Go and meet him!

Major Martin Hill explores the reactions to Jesus’ resurrection

MATTHEW 28:1–15

IT was dawn on the day after the Sabbath – a lonely time. Mary

Magdalene and the other Mary only had each other and their silent thoughts for companionship. They were making their sombre journey to the tomb, with few words exchanged.

What drew them there? Matthew says their purpose was to ‘look at the tomb’ (v1). Maybe they just wanted the reassurance of seeing Jesus’ resting place. They could share their tears and add a final image to their album of memories to recall in future years: something to expunge their most recent recollection from two days earlier, a dying man’s body twisting in excruciating pain as he called out.

But this was a new day. It would have been no surprise if they’d had the conversation common to so many newly bereaved people: ‘It doesn’t seem like he’s gone.’ ‘It’s as if he’s going to walk back in any moment.’

Jesus did. This is how it happened.

The scene that met the women was not one of calm. There was a violent earthquake and the earth shook, as it had done when Jesus died two days earlier (see Matthew 27:51). An angel in dazzling white descended from Heaven and rolled back the stone covering the tomb’s entrance. The seasoned Roman guards were petrified. But the angel spoke reassuringly to the women. They need not be afraid. The angel knew they were looking for Jesus.

There was good news. Jesus had risen, just as he had said, and the angel showed them the empty tomb as proof. The angel told them to go straight away and tell the disciples the news, and that Jesus was going ahead of them to Galilee.

The excited women hurried off unquestioningly with a mixture of fear and joy and broke into a run (see v8), only to stop suddenly in their tracks. In their keenness to obey they came face-to-face with Jesus and fell at his feet in worship.

He reassured them and told them to go and tell his disciples to meet him in Galilee. But he used the word ‘brothers’ to refer to them (v10), hinting at a new phase of his relationship with them; they were now peers and partners.

QUESTIONS

Have you experienced a sense of God’s absence? How did it feel?

Are we more likely to find God present when we are obedient?

When faced with a new challenge have you ever found that God has gone ahead of you?

Galilee was home. It was where Jesus had been brought up and lived. It was also home to 10 of the 11 remaining disciples. They would meet in familiar surroundings. That is where the presence of the risen Lord would be made evident. And it would be there that Jesus would commission them to take forward his mission and be his ongoing presence in the world (see vv16–20).

QUESTION

Do you find it easier or more challenging to encounter God and witness to him in your home or neighbourhood?

Back in Jerusalem a different type of meeting was taking place (see vv11–15). Guards were reporting to the chief priests what had happened. They in turn met with the elders. They needed a plan and a story to spin.

As money had helped motivate Jesus’ betrayal by Judas, it now persuaded soldiers to deny the truth of his resurrection. They were to say that Jesus’ disciples stole his body during the night while they were asleep. It may have reflected badly on the soldiers’ professionalism but it enhanced their pay, and the story would have been plausible enough to convince pragmatic Pilate and satisfy public curiosity.

QUESTIONS

How do people misrepresent the Christian gospel today?

What might be their reasons?

On Good Friday the two Marys thought the final curtain had been drawn on a sacred life. They had the evidence of their own eyes and were likely haunted by the dying Jesus’ final cries. But the curtain had been ripped along its entire length (see Matthew 27:51), opening the possibility for a different ending to be revealed.

In fact, this was no ending but a continuing. A stone was removed from a tomb, and as light entered the sepulchre the Light walked out and back into the world, allowing us to see God’s true colours.

The story continues today, but it is yours to take forward. Go and meet him – what will that mean for you this Easter?

MAJOR HILL IS DIVISIONAL COMMANDER, CENTRAL EAST

Through the week with Salvationist –

a devotional thought for each day by Major Freda Benneyworth

SUNDAY

‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, “He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”’

(Mark 16:6 and 7)

MONDAY

Lo! Jesus meets thee,/ Risen from the tomb;/ Lovingly he greets thee,/ Scatters fear and gloom;/ Let his Church with gladness/ Hymns of triumph sing,/ For her Lord now liveth;/ Death has lost its sting.

(SASB 276)

TUESDAY

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

( John 20:19 and 20)

WEDNESDAY

Christ is alive! No longer bound/ To distant years in Palestine,/ But saving, healing, here and now,/ And touching every place and time.

(SASB 217)

THURSDAY

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. ‘Greetings,’ he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’

(Matthew 28:8–10)

FRIDAY

Crown him the Lord of life,/ Who triumphed o’er the grave,/ And rose victorious in the strife/ For those he came to save;/ His glories now we sing/ Who died, and rose on high,/ Who died eternal life to bring/ And lives that death may die.

(SASB 358)

SATURDAY

Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’

(Mark 16:14 and 15)

Prayer

Living Lord, we rejoice that you are not a piece of carved wood or a slab of stone but the risen, living Christ, crucified and crowned, and present in our everyday. Our hearts burst with thankfulness and praise.