disciples are brought into a new existence that is fundamentally determined by God.
Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. The final participial phrase in Jesus’ Great Commission, “teaching,” indicates the process by which disciples of Jesus are continually transformed through discipleship and the discipling process. Discipleship is the process by which a disciple (Christian) is transformed, while discipling is the involvement of one disciple helping another to grow in his or her discipleship.
The basic elements of this final participial phrase are packed with significance. (1) The pronoun “them” indicates that everyone who has become a disciple of Jesus is to be involved in the process of discipleship. Access to education by an esteemed rabbi was normally reserved for privileged men in rabbinic Judaism. Some rabbis denied young girls even the basics of Torah instruction. But Jesus once again breaks down all barriers to indicate that all of his disciples—women and men, Gentile and Jew, poor or rich—must be taught to obey everything he has commanded. This means that everyone who has heard the gospel message and has responded by believing on Jesus for eternal life is a disciple/Christian/believer, all of which are virtually synonymous terms (cf. Acts 2:44; 4:32; 5:14; 6:1, 7; 11:26; 26:28).
Today many incorrectly use the title “disciple” to refer to a person who is more committed than other Christians or to those involved in special “discipleship programs.” But we can see from Jesus’ commission that all Christians are disciples. It is just that some are obedient disciples, while others are not. That leads us to the next elements of this participial phrase.
(2) The activity of discipleship is involved with “teaching.” New disciples are to be taught the rudimentary elements of the Christian life, while more advanced teaching is given to mature disciples as they advance in the Christian life. But the emphasis is not simply on acquiring knowledge; the distinguishing feature is always that disciples are to obey or conform their lives to the teaching. Obedience was the hallmark of Jesus’ disciples (see 12:49–50).63
(3) All disciples, new and mature, are to be taught to “obey everything that I [Jesus] have commanded [entellomai],” so that they increasingly become like him (cf. 10:24–25; Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18). Does entellomai imply only specific “commands” Jesus gave (as in the Old Testament understanding of “giving the law”), or does it include Jesus’ entire verbal ministry? This verb in Matthew and in the New Testament generally can refer to a general commission (Matt. 4:6; Mark 11:6; 13:34; Heb. 11:22), the commands of God from the Old Testament (Matt. 4:6 with Luke 4:10; Heb. 9:20), and the command of Moses (Matt. 19:7; Mark 10:3; John 8:5). Its most distinctive use is found in the present context, where it has a more all-inclusive sense. Jesus is not pointing to particular commands but rather to the full explication in his life and ministry for disciples.64 All that Jesus communicated by word of mouth is included in his commands, whether they are teachings, proverbs, blessings, parables or prophecies.
But we should go even further to suggest that all of Jesus’ life is included in entellomai. This verb unifies Jesus’ words and deeds and therefore recalls the entire Gospel of Matthew.65 Jesus’ life, whether in word or in deed, fulfills God’s will in the Old Testament, and as his disciples teach other disciples to obey his commands, their lives will reflect the transforming will of God in their own every word and deed.66
The verb entellomai and the noun entole have a summarizing effect in other contexts as well, especially when love is considered a summarizing of God’s will, of the Law and the Prophets (Matt. 22:34–40). Love summarizes all that Jesus said and did (cf. John 13:34–35). Thus, in the expression “teaching them to obey all I have commanded you,” the content of “commanded” is the complete expression of all that Jesus said and did. For the purposes of the context of the Great Commission, we can say that the content is Matthew’s Gospel itself. All disciples, new and mature, are to look at Jesus’ authoritative life and words in this Gospel—indeed, throughout Scripture—and they must be taught to obey it, follow it, and practice it in their own lives.
In the five discourses and the alternating narratives of Jesus’ life that are recorded in his Gospel, Matthew has prepared a convenient compendium of the material that Jesus initially gave his first disciples. Matthew’s Gospel became a handbook on discipleship in the early church for next generations of disciples of Jesus. H. N. Ridderbos says succinctly, “The apostles had to teach people to obey all that Jesus commanded them during His ministry on earth. Their listeners had to be brought under His commandments so that they could show by their lives that they really belong to Him. That is the final purpose of the preaching of the gospel.”67 What Jesus did in making disciples of his first followers, succeeding generations of the church will do in the making of new disciples of Jesus.
In other words, in the Great Commission it would be inappropriate for Jesus to state, “teaching them to obey everything I taught you.” He did more than teach. He gave a new authoritative basis for life as a disciple in this age. We are to “obey all Jesus commanded or authoritatively revealed as binding upon our lives as God’s will for us,” especially as Matthew has structured it in the Gospel generally, and in the five discourses specifically.
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Jesus’ entrance to history is encapsulated in the name Immanuel, “God with us” (1:23), and his abiding presence with his disciples is evident in his concluding assurance, “I am with you always.” A true Israelite would proclaim only God to be eternal and omnipresent, so here Matthew records a concluding claim by Jesus to his deity. Thus, Jesus concludes the commission with the crucial element of discipleship: the presence of the Master. Both those who obey the commission and those who respond are comforted by the awareness that the risen Jesus will continue to fashion all his disciples.
• Jesus is present as his disciples go throughout the nations with the gospel of the kingdom of God, inviting all to become his disciples.
• Jesus is present as new disciples are baptized and are taught to obey all that he has commanded.
• Jesus is present as maturing disciples go through all the stages of their lives.
• Jesus is present as the church sojourns through this age awaiting his return.
• Jesus is always present for his disciples to follow as their Master.
We worship and follow a risen Master, who is with us constantly. All he commanded in word and deed as necessary for our growth as his disciples is included in the Scriptures, but his real presence comforts our individual needs and sustains us through all of our days, whether in our weakness, sorrow, joy, power, or pain. To the “very end of the age” or until the completion of God’s plans for this age, Jesus promises to be the sustaining presence that assures us that history is not out of control, that the kingdom of God has indeed been inaugurated, that he is a very present help in times of trouble, and that the work he accomplished on the cross is continually available through his risen and ascended ministry.
This wonderful promise of Jesus’ continual presence invites us as readers into the story. This should not evoke fear or a guilty conscience; rather, it should spur all his disciples on to proclaim the good news of the presence of the kingdom of God in our lives. We are the ongoing chapter of this story, walking receptacles of the presence of the risen Jesus and living demonstrations of the power of the kingdom of God.68 May we be faithful and obedient disciples of Jesus as we walk in the closest intimacy with him and proclaim this good news that he is with us to the very end of the age.
Bridging Contexts
FOR THREE LONG hours a great darkness came over the land as Jesus hung upon the cross (27:45). From the perspective of Jesus’ disciples who had hidden away, the darkness must have seemed like a cruel joke. Death seemed to have won. Matthew had narrated the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee with a bright promise (4:15–17):
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, along the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.
But as Jesus hung upon the cross for those three long hours, the bright light went out. The shadow of death claimed the land—not just in Galilee of the Gentiles, but throughout the earth. The bright hope of salvation that Jesus announced seemed to be extinguished.
But the light wasn’t extinguished. At the dawn of the new week, the bright light of the sun, the brilliant light of the angel, and the glorious light of the risen Savior greeted the world. And the blessed women disciples can only draw near, hold tight to Jesus’ feet, and worship him. That is all of the answer they need. The risen Jesus dispels all darkness, all fear of death, all of the wearisome burden of sin, pain, and sorrow. Because he lives, they can face tomorrow.
For twenty chapters Matthew recounted the most wonderful life ever conceived and lived on the face of this earthly planet—thirty-some wonderful years narrated in twenty mind-boggling chapters. Then Matthew slows the pace for seven long chapters to walk with Jesus, almost ponderously, through all of the events of Passion Week, including his crucifixion and burial. Then in one brief chapter, the second shortest in his Gospel, Matthew recounts simply, but elegantly, the resurrection of Jesus Messiah. Twenty short verses declare the really good news that humanity needs to hear: Jesus is alive, it is not a hoax, and he is triumphing over history.
The light of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven was not extinguished with Jesus’ death. His resurrection has overcome the darkness, and the light of his life lived through his disciples is going throughout the world. This is the message Matthew presents in his final chapter. We might wish more details of the final days that the risen Jesus spends with his disciples before his ascension, but Matthew gives us what we need to hear—death is vanquished. Richard Longenecker states, “Death is a stark and haunting reality that is very much a part of the personal story of us all.”69 That was a dark reality that stung the hopes of Jesus’ followers and seemed to overcome them. But now Matthew dispels the darkness and reignites hope with the only truth that is needed: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said” (28:5–6).
It is vital to grasp the truth of the resurrection as well as Matthew’s perspective in giving it to us. The work of the cross culminates Jesus’ atoning purpose for his incarnate life and ministry on this earth. That is why Matthew slowed the pace of his narrative. However, the fast-paced resurrection story is the simple but profound confirmation that Jesus’ death on the cross succeeded in carrying out his life’s work. Once we grasp that truth, we recognize that Matthew need say no more. Indeed, the rest of the New Testament and our lives are the rest of the story. Because Jesus lives, we can face tomorrow. As victorious as was Jesus’ own resurrection, we too have been raised with him in newness of life. The apostle Paul understood this truth deeply:
Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Rom. 6:3–4)
The resurrection is the confirmation that the darkness of death has been conquered and that Jesus offers the beginning of new life for all who dare to follow him. That theme is unfolded in Matthew’s concluding narrative in several brief themes.
(1) The resurrection of Jesus fulfills the deepest hopes of humanity. The expectation of a resurrection of the righteous to new life and the wicked to punishment is well attested in the Old Testament (Isa. 26:19; Dan. 12:2) and Second Temple Jewish literature (e.g., 2 Macc. 7; 1 En. 102; 2 Bar. 49–51). Resurrection in rabbinic Judaism refers to the concept of all the dead being brought back to life by God on the Day of Judgment, giving eternal life to the righteous and consigning the wicked to Gehenna. But the resurrection of Jesus Messiah has even more far-reaching implications. Jesus is declared with power to be the Son of God (Rom. 1:2–6), through whom all peoples now gain access to salvation through his sacrifice on the cross. And with his resurrection, this new age of the gospel of salvation is inaugurated with the sending of the Spirit of God at Pentecost. In his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus is the exemplar of those who will be regenerated and transformed into his image (Rom. 6:1–11; 8:29; 1 Cor. 15; 2 Cor. 3:18).
(2) Jesus the Crucified One lives as the Risen One. The angel’s message to the women disciples is designed to dispel the darkness that the pall of death held over them. They witnessed firsthand Jesus’ death on the cross and his body being carried away and placed in a tomb. They probably fear retribution for seeking their executed leader. They have come to prepare the body of him whom they had hoped was the Coming One to whom John the Baptist pointed but who is now merely Jesus, the Crucified One. As they approach the tomb in the murkiness of dawn, an earthquake rocks the area, the stone is discovered rolled away, fearsome Roman guards lie like dead men on the ground, and a brilliant angelic figure appears to them.
This angelic figure says to them, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.” This angel then dispels the fears of the women and of Jesus’ followers for all of history with these words: “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” The resurrection of Jesus—bodily, physically—is held out as the only hope against uncertainty.
It’s important to see the relationship of the resurrection and crucifixion. According to Paul, Jesus as the Crucified One was the center of his message to the Corinthians (see 1 Cor. 2:2). Matthew has demonstrated the powerful significance of the cross, and he does not negate that fact. Although the angel announces that Jesus has been raised, this does not mean that he was uncrucified. Rather, Jesus is no longer in that crucified state. He is now the Risen One. Without the resurrection, we who believe in Jesus are to be pitied and are hopeless, for the crucifixion in and of itself was not efficacious (see 1 Cor. 15:17–19). The Crucified One is victorious because he is the Risen One, and we are no longer in our sins because Jesus is both crucified and risen.
(3) Jesus’ resurrection restores men and women to equality of discipleship. The crucifixion and resurrection accounts tell us a number of things about God’s purposes for women in the life and ministry of Jesus. Throughout his ministry Jesus restored men and women to a place of equality denied many women in first-century Israel (see comments on 12:46–50; 27:55–56). In Jesus’ commissioning of the women as the first witnesses to his resurrection, we have one of the bedrock truths of these narratives (see comments on 28:10).
Several attendant points are important to note. (a) God is bestowing a special honor on these women. They are exemplary of true discipleship to Jesus, and because of their faithfulness and courage, they are given the special honor of being first witnesses to the empty tomb and the postresurrection appearances of Jesus. (b) Women are restored in Jesus’ community of faith to their original status as equal with men because both were created in God’s image (Gen. 1:26–28). (c) Women are validated as worthy of the most privileged service in the community of faith, bearing witness to the reality of the risen Lord Jesus.
(4) Jesus’ resurrection outlives hoaxes. Matthew wants his readers to know that from the very beginning there were attempts to cover the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. No one could deny the stark reality of an empty tomb. Therefore, those who had the most to lose were forced to come up with a story to account for it.
To the chief priests, Jesus’ resurrection went against their Sadducean theology, which denied the resurrection (22:23). That theology forced them to deny anything that went contrary to it, so they denied accounts of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. It also threatened their personal security. If it really was true that Jesus was the Messiah, the people would turn on them for having him executed. And it threatened their position of authority as religious leaders. They did not know how to account for what Jesus did, so they, like the Pharisees in Galilee, had to say that Jesus did what he did because Satan empowered him. The only other alternative was to acknowledge that Jesus operated in God’s power; but their hardened heart prevented them from repenting.
The guards also had much to lose. All they knew for sure was that the tomb was empty. They had stories of an earthquake, the stone being rolled back, and some bright, shiny creature confronting them, but after that they had no recollection. They became like dead men, which implies that they either fainted dead away or were so gripped with terror and shock that it incapacitated them. Either way, they had committed a serious dereliction of duty and were facing possible execution for failing to secure an enemy site while in occupied territory. Their desperation forced them to cooperate with the Jewish leaders’ ruse.
The desperation of both the religious leaders and the guards resulted in a pathetic rumor that lasted until Matthew’s day and beyond. Had Matthew simply invented the story to try to perpetuate a mythic resurrection, all the religious leaders needed to produce was Jesus’ body. And they surely would have wanted to, because the widespread belief in Jesus’ resurrection was causing turmoil in Jewish circles throughout Palestine and the broader Mediterranean world. But the empty tomb continued to stare blankly in the face of these Jewish leaders, who could only hope that some were foolish enough to prefer their pathetic rumor over the history-altering truth of Jesus’ resurrection.
(5) The risen Master continues to disciple his disciples through Matthew’s manual on discipleship. Jesus’ thundering Great Commission, which in its unique emphases graces the conclusion to Matthew’s Gospel, is outward, inward, and upward looking.
Outward looking. The Great Commission obviously looks outward because of its impelling missionary thrust to make disciples of all nations. The world out there is lost and dying without a Savior. Jesus’ final Great Commission makes sure that we do not become ingrown, complacent, or callous. We must look outward and bring the good news of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven to people of all nations. Matthew’s Gospel is a powerful recounting of how Jesus Messiah entered history with the purpose of redeeming lost humanity. His life mission to the world becomes our example as we go out with his passionate love for lost people.
Inward looking. The Great Commission also looks inward because it speaks to the ongoing transformation of those who have become disciples of Jesus. Individual disciples consider their own personal discipleship transformation as they are united in baptism to Jesus and to his community of faith and as they yield their obedience to all that Jesus commanded. Only this obedience will produce transformation into the likeness of Jesus.
But this cannot be accomplished alone. More mature disciples must teach other disciples how to obey all that Jesus commanded. The community of disciples looks within itself to provide concrete examples, compassionate encouragement, and structured and informal teaching of Jesus’ life and words, in the process of teaching other disciples how to obey all that Jesus commanded. The other Gospels, and indeed all of Scripture, is a ready resource. But Matthew’s Gospel is an essential manual of discipleship because its very structure of alternating narrative and discourse lays before disciples the most extensive collection of Jesus’ commands in word and deed to be found anywhere in the New Testament
Upward looking. The Great Commission also looks upward because disciples are to have only the risen and ascended Jesus as Master, Teacher, and Lord. No other master can ever supplant Jesus, and we must never consider ourselves to be master of any other disciples. That is one of the radical departures of Jesus’ form of discipleship from other forms in the ancient world (cf. comments on 23:8–10). What makes this possible is that Jesus promises to be with us always, to the very end of the age (28:20). Matthew’s Gospel assures us that as we walk with Jesus through this world and this age, he continually provides for us the example of life, the guidance of his words, and the supply of his power to transform continually our lives from the inside out until he comes again in power and glory to fully establish his kingdom on earth.
Contemporary Significance
IN THE DAYS prior to electronic communication or twenty-four-hour news reporting, news of great occasions had to be passed on primarily by word of mouth. In nineteenth-century England, the people were anxiously awaiting news of the outcome of the strategic battle of Waterloo, where the British forces under General Wellington faced off against the French forces under Napoleon. A signalman was placed on top of Winchester Cathedral with instructions to keep an outlook on the sea. When he received a message, he was to pass it on to another man on a hill. That man was to pass it on to another, and on and on. In that way, the news of the outcome of the battle was to be relayed finally to London and then all across Britain.
At long last a ship was sighted through the fog, which on that day lay thick on the channel. The signalman on board sent the first word—Wellington. The next word was defeated. Then the fog closed in, and the ship could no longer be seen. “Wellington defeated!” The tragic message was sent across England, and a great gloom descended over the countryside. After a few hours the fog lifted, and the signal came again—Wellington defeated the enemy! Now the full message went racing across the countryside again, but this time the nation rejoiced!
James Montgomery Boice recounts that story and then makes the striking parallel that when Jesus died his cruel death on the cross, his followers plunged into the most profound sorrow. Jesus had apparently experienced a tragic defeat, and the hopes of his followers died with him. But after three days the fog lifted, and the full message came through: “Jesus has risen; Jesus defeated the enemy!”70
Looking just at the crucifixion, Jesus’ followers didn’t get the full message of Jesus’ mission. They had to look beyond to the resurrection. We do not get the full message of Jesus unless we get the total picture. We can become so familiar with the story of Jesus that we don’t experience the staggering impact that the crucifixion, and then resurrection, had on his first followers. Sometimes we need to look through others’ eyes.
When our daughters were young, I began a habit of reading to them before they went to bed, talking over the reading, and then praying with them before they went to sleep. I was still a relatively new Christian then, and as I explored a variety of types of reading, a whole world opened up as I looked at stories through their eyes.
Someone suggested that I read to them The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. I had been profoundly influenced by Professor Lewis’s apologetic books as I had come to faith just a few years prior, but I hadn’t read any of his fictional stories. So we thought it sounded good and began reading the entire set. While reading the first volume, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, we were profoundly struck with sorrow when the great lion, Aslan, was sacrificed. His immense mane was shaved off, he was bound with cords, and there upon the Table of Stone a wicked knife was plunged into the great lion to appease the Deep Magic caused by the actions of the foolish, selfish, little boy, Edmund.
Our hearts were heavy that night, our little daughters and me, as we talked and prayed. They were only eight and four years old then, but I could tell that our little girls were profoundly impacted by the story, as tears streamed down their faces for dear Aslan.
The following evening as we read the next chapter, it was one of the most stirring times we ever shared. As the little girls in the story, Lucy and Susan, went looking to see the fate of Aslan, the great lion appeared to them, alive again. The three of us were beside ourselves. I read the words of the story but had a big lump in my throat, and we were all close to tears of joy. And as the little girls in the story romped around the hilltop with Aslan, my little girls were leaping around their bedroom with joy! And what a talk we had that night. About death, about life, about Jesus dying for us and coming back alive to set us free and romp around life with us.
That was a beautiful experience that we have never forgotten, now nearly twenty years later. It was perhaps an even more beautiful experience for me as I looked through my little daughters’ innocent eyes at Jesus’ death and resurrection. A sort of fog lifted from my own eyes, so that Jesus’ death and resurrection were as real as my own daughters’ eventual death and resurrection. They have not yet experienced death, but they will, and it is only in clinging to the truth of the resurrection that the sting will be taken away. Our older daughter had already professed Jesus as her Savior at that point, but just a couple of weeks after that our younger daughter asked if she could ask Jesus into her heart, as her sister and Mommy and Daddy had. And now because Jesus lives, we all can face tomorrow with the utmost confidence.
Although brief, Matthew’s account of Jesus’ resurrection and postresurrection appearance to the disciples in Galilee yields some immensely significant points for us to ponder.
(1) Resurrection perspective on life. Matthew teaches us how vitally important it is to maintain a resurrection perspective on life. The empty tomb is a demonstrable fact of history to which the angel pointed. The women were probably just as frightened as the guards, but as they listened to the angel and focused on the empty tomb, their world was turned upside down. They still did not totally get it, mixed with fear and joy as they were, but as they encountered the risen Jesus, it all started falling into place. They now saw who Jesus really was, and they fell down to worship him. Their lives would never be the same, because their Master is not just another religious leader or authority but is the God of the universe. That is likewise the reaction of the Eleven who worshiped Jesus when he appeared to them in Galilee. Those who hadn’t encountered the risen Jesus doubted, but those who had, worshiped (28:16–17).
Our lives will be like theirs if we maintain a resurrection perspective. To stay fixed on the historical evidence for Jesus’ empty tomb will open us to encounter him on a personal level, in which he is not just a religious figure but our God. As we have seen all along in our study of this Gospel, Matthew wants us to know that Christianity is a historically based faith in which we find the credible evidence that God has entered history in the person of Jesus Messiah. Between the crucifixion and resurrection, it must have seemed to the disciples as if things were coming to a tragic close. However, the reality is that their discipleship to Jesus was being prepared to be infused with a new reality. Likewise with us, the reality of our discipleship experience is grounded and gets its starting off point from Jesus’ resurrection.
As we learn to view life through the empty tomb, it puts everything else into perspective. Our career takes on an eternal perspective, so that we can put our priorities of time and finances and success in line with God’s will for our lives. Likewise, our marriage becomes a shared life with a fellow disciple of Jesus as we support each other to fulfill God’s calling for us individually and as a couple. Similarly, whether it is the illness of our parents, the death of our child, or our own sudden battle with cancer, the empty tomb puts all our sorrow into perspective when we know that because Jesus lives, we can face tomorrow and plan for an eternity.
The women disciples running away to tell the others about the empty tomb suddenly feel as if their world is turned upside down. They will never be the same. But their experience of fear and joy should instruct us. Jesus, like the great lion Aslan, cannot be tamed. Later in the story, Mr. Beaver warned the children, “One day you’ll see Aslan and another you won’t. He doesn’t like being tied down—and of course he has other countries to attend to. It’s quite all right. He’ll often drop in. Only you mustn’t press him. He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.”71
We cannot tame Jesus. He is our Lord and God and Master. Whenever or wherever he drops in on our consciousness, we must be ready to worship him, whether at school or the market or the gym or the beach. We really don’t know our future, but he does. And all he asks is that we be prepared for whatever he calls us to be and to do. Even if he disrupts our comfort zone, he will be there to create a new safe space within his loving arms. Then joy erupts from the depths of our being as we live focused on a risen Savior.
(2) Resurrection power for life. The resurrection and the following commissioning scene in Matthew exude ultimate power. Jesus, who was seen as “unable to save himself,” is now the recipient of a power that raised him from the dead. His resurrection is accompanied by an earthquake, an angel, and a huge stone removed from the tomb entrance. But those flexings of divine muscle pale next to the resurrection itself. And the might of the Roman army as represented in the guards quakes and falls when confronted with these events. At the commissioning scene, Jewish monotheistic purists fall down and worship the risen Jesus, who then declares that all authority on heaven and earth has been given him. There is no higher authority, and he has the power to back it up.
In fact, there is no power like this known to humans. Think of the power of an eight-cylinder truck or an immense construction crane. Think of the power that is behind lighting a city the size of New York. Think of the massive power of a hydrogen bomb that can eliminate a city that size. We have much power as humans to do good, and much to do evil. But with all that power, we do not have the power to raise someone from the dead. It took the power of the Godhead to raise Jesus, and that is but a portion of his power as he exercises “all authority in heaven and on earth.”
Now that the risen Jesus indwells each of his disciples, that is the kind of power available to us to live the kind of discipleship to which he calls us. A wonderful passage in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians lays this out for us. In Ephesians 1:18–21 the apostle prays:
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion.
Notice the power that Paul prays will be ours for our daily lives. That is the power that is available to us to live out our discipleship to Jesus.
So when we live with a resurrection perspective, we must focus our lives so that we can tap into resurrection power. We will then have the power to accomplish anything to which Jesus calls us—controlling our temper, overcoming addictions, remaining faithful to our commitments, maintaining patience with a parent demonstrating increasing dementia. Whatever in life comes our way, discipleship to the risen Jesus includes the power to accomplish it.
This power inherent in Jesus’ resurrection gives us great boldness as we go about doing what Jesus asks of us. As great as Jesus’ public ministry was before his death, it was his resurrection that became the bedrock of the apostolic message. In the early church the central message is summarized: “The apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead” (Acts 4:33). Paul’s message focused on “the good news about Jesus and the resurrection” (17:18), which was the basis for his theology (1 Cor. 15:14–19). Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli argue that the resurrection is foundational to every message and every life:
The existential consequences of the resurrection are incomparable. It is the concrete, factual, empirical proof that: life has hope and meaning; “love is stronger than death”; goodness and power are ultimate allies, not enemies; life wins in the end; God has touched us right here where we are and has defeated our last enemy; we are not cosmic orphans, as our modern secular worldview would make us. And these existential consequences of the resurrection can be seen by comparing the disciples before and after. Before they ran away, denied their Master and huddled behind locked doors in fear and confusion. After, they were transformed from scared rabbits into confident saints, world-changing missionaries, courageous martyrs and joy-filled touring ambassadors for Christ.
The greatest importance of the resurrection is not in the past—“Christ rose”—but in the present—“Christ is risen.” The angel at the tomb asked the women, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Lk 24:5). The same question could be asked today to mere historians and scholars. If only we did not keep Christ mummified in a casket labeled “history” or “apologetics,” he would set our lives and world afire as powerfully as he did two millennia ago; and our new pagan empire would sit up, take notice, rub its eyes, wonder and convert a second time. That is the existential import of the resurrection.72
Maintaining a resurrection perspective on life has the same potential to light our lives on fire with resurrection power. If we grant the benefits and inherent power in the resurrection, what have we to lose? Death no longer has its sting; it can no longer keep us down, as it was unable to keep Jesus down. This gives us great boldness as we go about taking the message of the gospel to the world and committing our lives to Jesus’ kingdom program.
(3) Resurrection persuasion against lies. The eighteenth-century author Daniel Defoe, often considered to be the founder of the modern novel, wrote the classic tales Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722). He also wrote a witty satirical poem, The True Born Englishman (1701), in which he said:
Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The Devil always builds a chapel there;
And ‘twill be found, upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation.73
Sometimes good news sounds too good to be true. It often is, but the devil often tries to take the really good news and turn it into a hoax—and the hoax becomes more believable to the hard-hearted than the truth. The religious leaders had the opportunity to know the truth that would have transformed their lives, as it did to those priests who became obedient disciples of Jesus after Pentecost (Acts 6:7). But their hard-heartedness against God’s message caused them to reject the truth and to try to substitute Satan’s scam (28:11–15).
The resurrection of Jesus will always have its dissenters. The life of discipleship is one of opposition, and we must anticipate rejection by those who are of the same mindset as the religious leaders. Matthew notes that the trumped-up story of Jesus’ body being stolen “has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day” (28:15). Doubt in Jesus’ resurrection is a given reality in this world because of the hardened nature of people’s hearts. We should see this as both an encouragement in the midst of the doubts of others as well as an encouragement to defend the reality of the resurrection. The apostle Peter writes, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15).
People still use the “stolen body” hypothesis to try to discredit Christianity, and we cannot become slack in our defense of the gospel and endorsement of the Christian worldview in a culture that brings Jesus’ resurrection into question. As we saw earlier, much of the hardness of heart of the religious leaders had to do with their preconceived notions of what it is to be in right relationship with God. Today, the preconceived notions that prevent individuals from accepting the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection include the naturalistic worldview, which insists these types of miraculous occurrences are impossible; hence, there must be some sort of naturalistic explanation. The reasons may be different, but individuals with hard hearts will always find reasons to reject God’s revelation to us, and our tactics must adjust to address these objections.
(4) Resurrection purpose for life. The conclusion of any book, letter, or treatise usually contains an explicit statement or summary of the author’s purpose for writing; Matthew is no exception. In his concluding verses, he gives us a resounding statement of the significance of Jesus’ resurrection for his followers. F. Dale Bruner states:
Has anything like the resurrection of Jesus Christ happened on our planet? Christians do not believe so. Precisely because it is the event par excellence, it follows almost naturally that the great responsibility of those who know this event is, of course, Mission. The resurrection does not happen for its own sake, and Matthew’s gospel does not end, therefore, with the resurrection; it ends with the Great Commission of world-wide mission.74
Because Jesus lives, we have an impelling purpose for our lives. Whether or not we are professional missionaries traveling the world, all of us have a central calling to make disciples of all the nations, and Matthew’s Gospel shows us how.
This book is intended, at least in part, as a resource tool to help Jesus’ disciples in their task of making and developing other disciples. It can be called “a manual on discipleship.” Matthew points to Jesus as the supreme Lord and Teacher and emphasizes that his life and teaching produced in his disciples obedience to and understanding of the truth of God’s revelation. That same obedience and understanding will continue to be the hallmark of disciples, and his Gospel is readily usable for this purpose.
As in the ministry of Jesus, we are to call people to repent and believe in the gospel of the kingdom. That is how they become disciples. Then we are to enfold them into the family of faith as they are baptized, publicly declaring their allegiance to Jesus and identifying with the community of disciples. It is perhaps in carrying out the directive of the final participle that we have failed the most: “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Do we have a personal strategy for carrying this out? Because most of us personally and most of our ministries lack such a strategy, many have called this the Great Omission of the Great Commission.
But here is where we can learn from history and heed Matthew’s purpose for writing. For much of church history the Gospel of Matthew was used as one of the primary catechetical tools for teaching disciples how to obey all that Jesus commanded.75 With its alternating sections of narrative and discourse, it gives one of the most complete pictures of Jesus’ actions and words. In other words, Matthew has collected the entire life ministry of Jesus so that it can be passed on to succeeding generations of the church. Since discipleship is basically equivalent to the teaching on spiritual formation that we find in Scripture, Matthew has provided us an invaluable tool for our growth in the Christian life and in a full-orbed obedience to Christ.
The five major discourses are directed toward the development of disciples and are intended as instruction in, and clarification of, what it meant to be Jesus’ unique kind of disciple. But also we see that there is a progression in the discourses that addresses the fullness of the disciple’s life. The basic thrust of each discourse points to that kind of intentional well-roundedness, as we can see briefly in a summary of each discourse and the kind of disciple that will result from each.
The Sermon on the Mount develops kingdom-life disciples (chs. 5–7). Jesus expounds the reality of a radical, everyday discipleship lived in the presence and power of the kingdom of God within the everyday world. As his disciples, we should be a living demonstration of the reality of the kind of life that is available to everyone.
The Mission Mandate develops mission-driven disciples (ch. 10). Jesus commissions all his disciples to go out to share and live the gospel of the kingdom of God to an alien and often hostile world.
The Parabolic Disclosure develops clandestine-kingdom disciples (ch. 13). Through his parables Jesus tests the hearts of the crowd to reveal whether the message of the kingdom has taken root and is producing fruit. He also reveals to his disciples what it means for them to live as kingdom subjects in a world that has not yet experienced the fully consummated kingdom of God.
The Community Prescription develops community-based disciples (ch. 18). Jesus shows how kingdom life is to be expressed through the church he will establish on earth. Discipleship is to be expressed through a church characterized by humility, responsibility, purity, accountability, discipline, forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration.
The Olivet Discourse develops expectant-sojourner disciples (chs. 24–25). Jesus looks down the long corridor of time and prophesies to his disciples of his return, the end of the age, and the establishment of his messianic throne. He describes how his disciples are to live each day in this age of the already-not yet consummation of the kingdom of God, in expectant preparation for his return with power.
With an intentional strategy to develop this kind of disciple, Matthew’s Gospel becomes a God-given guideline for intentional development. I once heard someone say that the church is filled with “undiscipled disciples.” In other words, although we may be committed to missions to the extent that we are going to the world and participating in evangelism, which produces disciples, and in baptism, which enfolds disciples, we have not fulfilled Jesus’ purposes until we are likewise committed to carrying out the rest of the Great Commission—teaching disciples to obey all that Jesus commanded. That is the purpose behind Matthew’s Gospel, and it is the purpose of the resurrected Jesus in calling us to carry out fully his Great Commission.
The final saying of Jesus in this Gospel is what gives us the greatest assurance that we can carry out his purpose in our lives, because he promises unconditionally: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (28:20). Our discipleship to the risen Jesus continues to be our greatest source of comfort, power, and security. As Matthew has demonstrated over and over, the arrival of Jesus began the greatest revolution that history has ever known. It begins in the heart, where Jesus enters and begins the transformation. But then it extends to every area of our lives, so that our physical, emotional, thought, and relational lives are impacted by the power of the kingdom of heaven. I pray that as we conclude the study of this magnificent Gospel, our lives have been revolutionized as well.