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Catholic Bible Study
Matthew 28:1-20
00:30:10
This week Dr. Tim Gray and Dr. Michael Barber, professor of Sacred Scripture at the Augustine Institute Graduate School, continue their study of the Gospel of Matthew by diving into 28:1-20.
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome to form. Now, I'm Tim Gray, president of the Augustine Institute. And Joining me is Dr. Michael Barber, who's a professor of scripture here at the Augustine Institute. And we're continuing our Matthew Bible study. And actually, this is, I think, the final episode, Michael.
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B
Amazing. Yeah.
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A
Episode 40.
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B
Yeah.
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A
This is a very biblical number.
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B
That's right.
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A
That's how we planned it out right from the beginning.
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B
I'm sure that's the case. 100% possible.
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A
I'm sure it's how God planned it out because neither of us did. So I wouldn't have guessed it would take so long to get to the Gospel of Matthew. But I've never done a Bible study with you before.
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B
I mean, this was the quick version. This is the quick version.
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A
This is fast for you. All right, I'll calculate more time next time. Well, in all seriousness, we've enjoyed going through this Bible study. We hope you have, too. And now we're at the final chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 28. So open up the chapter 28. And, you know, of course, we've just gone through the intensity of Jesus, passion, death, agony and burial. And now we get to the good news in chapter 28, when it begins. Now, after the Sabbath, towards the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb, and behold, there was a great earthquake for an angel. The Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men. But then the angel addresses the women. So here we have this scene on Sunday morning, the day of the resurrection. And, you know, it's at dawn. Do you think that's significant?
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B
Most certainly. And in fact, we noticed at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew that we start with the book of the Genesis of Jesus Christ. And so here we have, you could say, the dawning of the new creation. And I think that is a very appropriate way to read Matthew because we've seen in Matthew 19, Jesus talk about how in the resurrection people will not be given in marriage. And he speaks of it in terms of the paling. The new creation is really the right idea there. And so it's not a coincidence. It's the first day of the week. Right. We're now starting a new creation week.
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A
It really is setting the context that Jesus's resurrection from the dead is so important. It's an idea that someone can die and then rise, that there could Be resurrection that is not part of the old creation, that's fallen, that's part of the new creation. So it really tells us that Jesus resurrection changes creation, doesn't it? It really is a right.
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B
And let's not just leave this in the abstract, but make it concrete and personal. Right. The understanding is that in baptism we die with Christ and we rise to new life. St. Paul is very clear about this in his letters, I think of Romans chapter six, for example. And so it's important for us to know that we really can have a new beginning. A lot of people feel stuck in sins. They feel enslaved to their sins. Oftentimes we feel trapped by our past. And yet with Christ, we see that a new beginning is truly possible. If you want to enter into a new creation, if you want to start over, if you want to put to death the things of Satan, the things of the flesh, the world, sin, you can do that because Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
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A
That's a beautiful, beautiful thing. And I love the saying that every saint has a past, but every sinner can have a future in Christ. Right. So we just have to keep that in mind. Well, then the next thing that happens after this earthquake. And of course, you know, we talked a little bit about first century tombs maybe, but you know, you roll a large stone to cover the entryway and. And now this angel comes down and he's going to move this stone with the earthquake. But then the angel said to the women, do not be afraid. And that's a classic line that we find throughout Scripture, right?
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B
That's right.
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A
Be not afraid.
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B
Right there at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, the very first scene of the Gospel of Matthew is Joseph deliberating about what should be done. His betrothed is with child and he considers divorcing Mary. And an angel comes to him in a dream and says what? Do not be afraid. So here we have bookends in the Gospel of Matthew. And just as Joseph was assured by the angel that he should not be afraid, now here we see the women are assured that they need not be afraid. And we know how it's turned out. We know what Joseph ultimately would have been afraid of, and that is the, the consequences. Whatever would have led to Mary being pregnant, this could have terrible consequences. He doesn't really seem to know what's going on. And so here we see in the story of the Resurrection, the women are confronted by an angel. And in the scriptures of Israel, that is a terrifying experience. I mean, anyone would have the experience of fear being greeted by an otherworldly being like an angel. What is happening here? And yet, just as Joseph had no reason to fear, the women have no reason to fear here as well.
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A
It's interesting that the two great mysteries of Christ's life, that God becomes man and is conceived in the womb of Mary. And so you have the virgin conception first and foremost, which is unique, and then the virgin birthday. But Joseph has to be told by the angel not to be afraid by these strange circumstances, that his bride, who's a virgin, is pregnant. And now for the women, they have to be consoled by the angel not to be afraid because the tomb is empty.
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B
That's right.
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A
And that can be very disconcerting. Again, you see that God's acting in a supernatural way, not simply a natural way. It's not natural for a virgin to conceive. It's not natural for a dead body to rise.
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B
Right. And let us be clear as well that the women are aware of what tomb it is, because, as we saw last time, it was a new tomb. Right? So they know right where to go. And it's a fascinating detail that we have these women here at the tomb. I like to point this out to people that in the ancient world, women were not normally considered the most reliable witnesses. Some people will exaggerate and say women could never testify. Well, that's not actually true, but nonetheless it was. And this was unfortunate, of course, in the ancient world, it was the case that men had a certain prejudice against women witnesses. And so it's remarkable that the gospel story tells us that the first witnesses to the resurrection were, you know, if the story of the resurrection was invented, if this was to convince people. Exactly. If they were trying to tell people, yeah, we really did see Jesus. He really rose from the tomb. This isn't the way the story would have been told. Imagine, you know, I go to Nashville. Or is it Nashville? Where's Graceland? Yeah, Nashville. Right? Yeah. Imagine I go to Graceland and I tour Elvis's house. And I come back and I say, tim, I was there, and I saw this guy walking around on the grounds. I'm sure it's Elvis. Look, I'm telling you, Elvis lives. It's true. He never really died. What did he look like? Well, that is not important. If I started saying things like, I didn't know if that was really him. It didn't really look like him, things like that, you wouldn't be convinced that I actually saw Elvis. The gospel stories are full of details that you wouldn't expect to find if the resurrection is a made up story. Elsewhere we see that they don't recognize Jesus.
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A
Right, I get your point. If I was trying to create a hoax that Elvis was alive, I wouldn't have you be the one who saw him. Nor would the ancient people have women as the witnesses. So then, you know, the angel says, come and see the place where he lay. What a beautiful invitation to contemplate the mystery.
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B
That's right.
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Of the resurrection.
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B
That's right. That's right. And it's interesting that it's the place where he lay. It's important that Jesus is buried on Friday because Friday is of course the beginning of the Sabbath. And so we see with Jesus laying in the tomb, him fully keeping the law. He fulfills the law, Right, by resting completely on the Sabbath. Right.
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A
Now that's a great point. And you know, sometimes people ask, I get this question quite a bit. How, how do you get three days? Well, it's important to understand the Jewish idea of days because going back to Genesis in the beginning, that for Genesis chapter one, you know, every evening with sunset, it begins the new day. So the day doesn't begin at dawn, it begins at sunset. And so that's really important. So that Jesus is crucified and he's buried before the Shabbat begins. So that would be what we call Friday. And then Friday evening through Saturday evening is the second day that he's in the tomb. And then on the third day, not to rise during the Sabbath, early morning in the middle of the night, early morning on Sunday, which would still count as the third day in Jewish reckoning, that's when he rises. And so that's how you get on the third day. So he spent three days in the tomb.
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B
Very important, very important. All right. And we can point out that in the scriptures of Israel, in the book of Hosea, it talks about how after two days, after three days, I can't remember now the passage, after three days I will restore you. Right. And so that is the idea that God is gonna restore his people from exile and save them on the third day. And when does that happen? It happens in the resurrection of Jesus because it's in him that, that were saved and restored.
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A
No, that's a great passage. And that's in Hosea, chapter six, I think, verse seven, if people want to look that up. And then, Michael, the next thing that happens is, and, and that's just, I, I, I always say invite people to just reflect on that line, come and look at the place where he lay, the empty tomb. And the mystery of the empty tomb. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And behold, he is going before you to Galilee where you will see him. And so see, I have told you so. And so they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. Of course, there lots of excitement here now running. And behold, Jesus met them and said greetings, which is probably in Hebrew, shalom, Shalom. And that's what John gives us, that sense of the greetings are constantly, shalom, peace. And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. And then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid again repeated, because you remember, they leave the angel afraid and joyful. And so Jesus has to tell them again reassuringly, do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee. And there they will see me. Now, I just get your reaction to this, but my brothers is a really amazing line. These are the guys who just abandoned him for the last few days. And yet our Lord says, go tell my brothers. The mercy of God is extraordinary and God's grace is bigger than our sin. And so these guys aren't worthy to be called the brothers of Jesus at this point, his brethren. And yet Jesus extends that graciously.
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B
And it's very important that Jesus says, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee. So where are they going? To see the risen Lord. Now, in some of the other gospels, we do have appearances of Jesus appearing in Jerusalem. But in Matthew, Matthew emphasizes the appearance of Jesus in Galilee. And that, I think, is really significant for a number of reasons. Number one, it reminds the disciples that they need to go back to the beginning. Right. They need to go back to where they first met Jesus.
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A
Yeah, I think that's really a striking thing, this return to beginnings. And this is, you know, for Galilee. Most of these disciples were Galileans. It was. And I know whenever I make pilgrimage, when I'm up in Galilee, it's peaceful. There's a pastoral, beautiful setting. There's a tranquility there and a beauty. And Jerusalem is busy and loud and noisy. And it's as if our Lord's saying, all right, you just went through a traumatic experience through my passion and death. And now my resurrection is rather disruptive as well. Let's go up to a quieter place to reflect on these mysteries.
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B
It's also significant. Well, let me just. Some application here is oftentimes a great way to renew your own faith is to sort of go back to the beginning. If there was a time in your life where you experienced the grace of conversion in a. Maybe it was through reading a book, maybe it was on a pilgrimage. Sometimes going back to those places, going back to those books is a great way to renew your spiritual life. But I'd also point out that it's especially significant that Jesus ends up bringing the disciples to him in Galilee and not in Jerusalem. You know, in the scriptures of Israel, it's understood that when God restores his people, he's going to regather them and in a new temple. And of course, the temple was located in Jerusalem. So you see this in Isaiah 2, Isaiah 56. Where is the restoration of God's people going to take place? At Zion? In the temple. But what Jesus does in the gospel is he shows us in Matthew's gospel, something greater than the temple is here. And so it's not the case that when Paul goes out, for example, and writes to the Galatians or the Corinthians, Paul doesn't say, all right, guys, just as it says in Isaiah, now you have to go up to Jerusalem. No, Paul understands what Matthew is emphasizing here, and that is that in Christ we have something greater than the temple. And so the restoration of God's people is going to be especially centralized in his presence. The restoration isn't a geographical relocation project. It's not bringing people back to earthly Palestine. Rather, it's bringing people to Jesus that's important.
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A
Now, the next section starts off with a little flashback to the guard while they were going back. Behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And, and, and that. Anything you want to say about that?
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B
Well, there's so much we could say about it. It is fascinating that you have the account of the guard there standing watch at the tomb. Because what Matthew really wants to emphasize here is it's not possible that someone maybe stole the body of Jesus or just took the body away in the middle of the night. No, there was a garrison that was placed there. In fact, we know from the gospel narratives, Jesus over and over again announces he is going to be handed over and he is going to rise from the dead. And he does this in various ways. So it's not at all hard to believe that the, that certain leaders would say, you know, we ought to make sure they don't try to steal the body to make sure, you know, that they can say, oh, well, his prophecies came. Came true. And so it does really highlight the, the historicity of the resurrection.
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A
One of the, the Last phrase there. I want to suggest an idea. It says that when the soldiers go back and tell the chief priests all that had been accomplished. Right? And that phrase is actually echoed earlier in the Sermon on the Mount. And I think it's interesting. I'm going to take us back to Matthew, chapter 5, verse 17 and 18. Verse 18 will be the key verse, but I'll set up, he says in verse 17, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. And what's interesting is the guards come to tell what happened to the chief priests. And they say, and the wording and last phrase there in verse 11 of Matthew 28 is the soldiers told the chief priests all had been accomplished. It's the very same phrase. And so the idea that if this is a new creation, the old heavens and the old earth has passed away, a new creation has come because all has been accomplished, because Jesus, death and resurrection has accomplished and fulfilled everything. And now we're entering into a time of a new creation. And that's why the law and the prophets are not abolished or fulfilled until all is accomplished. But now at the end of Matthew, all is accomplished. And so now we're going to see is when we pick up with Acts of the Apostles, that now the law doesn't have to be observed when it comes to kosher laws, animal sacrifice, because there is a new creation, the old heavens and the old earth have passed away in light of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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B
And so we go on and we read, and when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, and that reminds us again of Psalm 2, which is where it talks about how the rulers gather together and they take counsel against the Lord's anointed one. We read they gave them a, a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers, and they told him, tell the people his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep. And, and then they tell him, well, if this gets to the governor, don't worry, we'll, we'll, we'll stick up for you because if you fall asleep on duty.
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A
Yeah, guardian penalty there, right?
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So how do the chief priests accomplish their plan? It's through greed, right? They appeal to people's greed. And this is a major theme we've been tracing throughout the Gospel, is that if we want to follow Christ, we're gonna have to recognize we can't serve both God and mammon, right? And so Satan, he tempts us with worldly goods like he tempts Christ in the wilderness with the. The glories of all the kingdoms. Satan wants to tempt us with worldly wealth and possessions. This is the same thing that the high priests have at their disposal here. And we go on and we read. So they took the money and did as they directed. And this story has been spread among. Now, it says here I want to correct something because I think it's wrong. And this story has been spread among. It says the Jews to this day. And a lot of people, when they read that, they think, oh, well, that means that the Gospel of Matthew is no longer written to Jews. The Jews are the enemies of the Christ believers, right? Of the Christians. That's not really accurate, actually. In the Greek, there's no definite article there. It doesn't say the story was spread among the Jews. It just says the story was spread among Jews, right? So some people like to read this passage and see in it some kind of division between Christianity and Judaism. But I don't really think that's the idea here.
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A
I agree with you, Michael. That's an important point. Now, the 11 went to Galilee. So as we go to verse 16, now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. Now, I think that's a reference back to earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, where the transfiguration happened. So that's where they get a vision of his glory. And then that's probably where they return to experience the glorified, resurrected Jesus. We don't know. It's not specified either way.
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B
The point is it's a nondescript mountain, right? Matthew doesn't tell us that the place is important because the place is secondary. What's primary is that it's where Jesus is. What makes the mountain matter is not its attachment to some past event. No. We have a new creation. And so it's rather striking, right, that here we have them go to a mountain. It doesn't say Mount Zion here. They go to a mountain where Jesus is, and that is the center of the action.
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A
And then when they saw him, they worshiped him.
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B
Holy cow. That's a big deal, right, that they worship Jesus. That's a really important detail. Because as we saw earlier in the Gospel, in Matthew chapter four, when Satan comes to tempt Jesus, he says, if you worship me, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world. And Jesus essentially responds by saying, no, you only serve the Lord. And the implication is you only worship the Lord. And there are many passages thinking, for example, in the Book of Acts, other places, Book of Revelation, where angels or other persons indicate, you're not supposed to worship me, you only worship the Lord. So the fact that they fall down and worship him is hugely significant. In fact, not long ago, I was at a big academic conference and there were these three scholars sitting on a panel, and two of them were Christians and one of them was a Jew. And the Christians were basically explaining, well, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus isn't really God, he is the Messiah, but he's not God himself. And after these two other scholars spoke, the Jewish scholar, who is not a Christian, said, I don't know, guys, I'm a Jew. And when I see a bunch of Jewish fishermen fall down and worship a man who goes on to say, all authority in heaven on earth is given to me, there's only one logical conclusion. She basically said, this figure is God. You can't worship other people who make these kinds of claims. And then we'll see something that happens at the end of this that would further confirm this. But the idea is, where do you go after the resurrection? Where do you go? You go to worship Jesus, Right? What is Christ calling us to in new life?
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A
Yeah, that's the only response that's right. Appropriate and fitting to what just happened. Jesus has given his life and death and then rising from the dead. And clearly he's God. And clearly we are called to worship him.
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B
And new life in Christ means falling down and worshiping him. And this is really important because we might think the first thing the apostles would do would be to go out and spread the good news. No, the first thing we do is we turn to prayer. The first thing we do is we turn to worship. Oftentimes we can feel pulled in so many apostolic directions. We can feel like, oh, I've got so many things to do. We can neglect what's central, and that is being with the Lord and worshiping Him.
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A
I don't want to rush you, but I want to get the rest of this in for this last 40th episode.
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B
Okay. And then one thing.
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A
Nope.
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Some doubt it. Okay. You wouldn't add that detail.
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A
If I'm trying to make up the story and convince people, I wouldn't admit that there's some people doubted.
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Right. I really saw Jesus. It really was him. I mean, I doubted it, but what that was convincing. All right.
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A
Yeah. No. And then Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them so, baptizing and teaching and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the ages. And we'll come back to that last line in a minute. But let's just talk about these two major things that Jesus says. First, he's talking about all authority has been given to him. And that's evoking an important prophecy we've spoken about a lot in the Gospel of Matthew. And that's from the prophet Daniel. Daniel, chapter seven.
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B
That's right.
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A
Anything you want to say about that?
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B
Well, very important, right, that in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus repeatedly uses the phrase the kingdom of heaven. He doesn't just speak of the kingdom of God, he speaks of the kingdom of heaven. And it's been demonstrated by real solid scholarship that one of the major themes in the Gospel of Matthew is the idea of heaven and earth coming together. And this is a major theme, you see in the Book of Daniel. The idea of the kingdom of God and the idea of the heavens, and God's bringing, in a sense, the heavenly to the earthly. But what's going to happen in the Gospel of Matthew is at the end of the Gospel, that tension between heaven and earth is resolved. How? In Christ and in the sacramental ministry of the Church. In baptism. Right. Heaven and earth, all authority in heaven and earth shall come together. So how is it that we enter into heaven on earth already? Through the sacramental ministry of the Church, in the sacraments.
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Yeah. And that's. Baptism is the entryway for that.
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B
That's right.
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You know, I think someone asked maybe Pope Paul vi, what was the greatest day of your life in the Church? Being ordained a pope, bishop, priest. He said, no, it was none of those. It was my baptism. That's when the Trinity entered into my soul. And so baptism is the entryway into that new creation for all of us now.
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And here we have the baptismal formula. Baptize him in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And as other Church fathers pointed out, Jesus doesn't say, baptize them in the names, he says in the name, because there's a unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It's a very important passage in the trinitarian theology of the Church. And what are they to do? Teach them everything that I've commanded you. Well, we know that everything Jesus taught isn't contained in the Gospel according to Matthew.
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A
But to teach everything that Jesus taught, it's going to take at least 40 episodes, right? We know that. And then this last thing, this last statement, and behold, I am with you always. And this forms a nice inclusio parallel with the opening of the Gospel. You've already mentioned one of these frames which is with Joseph and the angel. Be not afraid speaking. And now we have another one. And that is the title for the child born of the virgin is Emmanuel, which means God with us. And now Jesus says, behold, I am with you always. And so that's the title, Immanuel. Right? I am with you. And so here we get God's great promise. And so for Matthew, his whole story of Jesus is framed by this idea of God is with us. That is the subject and the heart of the good news of Jesus Christ. For Matthew, we are not alone. God is with us.
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B
Amen. And he's especially with us through the ministry of the church and in the sacraments, right? So it's in the apostles going out and teaching, right? Through learning about the truth of Jesus and entering into his mysteries in the sacraments, we enter into his presence and that is how he fulfills his mission. What is his mission? In Matthew 1, you shall name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
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A
And we've seen so much in this Gospel of Matthew. We've talked about Jesus as the new David, and he's the king. He dies as king on the cross. We've seen him as the new Moses giving a new law on the Sermon on the Mount.
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B
And here on a mountain again, exactly.
- [28:02]
A
Here on a mountain again, exactly. And we see this idea of new creation. We saw at the beginning it was the genesis of Jesus Christ, the book of the Genesis, you know, chapter one, verse one. And now we come to a new creation with his resurrection from the dead. And so all the great themes of the story of Israel, Exodus. Jesus does a new Exodus and he has a new Passover. We see the idea of Allah and Torah. He gives a new Torah, we have the idea of creation, and there's a new creation. So really the entire story of salvation history of Israel is recapitulated. That it means replayed, recap, embodied. Recapit's a recap recapped in the life of Christ. And we see it beautifully. And Matthew does a masterful job of showing this fulfillment for us of the Scriptures of Israel in the person of Jesus Christ. It's really quite remarkable. And, you know, this is really what the August Institute is all about. You know, Jesus made the command here, teaching them, you know, so he says, make disciples and baptize them and teach them. And really, at the heart of the August Institute is an educational apostolate. We're all about teaching. And we get our teachers, like Dr. Barber, who come on formed, we do these Bible studies to teach you. And our whole mission, as we say, is to help Catholics understand, live, and share their faith. And I want to thank everybody who is a member of our mission circle who donates to the Augusta Institute. And you help us have this ministry. You help us to teach. And we want to make disciples of all nations. And so we've got people on formed from Canada to California, from Australia to Asia and throughout the rest of Asia. And, you know, it's just really remarkable how many people. We're reaching over 1.2 million people. And I'm just grateful for everybody who donates. And if you want to become a mission circle member, please do that. It's just $10 or more a month, and you can become a member, and there's all kinds of benefits, but we know that. We pray for all of you, and we ask you to pray for us, and we're grateful for you accompanying us on our journey through the Gospel of Matthew. Thank you so much, Michael.
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B
Thank you.
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A
And God bless all of you.