Matthew 28 explained: The Empty Tomb and a Sending

Women at the empty tomb (vv. 1-7)

At dawn on Sunday, after the Sabbath rest day, two women come to the tomb, and an angel shining like lightning, a sign of heaven's glory, rolls back the stone. The armed guards collapse in fear, but the grieving women are told not to be afraid, that Jesus has risen as he said, and to come see the empty place where he lay.

Jesus meets the women (vv. 8-10)

Running off with fear and joy mixed together, the women meet Jesus himself, and their holding his feet is often read as showing he is physically there. In that culture a woman's testimony counted for less, yet they become the first messengers, and Jesus calls the disciples who had deserted him his brothers.

The guards' cover story (vv. 11-15)

The leaders pay the guards to say the disciples stole the body while they slept, and promise to protect them from the Roman governor, since sleeping on duty could be harshly punished. Matthew says this explanation was still going around when he wrote, so he seems to be answering a real claim of his own day.

On the mountain in Galilee (vv. 16-17)

Only eleven disciples remain because Judas, who betrayed Jesus, is gone, and they meet him in their home region as promised. The text openly says some doubted or hesitated even while seeing him, and scholars are unsure whether this means some of the eleven or others who were there.

Sent to all nations (vv. 18-20)

Earlier Jesus sent his followers only to Israel, but now, claiming all authority, he sends them to every people, to baptize them (a washing in water that marks joining him) in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to teach his way of life. His promise to be with them always echoes the start of Matthew's book, where Jesus is called God with us.

Key verse: Matthew 28:6

Where Christians differ

Most Christians read the empty tomb as a literal, bodily rising from the dead, while some read these accounts as expressing the disciples' experience of Jesus as alive in a less literal sense.

Something to think about

In this chapter some people meet the same event with worship and some with doubt, sometimes at the same moment; why do you think that happens when people face something they cannot explain?