Matthew 28:8-15
A. INTRODUCTION
Do you find, sometimes, that it’s hard to know what you should eat? Because no sooner does someone tell you that something is bad for you, then someone else praises the virtues of the very thing that has been condemned.
Do you find, sometimes, that it’s difficult telling truth from untruth, fact from fiction, particularly regarding the things that you hear on the news or read in the newspaper? Because one minute you are told one thing, and then the next thing you’re told that the initial report was wrong.
And do you find, sometimes, that people that you meet tell you all sorts of things, sometimes telling you things which sound completely genuine but, then, later you find they had only part of the story, or that the story was embellished or distorted, or even that it was a whole pack of lies?
It seems to me, these days, that whether we read the newspaper or watch television, whether we hear something second hand or even from the horse’s mouth, there can be a tendency for the things that we are told not to be the truth or at least not to be the whole truth. Because the truth has been distorted or simply put to one side. And even if there was no intention to lie, the story has been told with such bias that the truth somehow seems to have got lost.
Now, of course, just now, I’ve probably been just as guilty of exaggeration, or of over emphasising the situation that I’ve just accused others of doing. But the issue of truth and honesty, fact or fiction, is an issue that, on many levels, we face constantly today. But then there’s nothing new about that. Because it’s the very same issue that the first disciples were faced with on that first Easter Day too.
Remember the story:
B. OPPOSITE RESPONSES
1. The Two Mary’s (28:8-10)
Two women—two Marys—went to Jesus’s tomb. And what they expected to see was a tomb sealed by a large rock. And in it, if they could get in, they expected to see the dead body of Jesus.
Now the women had been told by Jesus that he would rise from the dead. He had even told them that it would happen within three days of his death. But for them, that was beyond their comprehension and their experience. They simply didn’t believe. And, as a consequence, they had gone to the tomb, expecting to find a dead body.
So, as they approached the tomb, they would have seen that it was guarded. But then there was an earthquake and, by the time they actually arrived, they discovered the stone had been rolled aside. And sitting on it, an angel who told them that Jesus had indeed risen, and that they were to go and tell the disciples that he would meet them in Galilee.
Now, of course, at this, they were filled with mixed feelings of fear and joy. But, as they went on their way, something else happened. They came face to face with the risen Lord.
Now their response was immediate. They bowed down, grabbed hold of Jesus’s feet—who they found was no ghost—and they worshipped him.
2.The Guards (28:11-15)
And while all this was happening, another story was being played out. The guards, who had been guarding the tomb, had also witnessed the earthquake. And when they saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb entrance, they could have known full well its meaning—that Jesus had indeed been raised from the dead. However, their reaction to the realisation of what happened, was completely different to that of the two Marys. But then they didn’t have the benefit of being confronted with the risen Lord themselves.
Now we don’t know what happened to all of the guards. Some may have stayed behind guarding the empty tomb, others may have run away in fear of the punishment that awaited them for losing the body. But some of them, at least, went off into the city to the chief priests, to report what had happened.
And there the chief priests and the elders—clearly unhappy with the fact of the resurrection—plotted with the guards to change their story. And with both skin intact, and encouraged by an amount of financial compensation (should their consciences start worrying them too much), the guards began to spread the false report that some of Jesus’s disciples had stolen the dead body.
3. Summary
Now, it’s quite a story. The two Marys started off not believing in the resurrection, but when faced with the facts, their response was to immediately bow down and worship the risen Lord. On the other hand, the guards, who had witnessed the same supernatural act—and could have come to the same conclusion as the two Marys, that Jesus had risen from the dead—saved their skins, and sold their souls, to spread a lie.
C. FACT OR FICTION?
Now remember, according to Matthew, the only eyewitnesses of the empty tomb were the two Marys and the guards. So, imagine what it would have been like to have been one of Jesus’s disciples that first Easter Day.
The man that they’d looked up to for some time—and followed everywhere, from town to town—had been executed a few days earlier, and had been buried. For sure he’d talked about being resurrected from the dead—and they’d seen and heard some remarkable things—but Jesus had never used his powers for his own benefit. Apart from that, resurrection was all beyond their comprehension too. And, at this stage, Jesus had not shown himself to them. So they would have faced the possible scenario of having to decide between the two reports: either that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead, or that his body had been stolen by some of his disciples.
Now, which would you have believed? Which would you have found the more credible? And how could you have distinguished truth from fiction? Well, I’m going to suggest that the disciples could have considered at least three things:
1. Motivation
And the first is motivation.
Now what motivation would the Marys have had to lie? If the body had been stolen, then it would probably not have been long before either the body was found, or that someone would have found out the whole thing had been a hoax. And if some followers of Jesus had stolen the body, then the disciples would hardly have later put their lives on the line for a lie.
On the other hand, the disciples knew very well that the religious authorities were prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to discredit Jesus, and now his followers. After all, during Jesus’s lifetime, they’d witnessed their trickery, and their willingness to go to any lengths to protect their own positions of power and authority.
2. Reliability
The second thing the disciples could have considered is reliability. Who were the most reliable? The two Marys or the guards and the religious leaders?
The two Marys had been through much with the disciples. In recent times they had been with Jesus from the beginning of his journey from Galilee to his last visit to Jerusalem. And they had even been near Jesus at his execution. The two Marys had therefore shown that they cared and could be relied upon, even in the most difficult of circumstances.
With the guards, however, their reliability was very much open to question. Because if they had been guarding the tomb, how could the body have been stolen? Up to the earthquake, they were guarding the tomb all the time. Indeed, they had been placed there with the specific task of making sure that the body wasn’t stolen. And, therefore, how could the guards be considered reliable at all? How could anyone believe their story of what it was that had happened?
3. Reputation
And the third thing that the disciples could have considered is reputation.
Because Mary Magdalene may have had a chequered past, however, since her encounter with Jesus she had been seen to be a devout and faithful follower, and would have been unlikely to make up false stories, no matter how wild that they may have seemed and no matter how silly they sounded. And with the other Mary by her side, who apparently had no such chequered past, the two Marys, probably thinking that their story would not be believed, stuck to their story anyway.
On the other hand, the religious leaders were not averse at telling lies, or doing anything to protect their positions in society. And that was something that wasn’t just known to the disciples, but they had a reputation for such dealings, well known throughout the land.
4. Comment
So in telling their stories, both groups would need to be assessed based on their credibility. Were they lying, mad, or telling the truth?
D. IMPLICATIONS
In a world where truth is often distorted or blurred, and where telling fact from fiction is not always easy, then, what this short passage from Matthew’s gospel shows is that there is a need for us to find a way to distinguish between fact and fiction. The disciples obviously needed it. And we need to find a way too.
1 Right from Wrong
Because in our day-to-day lives it is often difficult to tell truth from fiction, right from wrong. And we need to make decisions and commitments based on what we understand to be the truth. We can’t just rely on what we’re told, but we need to have some tools to help us to decide the truth. And the tests of motivation, reliability, and reputation—the three things that the disciples would have been able to apply—we can apply too.
So, for example, if we read an article in the newspaper, and we’re not sure whether to believe it or not, we can ask ourselves: What is the motivation for the story? Is it to tell the real story or to sell newspapers? How reliable is the newspaper in telling the truth? Or does it seem to change with the wind? And even if the story is hard to believe, what sort of reputation does the paper have? And does it have a history of integrity?
2 Responses to the Resurrection
And, more importantly, regarding the story of the empty tomb, and the missing body—around which the biggest decision of our lives needs to be made—can we tell fact from fiction there too?
In other words, faced with the story of the resurrection, do we believe that the body was stolen, or that indeed Jesus did rise from the dead?
Because if the body was stolen, then the Easter story doesn’t really matter at all. The story of salvation, then, ends with Jesus’s death on the cross. As a consequence, the church should never have been founded, and we shouldn’t find ourselves sitting in a church at all. However if Jesus did rise from the dead, then that should have enormous implications regarding the way we live our lives.
Because believing in a resurrected Jesus should mean enjoying to its fullest a direct relationship with God now, and treating God far better and more intimately than even our closest friend. Believing in a resurrected Jesus should mean worshipping God on a regular basis, and yearning to know more about him. Believing in a resurrected Jesus should mean a keenness to meet with other believers, to help, encourage, to share, and to care. And believing in a resurrected Jesus should mean looking out for every possible opportunity to tell others about him.
And, of course, all that can only happen if we are convinced that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead. And it will only happen if we have truly accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
E. CONCLUSION
Today, we live in a world where it is often hard to tell truth from fiction. Because lies, untruths, or even half-truths often seem to be a way of life. And that’s certainly just as true today, as it was in the days of the resurrection.
The question today, though, is what do we do with the things that we learn and are told? What do we do with what we are told on TV, or we read in the newspapers. And most importantly what do we do, with the story of the resurrection?
After all, have we worked out fact from fiction? Does the resurrection story make any difference in our lives? Because it only will to the extent that we believe the story to be true. And it only will to the extent that we are willing to embrace the implications of the story for ourselves.
Posted: 1st July 2023
© 2023, Brian A Curtis
www.brianacurtis.com.au
