CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 28:1. In the end of the Sabbath.—Late on the Sabbath day (R.V.).—We must assume, with Meyer, Lange, and Alford, that Matthew here follows the natural division of the day from sunrise to sunrise, which seems to be favoured by the following definition of time: “As it began to dawn,” etc.… It is certain and agreed on all hands that Matthew means the time after the close of the Jewish Sabbath, the time before daybreak on the first day, of the week, or the Christian Sunday (Schaff). Cf. Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1. The other Mary.—The mother of James and Joses (Matthew 27:56).
Matthew 28:2. From the door.—Omitted, on good authority, in the R.V.
Matthew 28:3. Countenance.—Appearance, R.V. Like lightning.—As regards the intensity of effulgence or radiance (Morison).
Matthew 28:5. Fear not ye.—The “ye” here is emphatic, to contrast their case with that of the guards.
Matthew 28:7. Into Galilee.—To which these women belonged (Matthew 27:55).
Matthew 28:9. As they went to tell His disciples.—Omitted in best MSS. and in R.V. All hail!—Lit., Rejoice! The Greek salutation, both on meeting and on parting (Carr).
Matthew 28:10. My brethren.—The general view is that the Lord referred to His brethren by spiritual relationship. See Matthew 12:49; cf. John 20:17; Hebrews 2:11.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 28:1-10
A double dawn.—Three successive and well-defined stages mark the literal dawn: that greatest darkness which concludes the night; the “scattering” of that darkness which we call the twilight; the sunrise itself. In the figurative sunrise of the passage before us, three similar steps may be noted. There is utter darkness, in the first place; waning darkness, in the second place; unshadowed light, in the last.
1. Utter darkness.—What else, on the one hand, do we read of here, as things were at first, in the way of expectation? The “women” spoken of in verse I have evidently been, for some time, in a condition of waiting. They had seen the Saviour placed in the sepulchre just before the sunset beginning of the first day of the week. After that, the sanctity of the Sabbath and the darkness of night had prevented them from returning to see it. But now, at the first opportunity, they are coming to do so; starting for the place, in all probability (John 20:1), before the darkness had gone. So much are their hearts set on the object in view! And yet how sorrowful, on the other hand, is the object in view! What are they looking for except to see the “place,” and perhaps the face, of the “dead” (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:3)? And what are they hoping to do, at the best, except that which is usually done for the “dead” (Mark 16:1)? Of the presence of “life,” of any hope of it, they have not a thought. Much the same is true, next, in the way of experience. It seems most natural to suppose of what is told us next, in Matthew 28:2-4, that the descent of the angel and removal of the stone were over before the women arrived at the place, and that what they beheld (and afterwards described to the disciples) was the form of the angel seated on the stone, and the effect of his presence as manifested so terribly in the fainting forms of the guard (Mark 16:4; Luke 24:2; John 20:1). Most probably, also, they were near enough to the place to have felt something of that accompanying “earthquake” of which we are told (Matthew 28:2). Altogether, therefore, there must have been everything to fill them, at first, with the very direst alarm. What with the terror of the earthquake (and nothing physical is said to be worse); and the greater terror of the supernatural; and the almost irresistible terror of seeing the terror of courage itself (Matthew 28:4),—awful indeed in this respect must their condition have been, even banishing the thought, for the moment, of that exceedingly sorrowful comfort in hope of which they had come. Could any “darkness” be worse?
II. Waning darkness.—This we find brought about entirely by what the angel here says to the women (Matthew 28:5-7). By what he says to them, first, in regard to the present. How encouraging his words on this point! “Fear not”—be not afraid; things are not so bad as they seem. How discriminating also! How clear and direct! “Fear not ye”—ye, to whom I am speaking. Be assured that ye have no cause for alarm. How full, again, of sympathy and approval (end of Matthew 28:5)! Your object is mine as well. Ye honour Jesus. So do I too. Infallibly and sensibly would the inward darkness of these trembling women begin to lessen under words such as these! And that, of course, all the more, because of the quarter they came from! Nothing is more assuring than the assurances of authority! Nothing more gracious than the graciousness of the great! The angel’s language, next, with regard to the past. See how his opening words on this point prepare the way for the rest! “He is not here” where you saw Him laid. Something has happened meanwhile of vast importance. How his next words follow this up! That which has happened is this; “He has risen again.” How the words that then follow fortify these! This is only what He Himself used to tell you. Remember how often He said so. How the angel’s yet further words do this still more! How they give actual proof, in part, of the truth of his language! “See the place where the Lord lay.” See, therefore, that He is certainly gone, as I said. In these successive utterances there would be a still further lessening of the gloom of these women. Most surprising, no doubt, was the purport of these utterances. Hardly less so would be their utter falseness. With such assurances, and such recollections, and such tangible proofs, they might begin to believe. The angel’s language, lastly, with regard to the future. How it confirms what he has told them before! It is all so sure—so he tells them now—that they may safely tell it in turn. So joyful, also, that they cannot do it too soon (beginning of Matthew 28:7). How it supplements what he has told them before! The Saviour is not only risen, He is still upon earth; He is going to where they have often seen Him before, and where also, before long, they shall see Him again (middle of Matthew 28:7). How his language, finally, seals all he has told them before. They have his full authority for all they have heard. His having uttered it once, he reminds them, is sufficient. It would not only be foolish, it would be wrong, to doubt him. Let the last remnant of unbelief cease at that thought (end of Matthew 28:7).
III. Unshadowed light.—This, first of all, in their faith. There is still about them, very naturally, a certain awe and solemnity; but there is no shadow of doubt now to interfere with their “joy,” or to make them hesitate about making it known (Matthew 28:8). Oh! what tidings they feel, rather, they have to communicate! Oh! for wings to reach those they desire! Oh! for breath to tell all! Similar “light,” in the next place, in their experience. Suddenly, as they fly, they are standing transfixed. Can it be? Yes, it must be. It is the Master Himself! His own aspect! His own voice! His own greeting once more (beginning of Matthew 28:9)! And yet, withal, is He quite the same as He had been to them of old? Why, if so, do we behold them now “worshipping” Him on their faces? Why embracing His “feet” (end of Matthew 28:9; contrast Matthew 26:7)? Evidently, with no less affection, there is even deeper awe than before. The reason seems plain. Not only now are they seeing the Saviour. They are seeing the “risen” Saviour as well. All that they used to admire in Him is there still. All the old consideration for those to whom He is speaking. “Be not afraid” (cf. Matthew 14:27; Mark 5:36). All the old gentleness to the fallen and weak. “Go, tell my brethren (see Matthew 26:56; and Mark 3:34-35). What they see further is what has been added thereto. This, at last, is fulness of light!
In this story of these first witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus there is much which is characteristic of the gospel:—
1. In the persons selected.—Not the world at large, as represented by the heathen guard. Nor yet the general body of believers, as represented by the disciples. But those faithful women who were both last and first at the sepulchre of Jesus (cf. Luke 24:22-24; also Acts 10:40-41). It was not necessary, neither was it ever meant, that the risen Saviour should appear to more than a few. If any have seen Him, that is proof enough to the rest (cf. John 20:29).
2. In the method pursued.—Cf. Mark 8:22-25; Mark 4:33; John 16:12; Proverbs 4:18.
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 28:1-10. Christ’s resurrection.—
I. The place.
II. The time.—The day is important, for it was the first Easter Sunday, and the event of that morning has caused Sunday to be observed as a holy day throughout the Christian world.
III. The visitors.—What motive led them to this act? It was love, the mightiest power in the universe.
IV. The messenger.—We know but little concerning angels, but their mission is stated in Hebrews 1:14. Never did celestial messenger bring more joyful news than fell from the lips of the angel on that morning!
V. The meeting.—A few moments before Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene; now He appears to the other women.—
1. A living Saviour, not the ghost of a dead man.
2. A comforting, encouraging Saviour. “Be not afraid.”
3. A brotherly Saviour (Matthew 28:10).—J. L. Hurlbut, D.D.
The resurrection: the victory won.—
I. The seeming defeat.—
1. Jesus dead.
2. Jesus buried.
II. Victory.
III. Victory proclaimed.—
1. By the angels.
2. By the disciples.
IV. The results of Christ’s victory.—
1. It is a proof of His being the Son of God (Romans 1:4).
2. It is a pledge that salvation is finished (Romans 4:25).
3. It is a pattern for our changed lives (Romans 6:4; Romans 6:13).
4. It is a promise that our bodies will rise too (1 Corinthians 15:20; 1 Corinthians 15:49).—I. L. Trotter.
Matthew 28:1-6. The women at the sepulchre.—
I. Great courage where least expected.
II. Heavenly light breaking on earthly gloom.—Anon.
Matthew 28:5-6. The angel’s comforting words.—
1. By the same means the Lord can terrify His adversaries, and comfort His people; those He suffereth to lie still in their terror, these He comforteth.
2. Such as are seeking after Jesus may take comfort, whatsoever come; for upon this ground the angel saith, “Fear not, I know ye are seeking Jesus.”
3. We have no reason to be ashamed of Christ’s cross, when the angels avow Christ crucified to be the Lord.
4. If God should use kings and emperors to be preachers of Christ’s cross and resurrection, it should be no disparagement to their high place, for this message is worthy of such an angel as this to be messenger, and even the angels do not so much honour the message as they are honoured by it; and who is he who thinketh himself too good to be a preacher of the gospel?
5. Christ’s body after His resurrection retaineth the natural properties of a body; it is in one place and not in another; the Scripture knoweth no ubiquity of His body. “He is not here; He is risen.”
6. No rest for our faith save in our Lord’s word; if it be once received, then other things serve to confirm faith; for first, “He is risen, as He said,” saith the angel, and then biddeth them “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”
7. It is a sufficient argument to prove that Christ’s body is not present in a place, if sense perceive it not present, for the angel proveth that Christ is not in the sepulchre by this reason, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay; He is not here.”—David Dickson.
Matthew 28:6. The place where the Lord lay.—The angel here appeals to the senses of those who stand about the tomb to attest the truth of Christ’s actual resurrection from the dead.
I. The empty tomb at once proclaimed the actual resurrection of the Saviour.—The resurrection is proclaimed to be a fact—
1. By the testimony of human witnesses. The disciples were men of probity, and had no worldly advantage to acquire from the publication of such a circumstance, but quite the opposite. They had known Christ, surely, long enough to recognise Him again when He appeared amongst them; and with one concurrent voice they testify, “He is risen from the dead.”
2. This is strengthened by the testimony of angels, and by their various appearances as bearers of the news.
3. The resurrection of Christ was not denied, even by His enemies, but was covertly recognised and admitted, even while the Jews agreed to a traditional falsehood to conceal from their posterity that which they knew to be a fact.
4. The Apostles constantly attested the fact, as also did the Fathers of the primitive Christian Church—Ignatius, Polycarp, and the other venerable custodians of the truth.
5. Christ rose, likewise, in precise accordance with Scriptural types and predictions, and with the same body as that in which He had lived and died.
II. The language of the text expresses the great humiliation of Jesus Christ.—“Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”
III. We cannot meditate beside the place where the Lord lay without learning something of the infinite love of God.
IV. Neither can we look upon His empty tomb without being convinced of the Divine faithfulness.—Faithfulness as to promises, types, shadows, and predictions.
V. This visit to the place where the Lord lay must bring with it, too, a striking evidence of His Divine sovereignty.—“I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again.” And if He thus held in His sovereign hand the issues and the destinies of His own career, He can, in like manner, overrule and control the destinies of His people.
VI. Is not this vacant tomb an almost satirical evidence of His triumph over His enemies and ours?
VII. “Come, see the place where the Lord lay,” that you may behold in it the certain and the glorious pledge of a perfected salvation.—A. Mursell.
The resurrection of Christ and the inspiration of the Bible.—
I. The resurrection of Christ is an historical fact, and, as such, it can be proved like any other fact in history.
II. The resurrection of Christ, once established, carries with it other great truths, such as His divinity and the infallibility of His teaching.
III. Having established His divinity and the infallibility of His teaching, we have a short and easy method to prove that the Bible is the Word of God, and the expression of the will of God. Christ, possessing Divine wisdom and never erring in a single statement, declares that the Old Testament prophets spoke by the Holy Ghost, or that God spoke through them. He quoted “the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms”—which included the whole Old Testament as we now have it—as the Word of God. This stamps the whole Old Testament with Divine authority. He also promised to guide the Apostles in what they were to record (John 14:26; John 16:13). As a matter of fact, this promise was fulfilled when they received the baptism of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, and “spake with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” The fulfilment of this promise, confirmed as it was by signs and miracles, stamps the teaching of the Apostles with the imprimatur of God. Thus we see that in dealing with doubt and difficulty respecting doctrine and belief, the first thing to be done is to satisfy the intellect about the historical Christ and the great facts of His life. Once establish the resurrection of Christ as an historical fact, and you have also established His divinity and the inspiration of the Bible.—S. Macnaughton, M.A.
Matthew 28:7. The risen Christ in Galilee.—Why did Christ make an appointment with His disciples in Galilee? Why did He make that distant place the scene of the main evidence of His resurrection? Why not here in Jerusalem? Whether they were consciously aimed at or not, certain results were secured that could not have been gained had His appearance been confined to Jerusalem.
I. His resurrection was thus separated from all those superstitions known as ghosts or apparitions.—These, men have always believed in; but they are an indirect, left-handed witness to a consciousness in man that he is more than he seems to be, and that death is not what it appears to be. The ghost haunts its former scenes; it is seen where the body was buried. The action of the mind in this respect is singular, and is governed by a sort of logic; it feels that the other life lies close to this, and that the two lives of men cannot be far divorced from each other. But these beliefs are superstitions, and they were rife at the time of Christ. The one thing to be feared in connection with the resurrection was that it would be regarded as an ordinary ghost story. It has been so interpreted in later days—as a part of a great, common superstition. But, as if to meet in advance this interpretation, and to separate it in the minds of the disciples from everything of the sort, it is made under conditions utterly unlike those of apparitions.
II. This appointment in Galilee was a testing lesson in faith.—Is it, after all—we can imagine them saying—worth the while to make the journey to Galilee? Can He who died on the cross, whose feet were pierced with nails, journey thither? That He should appear here is possible; we have heard the like before; but will He appear in Galilee? So their minds may have acted; and as they made the journey, every step and every hour must have tended to throw them out of their belief and hope. For there is nothing that so tests our faith in an event difficult of belief as to get out of the atmosphere of it. The wonder lessens as we go away from it. But if this experience of the disciples was a trial of their faith, it also strengthened it. For faith is not hurt by doubt until it yields to it. The very weakness and faltering of faith may be turned into strength by pressing on in its path, fighting doubt, and resisting the appeals of the world. This journey of simple trust and stout adherence to hope was a fine preparation for harder experiences soon to follow. There would come times when not merely the faltering of their own hearts was against them, but all the powers of the world; times when their only refuge would be their faith in the risen and ascended Lord. Then the memory of this experience, crowned by actual sight of their Master, would come to their rescue.
III. We find another explanation of this meeting in Galilee in the fact that Christ saw fit to give them their great commission on the scene of their common labours.—For it was in Galilee that they had been called and set to their work. It was in Galilee that the great sermon had been spoken which lay at the bottom of the gospel; and here His mighty works were chiefly done. His presence in Jerusalem was incidental to His life, and not the main field of it. Nor did Jerusalem so well represent the world that was to be discipled as the northern province. It is not improbable, also, that He thus intended to convey to the disciples some further and closer conception of the nature of their work. “Go ye, and make disciples of all nations.” “How?” they may have asked. “As I have done in these fields and villages before your eyes. There I turned water into wine: go, turning the common and dull things of earth into glorious and inspiring realities. There I fed the multitude: go, taking the Bread of life to the multitudes of earth—Bread that shall also become literal bread to all the poor and starving of the world. There I stilled the storm: go, carrying the all-conquering peace of God to the stormy and warring nations. On that hillside and by those shores I preached the gospel to the poor: go, carry everywhere the same gospel of consolation. In all these villages I cured the sick and the lame and the blind in answer to their faith. Take My words to them again, and tell them that by faith in Me they will be delivered from all their groaning miseries. Teach them that there is a Divine, delivering power at work in the world; that God is the Father, and that He has sent His Son into the world to save it, and to restore to Him all who believe on Me.” More vividly still He was able to impress upon their minds His comforting assurance: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” “I was with you as we trod all these paths from city to city; I never failed you; I taught and cheered and inspired you by My constant presence. So it will be to the end.” These things are for us also. We have a Leader who is also a sharer in our life.—T. T. Munger, D.D.
Matthew 28:8. Believing and testifying.—
1. Such as know what a heart grieved for want of Christ meaneth, will be very ready to comfort such as are in such a grief, as these holy women are glad to carry good news to the heart-broken disciples.
2. Mixed affections, fear and joy, at one time, may well consist in the heart of a believer. One may tremble at the majesty of God, and rejoice in His friendship, manifested by any means which He pleaseth, for thus are these godly souls affected.
3. It is a choice good disposition to believe the Lord’s word, and diligently to go about the obedience of it, in fear and trembling, such as here is to be seen in these women; having believed the glad tidings, they run quickly, with fear and joy, to bring the disciples word.—David Dickson.
Woman witnessing to Christ’s resurrection.—I. The false message which brought sin into the world, and all our woe, was given first to woman, and by her was communicated to the man. The resurrection of the Lord, the healing of that early death-wound, was communicated in the same way. From an angel to woman, and from woman to man, and from man to the world, came death. From an evil angel, through the link of woman to mankind, the evil tidings spread and covered the earth. From a good angel to woman, and from women to men, and from men to the world came life, the life of the world.
II. It is not much preaching we get from angels’ lips; but there is a little here, and that little very precious. The angel gave their spirits the cordial before he imposed the race upon their limbs. The angel knew his part well, for the whole theory of missions is here.
III. “They did run to bring the disciples word.”—It was the word within them that impelled them to hasten; it was the word in their heart that made them run with the word on their lips. I detect a grand key-note here. It is not only the message, carefully learned and correctly told; it is not only the faithful witness-bearing, whatever danger may be incurred. Over and above all this there are an eagerness, an enthusiasm, and a haste, in bearing the message of redemption, which are in keeping with the case, and mark the conduct of true disciples in all places and at all times.—W. Arnot, D.D.
Matthew 28:9-10. Meeting Jesus.—
1. Such as obey the directions of God’s servants, and do use prescribed means that they may meet with Christ, shall find Him ere they be aware. These women meet Christ before they looked for Him; as they went on His errand, Jesus met them.
2. Joyful is the meeting which a soul hath with Christ.
3. A humble sinner may be homely with Christ.
4. Such as believe God’s word in the mouth of His messengers shall find confirmation of it by Christ Himself; for here the Lord bids them do the same things which the angel had commanded before—to carry news to the Apostles.
5. For all that can be said unto us, our faith is still mixed with some doubtings, which breed fear, and Christ only can remove them; therefore saith He here, “Be not afraid.”
6. The weakest of believers are much beloved and esteemed by Christ. “Go, tell My brethren.”
7. The place wherein Christ is most welcome to preach shall be most honoured by His presence. “In Galilee shall they see Me.”
8. Howsoever our Lord be purposed to give sensible satisfaction to His people in due time, yet doth He ever require some belief of His word in the mouth of His servants, and some obedience of faith to go before it; therefore saith He, “Tell them that they go to Galilee,” and addeth, “There shall they see Me.”—David Dickson.