Easter sermons are most likely not the moment to try to explain the meaning or significance or theology of the resurrection. In a similar vein, the Gospel of Matthew, perhaps aware that all of the words in the world could not explain the meaning of the resurrection, simply announces: He has been raised. The Gospel of John famously ends by saying that all the books in the world could not fully describe all of the signs that Jesus did. The reason for this is that no amount of explanation can adequately explain the meaning and significance of Easter. Or souring a great musical performance by describing the music while the performance is still taking place. It would be like wrecking a great joke by explaining it. To try at this point to explain the meaning of Christ’s resurrection would wreck the telling of the greatest story ever told. This act of narrative brevity is fitting. The command is given to go and spread the word. In an elegant act of narrative succinctness, the Gospel announces and does not explain: The good news of his resurrection is announced. It is interesting that Matthew, like Mark, does not elaborate on the meaning of Christ’s resurrection. Indeed, Matthew reports that while they were on their way to find the disciples to deliver the good news, Jesus himself appeared to them and repeated the command, “Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee there they will see me.”īut as is obvious, the women fulfilled their task and delivered the message, as Matthew reports in verse 16 that “the eleven disciples went to Galilee.” Thus, Matthew’s resurrection narrative is about the first announcement in what was to become a continuous chain of announcements, with one messenger repeating the message to the next, down through the ages that, “He has been raised from the dead.” Matthew reports that they “ran to tell his disciples.” But Matthew does not actually describe the scene to us. The messenger commands, “Go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee there you will see him this is my message for you.'”Īs is also the case in the Gospel of Mark, the narrative does not actually let us listen in on the scene where the women fulfill the command and tell the disciples that Jesus has been raised. He is not here for he has been raised, as he said.” But this original message about the good news is only the start of a chain of messages. They see a “messenger” (as is well known, the Greek term angelos, like the Hebrew term mal’ak, literally means a “messenger”–in this case the “angel” being a divine messenger), who descends and rolls away the stone.įinally, they hear a message: “Do not be afraid I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. Then, they see a message–quite literally. Instead, a message greets them.įirst, they feel a message–a great earthquake, that shakes the foundations. The two Marys approach the tomb, expecting to see the tomb–the final resting place of Christ, the last sad chapter in his once promising story, the closing scene in the saddest story ever told. The logic of the “continuation” of the story is present already in Matthew’s account of the Easter good news. Christ’s resurrection means that the story of Jesus is “to be continued” in you, and in me, and in every life that is touched by the power of the good news that, “He is risen.” The whole point is that it continues–and that its significance continues.” 1 Juel’s concise statement is a pretty fair summation of the meaning of Easter. “one of the Gospels can really end the story of Jesus. Donald Juel, reflecting on the resurrection account in the Gospel of Mark, once wrote that:
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