Matthew 27:62-66; 28:1-15

Matthew 27:62-66; 28:1-15 NIV The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fake news is the latest topic to clutter social media with finger pointing, blame and rantings. See what I did there? By using the word clutter I cast a negative light on the conversation about fake news. Language is powerful. The pen is stronger than the sword because if you can shape public opinion you can manipulate outcomes. I wonder if that's what's happening as I read Matthew's telling of the Easter story. What is unique about Matthew versus the other gospels is the plot to spread false reports about Jesus rising from the dead. The other gospels mention no guards at the tomb and only Matthew adds the conversation with Pilate as a means to stop a fake resurrection. I am reading the gospel according to Matthew, a product of an early Jewish Christian community, one that suffers the oppression of their fellow Jews for their proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah, the King of the Jews. They are persecuted for their beliefs. They are shunned at synagogues. They are marginalized and despised in public life as a heretical minority. This testimony to their faith reveals also their conflict. I see two agendas at work in this story, the agenda to proclaim Christ is the risen Lord and savior of the world, and the agenda to suppress Christianity. The Jewish religious leaders went to the Roman governor and suggested that rumours going around about Jesus rising from the dead would only make matters worse. His followers would be all the more difficult to manage if they thought of their leader as an immortal, unbeatable victor. Pilate understood their concern and agreed to place guards at the tomb of Jesus. They sealed the tomb to ensure any tampering would be evident. Matthew gives the church the account that an angel opened the tomb with an earthquake of sorts and sat upon the stone that had covered the tomb. The guards were paralyzed with fear over the angels brilliant appearance. The women who'd come to the tomb were instructed by the angel to tell the apostles of Jesus' resurrection and to go to Galilee, for they would see Him there. Just as Jesus' birth was proclaimed by angels to marginalized shepherds, so now at the birth of a new creation of which Jesus is the firstborn, angels proclaim Jesus' resurrection to marginalized women. The marginalized are the ones who first receive the good news from divine messengers. The apostles were not told by angels of the resurrection, nor were priests, kings, or soldiers told of Jesus' birth from death. What does this say about the nature of God? Does it not imply that God has compassion for the poor and marginalized? That the marginalized are closer to hearing God than are the rich and influential? Or is this simply another one of Matthew's scriptural fulfillments? The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, Isaiah 61:1 NIV The angelic messengers passed their message onto the women, who in turn proclaimed the good news to the other disciples. The women were certainly fulfilling the scripture from Isaiah when they told others of Jesus' resurrection, His freedom from captivity in the darkness of the grave. Surely the brokenhearted were comforted and healing in their hearts began. So now we must ask a difficult question. Are we reading fake news? Is the proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus a fabrication from the early church, just as the religious leadership of Israel had warned? None of us were there, so we cannot know for certain... Or can we? The angel said that the apostles would see Jesus in Galilee. Galilee is where Jesus carried out the majority of His preaching and healing ministry. His good news about the coming kingdom of heaven was accompanied by signs that confirmed the kingdom had come in Him. But not simply in Him had the kingdom come. Heaven had come to all who believed. Jesus shared divine power with His disciples and they too proclaimed good news to the poor about the kingdom of God come to them and accompanied their message with signs by healing the sick, casting out demons, and other miraculous events. Reports of miracles in the church have continued through the centuries, even to today. Consider this report from the charismatic magazine Premiere Christianity. (May 2014) Heidi Baker, with her husband Rolland, has spent many years as a missionary in the bush land of Mozambique, South East Africa. Heidi (Mama Aida to hundreds of her beloved children) not only delivers aid and education through the charity Iris Global, she also claims to see miraculous events on an almost daily basis. It wasn’t always so. Early on in her ministry Baker had prayed to see blindness healed, but nothing happened. For over a year she continued to pray, believing one day God would grant the miracle. ‘That day came in a little mud hut church in the middle of Mozambique,’ she recalls. ‘A lady, blind from birth, was led in by a little boy. Compassion hit me and I prayed, “Oh God, let it be now.” The lady fell down in the Spirit and I saw her eyes turn from white, to grey, to brown. I was probably more surprised than she was. I’d never seen that happen before. I was so excited.’ Remarkably it was the first of three cases of blindness that Baker would see healed in the following three days. All three were women called Aida – Heidi’s name in the local language. It was a series of events which profoundly affected her. She says she heard God speak to her about the need for blind spiritual eyes to be opened in the Western world too. ‘God showed me the malnourished Church, eating crumbs from the Father’s table. He called us to see a world that might not be physically destitute, but is spiritually in desperate need.’ If these people are reporting fake news about miracles, I wonder what might be the motivation. Magazine sales? If the news of Christ's resurrection is simply fake news, then it's the biggest hoax of all time. Any intelligent person would conclude there's got to be something more to it than billions of people over the last 2000 years believing a lie because the reality of death is too frightening. The Spirit of The Lord is upon us! The women hurried from the tomb to tell the others. They were frightened and filled with joy at the same time! Who wouldn't be?! Why were they frightened? Because they just experienced something so far out of their ordinary experience they were having difficulty interpreting it. Lucky for them the angels gave them the words to say. They were filled with joy because they believed the news that Jesus is risen! And what happened in their belief and obedience to go and tell others? They saw Jesus! They believed and they obeyed and they saw Jesus. Do you suppose that happens for us today? You can bet on it. I've never seen Jesus the way the gospel portrays in a visible theophany, but I know people who say they have. I have, however, seen Jesus in plenty of people and in loads of situations. The most recent was watching little children respond to the ministry of their Sunday school teacher. Her love for them was evident and the children responded in kind. At that moment I saw Christ in her and through her reaching and teaching the children. It was a grace filled moment for me. Jesus simply told the women the same message given by the angels. "Don't be afraid. Go tell! There you will see me." I wonder if they saw Jesus in all the people in Galilee He and the disciples had touched over the last three years. I know I see Jesus in the lives of those He has touched. Hope is alive. Eyes and hearts are open. And the glory of the Lord shines upon us! Go tell the good news! And let the purveyors of fake news go their own way. For there will always be naysayers, scoffers and doubters. Some will make it their business to pervert the message of Christ, as the Jewish leaders did on that first Easter. Don't be afraid! Go and tell! Christ is risen! Death is conquered! The kingdom of God's miraculous love reigns over us forever! There, among those to whom you tell the good news and share His love, you will see Jesus!