The glory of the resurrection. Matthew 28.1-10

Matthew 28.1-10

This morning we are looking at Matthew 28, and the account of the resurrection of Jesus

Matthew specifically mentions two women who come to the tomb, and he names them: Mary Magdalene and ‘the other’ Mary (not Mary the mother of Jesus, but Mary the mother of James and Joseph).

The audio of this sermon can be found here

That is very Matthew: Matthew likes his ‘twos’.
He mentions two blind men who Jesus heals (twice);
he mentions two demoniacs from whom Jesus casts out demons.
And now he mentions two women who come to the tomb.

And the reason is that you need two witnesses in a Jewish court if your evidence is to be counted as valid

So Matthew is putting forward Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. They are his witnesses

However, there were other women who came with them to the tomb.
Mark mentions Salome; Luke mentions Joanna and ‘other women’

And so in our icon (a 16^th Century icon from the Pskov region), I think you can count 5 women looking down at the tomb plus Mary, the mother of Jesus, who is also shown. She is the one in the front.
And as they come to the tomb, they encounter an angel, a heaven sent messenger (angel means ‘messenger’)

This is a glorious messenger.

He comes with an earthquake, which was powerful enough to move the stone covering the tomb of Jesus

His appearance is as lightning and his clothing white as snow. That reminds us of when Jesus was lit up by the glory of God when he was on top of the mountain, and Peter James and John saw him in all his glory: ‘his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white’ (Matthew 17:2)

And the guards, appointed by Pilate to guard the tomb, become like dead men in his presence. 

And – and I like this – he doesn’t stand. He sits. And he sits on the stone, that has been moved from the tomb. It is quite casual.
God has just raised his Son from the dead. Entropy has been reversed. Death has been defeated. A new life principal has broken into our death destined world.
And the messenger sits on the stone.

But he is glorious, and probably rather scary: the first thing he says to the woman is, ‘Don’t be afraid’.

This is the messenger who has become like the message that he speaks.  

Quite often we do become like the message that we speak. We do all have a message, even if it is simply you must look at this video clip, or you must try her amazing recipe.

Or perhaps we preach money or business or conspiracy theories or family or fitness and beauty or a particular politics. Or perhaps we preach hedonism: it is all about having a good time; or nihilism – there is nothing?

Watch what you preach – because we can become like what we preach
We can preach money, and we can become like money, cold and calculating.
We can preach conspiracy theories, and we can end up trusting nobody.
We can preach hedonism and end up sunk in a pit of self-indulgence.
We can preach domination through physical force; the bible warns us that if we live by the sword we will die by the sword (Matthew 26.52)
We can preach deconstructionism, nihilism, and end up – like Nietzsche going mad.

But if we preach the message of the resurrection of Christ, that love has conquered evil and that life has swallowed death – then the Holy Spirit will transform us, so that we begin to become like the message that we preach: awesome and radiant and glorious

So this messenger is glorious because he has a glorious message

It is a message from heaven: the angel descends from heaven. It is a revelation.

The women would never in their wildest imagination look at the empty tomb and think that Jesus had risen from the dead
They might have thought that his body had been moved. That Joseph of Arimathea had had second thoughts about letting Jesus body be placed in his own tomb.
Or maybe they thought someone had stolen the body – although that was unlikely because the guards were there
But whatever, they could never have imagined that Jesus had risen from the dead.

They had seen his beaten, bloodied body. They – and hundreds – had seen him die. They had then seen the spear thrust into his side – just to make sure he really was dead - and the blood and water flowing out. You can’t get more dead than that.

But the angel has a message for them. And it is a glorious message

“He is not here”

‘Jesus is not here’, he says. ‘Come and see’.

In our icon of the myrrh bearing women the angel is pointing to the empty tomb – to the grave clothes, with the head covering on one side.
[the grave clothes are significant. If the body had been stolen they would have been taken with the body)

“He has been raised”

Jesus is alive.

What Jesus spoke about – how he would be arrested and crucified and then rise on the third day - has become literally true.  
Jesus is alive, the gates of death have been broken open.

In the previous verses, we are told, “The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many”. (Matthew 27:52-53)
It must have been weird – to put it mildly.
Whatever you make of that, it does suggest that after the resurrection of Jesus, there were rumours going around of astonishing things happening, of the dead coming back to life.
And what seems to have happened is a mini anticipation of the last day when – because Jesus has been raised from the dead - the dead will be raised.

“You will see him”

‘He is risen from the dead’ is an amazing statement which is true but which could make no real difference to the women.
They will go back to the disciples, tell them the incredible story, show them the empty tomb and then .. then get back on with living their ordinary day to day lives.

Many believers live like that today.

We listen to the messenger, we stand there looking down at the empty tomb, and we sort of believe that Jesus rose from the dead, maybe we meet with others who sort of believe that Jesus rose from the dead, but it makes no real difference to our daily life.

But this is where the message gets personal: ‘You will see him’.

The angel says to the women, ‘Go quickly (I don’t know why ‘quickly’, but it is emphasized) to the disciples and tell them that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee where you will see him’.

So they are obedient, they go quickly, ‘with fear and great joy’ and, possibly because they go quickly, they stumble across Jesus. He meets them. Maybe if they had gone slowly they would have missed him.
But it is because they are obedient to the message that they meet with him.

This is a glorious message. It offers such hope.

It offers hope, as we heard on Good Friday, to the betrayers and deniers who thought there was no way out, no forgiveness
It offers hope to those who have been betrayed, who are unable to trust, because there is one who was faithful to his word: that he would die and rise again.
It offers us hope that if we start walking by faith – we will see him. We will encounter him. There will be the little encounters (bread and wine, his word that speaks to you, those special intimate experiences) which are signposts to the big encounter – when we will see him face to face

The icon we have in front of us shows the women looking down. They are looking at the grave clothes and at the empty tomb.
But it also puts together the account of the resurrection in Matthew and the account in John.
It shows Mary Magdalene, here on the left, looking up. And she sees the risen Lord Jesus. And he looks back at her and invites her to come with him on a journey – from the earthly city, from Jerusalem, to the heavenly city.

Yes, look down – look down and consider the empty tomb and listen to the glorious message of the angel, but then look up and look to Jesus. ‘You will see him’.

We see a glorious messenger. He is glorious because he has a glorious message

And it is a message about a glorious risen Jesus.

This is the Jesus we read about in Acts 10.34-43

He is the one who God raised from the dead
The risen Jesus, says Peter, is ‘Lord of all’: Lord of creation. Lord of life and Lord of death. To him all knees will bow.
He will come as judge of the living and the dead
And he is the one offers forgiveness of sin and new life.

I note, and with this I finish, that the women see the glory of the messenger and they are afraid.
But when they see the glory of the risen Jesus, who is so much more glorious, who has conquered death and who is Lord of all, then they fall at his feet and they worship him.