The 'Resurrected Christ' and the 'Great Commission'.

We finished our last story with Mark’s account of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection (Mk 15:33-16:8). Matthew’s gospel ends with a fully account of the ‘Resurrected Christ’ and concludes with the ‘Great Commission’ (Matthew 28). Watch the video and or listen the story and then read the comments below. https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5qykj22m0mkwax/The%20Resurrected%20Christ%20and%20the%20Great%20Commission..MP3?dl=0

This is one of the most important stories you could ever hear. It’s about real events that God uses to change hearts and to change history. It’s a dramatic story and what I really like about this story is that it is so shocking. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb expecting to find the body of Jesus. Then there’s this ‘great earthquake’ and an angel comes down from heaven and rolls the stone away. The guards see the angel’s lightning like appearance and they fall down like they were dead. The angel tells the women not to be afraid. But the real shock is that Jesus is alive from the dead just as he had said.

The story is both shocking and baffling because even people in the ancient world knew that when people die they stay dead. But in this story God does something for Jesus He had never done before. Jesus had told his disciples that he would rise on the third day but none of them, including these faithful women, were expecting Jesus to be alive. Yet the angel tells the women that Jesus is alive and they are to tell Jesus’ disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee. They leave filled with this strange combination of fear and joy. They run to tell and on the way they meet Jesus. They grasp his feet and worship him. Then Jesus sends them on to tell his disciples to meet him in Galilee.  

The soldiers are also filled with fear but they fall down as though dead. They tell the high priest what happened and the elders meet to discuss what they should do. The perplexing thing is that they plot to cover of the truth of the resurrection. They offer the soldiers money to say that Jesus’ disciples stole the body while they were sleeping. The soldiers accepted the bribe and spread the deception.  

The story shows us what we are all capable of apart from God’s grace. The guards are filled with fear; fall as though dead and they go tell the news to those who condemned Jesus. The high priest and the elders bribe the soldiers to twist the story and promote a false account. Left to ourselves we would rather live a lie than repent and admit the errors of our ways!

By contrast the women respond to the shocking news by running to tell Jesus’ disciples. On their way they meet the resurrected Jesus, they grasp his feet and worship him. The women tell the eleven disciples who go to a mountain in Galilee where they meet the ‘resurrected Jesus’. Their response, however, is also a bit perplexing because some worship him while ‘some doubted!’ Did they doubt that it was Jesus? Or did they, as worshipers of the one true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, doubt that they should actually worship Jesus?

So what does the story tell us about God and about Jesus? The story tells me that Jesus is alive and that he really is God’s King, the Messiah. The differing responses to the same story tells me that ‘genuine faith’ is not simply agreeing with the evidence. We must respond in faith but faith is not from ourselves; it is the gift of God. God must foretell, God must fulfill, God must grant faith and repentance because apart from Him we can do nothing. Then we see that all power and all authority belong to the risen Christ Jesus; who is here revealed as the proper object of worship.

So what is the appropriate response to the ‘good news’ of the resurrected Jesus? What is our respond to the one who has been given ‘all power and all authority’ in heaven and on earth? The women were filled with this strange mix of fear and joy and they are propelled to tell others. The story compels us to trust Jesus and to worship him with great fear and great joy. First we worship then we get up from our knees willing to play our part to see the ‘great commission’ fulfilled. We should not be content until the nations are baptized and taught to obey everything Jesus has commanded. We are to proclaim Jesus with our mouths and with our lives. We are to make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Triune God and we are to devote ourselves to learning, teaching and applying the gospel to every aspect of life. We are to cling to the promise that all power and authority belong to Jesus and that he will be with us always even to the end of the age.