Reading the Gospels Together

The Resurrection – Part 3

We have noticed how throughout the Passion Narrative Matthew has been following Mark quite closely. There are only a few minor differences between the two. All of this changes in Matthew’s story of the resurrection. One can see that Mark’s story rests in the background of Matthew’s gospel but Matthew has made some significant adjustments. Matthew had mention three women who witnessed the crucifixion and burial. That number has now been reduced to two – Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. In itself that is a minor difference. But Matthew has also left out the bringing of spices and the consternation of the women regarding who will roll away the stone. Matthew’s readers get the impression that the women are not really planning on entering the tomb but rather are going there to “see the tomb” – most likely to grieve. Matthew gives the impression that the women are already there when an earthquake occurs and an angel, whose appearance is like lightning and whose clothing is a white as snow, comes and rolls back the stone and sits upon it. This is very different from Mark’s portrait of a young man – not necessarily an angel but perhaps we are to understand the young man in this way – sitting inside the tomb. Matthew loves the dramatic and this is far more dramatic than Mark – remember Matthew also spoke of an earthquake at the time of Jesus’ death which was another dramatic scene. Only Matthew had mentioned guards at the tomb and now his attention turns to them. They are so shaken they appear as dead men. They will have a role shortly. Turning his attention back to the women, Matthew tells his readers that the angel tells them that he knows they are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not in the tomb and the women are invited to see the place where he once laid. The women are commanded to go and tell the disciples that Jesus has been raised and that he is going ahead of them to Galilee where they will see him. The message to the women is essentially the same as the message to the women in Mark’s gospel. Matthew tells his readers that the women leave the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and intend to go to tell the disciples as they have been told. Matthew radically changes Mark’s story! The women never make it to the disciples in Matthew’s story. Instead they are met by the risen Jesus who appears to them bodily. They fall at his feet in worship and Jesus gives them the same command the angel did. Matthew clearly implies that they in fact do go and tell the disciples the message. The only type of resurrection story Mark told his readers was the “empty tomb” type. Matthew combines an “empty tomb” resurrection story with a “resurrected bodily appearance” story. Not only do the women witness an empty tomb, they also see the resurrected Jesus in his resurrected body. Apparently the women are convinced first by the sight of the empty tomb and then by the appearance of Jesus. Only Matthew spares the followers of Jesus from doubting the resurrection. For all intents and purposes Mark had told a story of disbelief and never moves on to speak of believing – we have already talked about Mark’s reasons for doing this. Luke will tell his readers that when the women come and report the empty tomb the disciples first think they are hearing an idle tale – though they will later believe when the see the resurrected Jesus. John tells his readers his famous story of Thomas who will not believe unless he sees – and it is likely we are to understand that the other male disciples do not believe Mary Magdalene either until Jesus comes and stands among them. Matthew is different. The women believe and so must the disciples since they in fact make their way to Galilee where they also see Jesus.

Matthew had mentioned the guards at the moment the angel came and opened the tomb. Now he returns to them. There is darkness in Matthew’s story. The guards had witnessed the same thing as the women – and remember this was a dramatic scene for Matthew, a scene that can’t be missed or mistaken. The guards go and tell the religious authorities everything that had happened. The opportunity to now believe is available and the evidence ought to have led the religious authorities to believe. It does not. They devise a plan to give the guards a large amount of money to keep quiet about what they had witnessed and instead to spread the rumor that the disciples of Jesus had come in the dead of night and stolen his dead body while the guards slept. The guards take the money and do as they are told. And Matthew turns to his readers, living at the time he is writing his gospel, and reminds them that this very story is still being told in their day. Matthew is intent on countering a false story which has a life among his own community and perhaps was threatening to lead some away from following Jesus. This is not the first time we have witnessed Matthew countering false rumors among the community in which he is writing. In the birth story Matthew addresses the unusual nature of the women in the genealogy of Jesus and the false accusation that Jesus, too, was born out of wedlock to Mary. Matthew obviously has the people in his own community and their Jewish opponents who surround them in his thoughts as he writes his gospel. All of this leads to Matthew’s negative view of the Jews who he paints in the darkest colors he can – darker than any other gospel writer. Luke is far more favorable to the Jewish people. The true nature of things likely can be found somewhere in between.

Matthew tells his readers one more story – the meeting between Jesus and his disciples in Galilee. This meeting had been predicted by Jesus in both Mark and Matthew. Readers of both gospels expect it to happen. Matthew tells us that it did – another prediction fulfilled. As we have seen Mark does not tell this story but that does not mean he does not know it happened. As we have seen Mark has his reasons for doing what he did. Likely Matthew actually reflects what actually happened more closely – though we will need to deal with Luke’s limiting the resurrection appearances of Jesus to the area near Jerusalem. In this final story in Matthew Jesus appears to his disciples in Galilee and leads them up a mountain – mountains have been important for Matthew since they are reminiscent of Moses. The women have delivered their message and the disciples have listened. Just as the women experienced both fear and joy, the disciples simultaneously experience joy and doubt – it’s simply a bad translation to say the “some” doubted since both emotions are present in all. And that’s the way it continues for followers of Jesus – we know both joy and doubt in our faith journey. On the mountain Jesus commissions his disciples to go to all nations and proclaim the good news making disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit teaching them everything Jesus has commanded. Earlier in his gospel Matthew’s Jesus had limited the mission to the lost sheep of the house of Israel – now the good news is available to all.

Matthew ends his gospel with the promise that Jesus will remain with his disciples always to the end of this age. Just how Jesus will remain with them is something Matthew does not tell his readers – likely because the presence of Jesus is filled with mystery for all of us. Jesus does not leave but remains. Luke will have a different way of dealing with all of this.

In conclusion we have seen how Matthew moves far away from Mark in his telling of the resurrection of Jesus. Was that because Matthew did not like Mark’s ending? Perhaps – most people are at least somewhat disturbed with Mark’s ending. But, perhaps Matthew was not as disappointed with Mark’s ending as he was intent on providing a different message. We have already seen how Mark likely has not told the “exact story” anyway and that Mark knows there is more to tell. Matthew tells that more. He has provided his readers with the witness of an “empty tomb” and the witness of the “bodily appearance” of the resurrected Jesus. That is his witness to his readers – Jesus is risen. And in the end the church stands or falls on the truth of this witness. We will look a bit more at Matthew’s ending in the next section which I am calling, “How do you end a gospel?”