Heading Back To Galilee

Happy Resurrection Sunday. Today we look at Matthew’s version of the most remarkable event in human history. You will find it in Matthew 28.
There are three things I want you to notice in this story.

1. Jesus Is Alive
The women came to the tomb, but he was not there. Instead they met an angel and later Jesus himself and they were frighten and amazed. Even the soldiers who were on guard at the tomb witnessed the event, and were frightened to face their superiors. The politicians needed to work out some spin to overcome the problem. The interesting thing in Matthew’s Gospel is that it was not only Jesus who was raised. After Jesus death graves were broken open and dead people were raised to life. (Matt 27: 51-53) Thus Matthew makes an allusion to the final resurrection when all humanity is raised. This is what Jesus is prefiguring. His resurrection is the promise of the raising of all God’s people into the Kingdom of Heaven. With Jesus resurrection the end has begun and the Kingdom is just around the corner.

2. Jesus sent the women
It is not surprising that the women went to the tomb that Sunday morning. The surprising thing is that they were spoken to, first by the angel and then by Jesus. More surprising still, is that they were given a message for the male disciples. It would be more likely that they would be told to go and get the men so that the message could be given to them. The message was given to the women. It was a deliberate act. It reminds us that Jesus calls outcasts rather than the righteous. (Matt 9: 13) The women in this context were outcasts. If Jesus calls women how could anyone argue against them ministering? And yet many still do. It also makes me wonder what other outcasts’ call to ministry we refuse to accept. Finally, if Jesus calls outcasts he can certainly call you and me, however inadequate we might feel.

3. The disciples were sent back to Galilee
This is the message the women were given – twice! Both the angel and Jesus told them that Jesus would meet his disciples in Galilee. Why Galilee? It was there that Jesus gave them their commission for their future mission and then left. He left them in Galilee. He had taken them back to the beginning. They were to begin their mission where he began and, as it were, follow his path of baptism, teaching, healing, calling disciples, rejection and persecution. In the process the world would be changed. We must begin where Jesus began too, following his way, bring hope to the world, whatever the cost.

WE are called to be people of the resurrection, living in the power of the risen Christ, sent to tell his disciples and the world that Jesus wants to meet them in Galilee (the beginning of their journey to the cross). Like the first disciples we go with confidence knowing that JESUS IS ALIVE.