Matthew 28, a visual study: the empty tomb, the angel’s announcement, the risen Jesus meeting the women, the guards’ report, and the Great Commission, from The Lampstand Project.
He is not here.
At dawn on the first day of the week, the women come to a grave and find an earthquake, a rolled-back stone, and an angel with impossible news. The tomb is empty. He is risen. And the road that ended at a cross now opens out to every nation on earth, with a promise that he will walk it with us to the very end.
"He is not here, for he has risen, as he said."Matthew 28:6 ESV
The last chapter is short, and it changes everything. The same women who watched him die come back to do the last sad duty of love, and instead of a corpse they find a living Lord and a command that turns grief into a mission. Matthew, who began with a genealogy reaching back into Israel's history, ends with arms thrown open to all nations. The story that started in one small family closes with the whole world invited in, and the risen King promising never to leave.
From an empty tomb to all the earth.
Three movements through the chapter. Tap any numbered marker to read its scene below.
Tap any numbered marker to read its scene
He is not here.
As the first day dawns, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary come to see the tomb. There is a great earthquake, and an angel of the Lord descends, rolls back the stone, and sits on it, his appearance like lightning, his clothing white as snow. The guards shake and become like dead men.
Do not be afraid, the angel says to the women. You seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. The stone was not rolled away to let him out; he was already gone. It was rolled away to let them in, to see for themselves that the tomb was empty.
"...on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him."
Go and tell.
The women run from the tomb with fear and great joy, and suddenly Jesus himself meets them: Greetings. They fall and take hold of his feet and worship him. Do not be afraid, he says; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me. He goes ahead of them, as he always has.
Meanwhile the guards report to the priests, who pay them to say the disciples stole the body while they slept, a story too absurd to survive, and yet it spreads. From the very first morning there are two responses to the empty tomb: worship, and cover-up. The women run toward him with joy; the powerful invent a lie. Nothing has changed.
"How beautiful... are the feet of him who brings good news."
Go therefore.
The eleven go to Galilee, to the mountain Jesus appointed, and when they see him they worship, though some doubt, which is honest of Matthew to record. And Jesus comes and speaks the words that send the church into all of history: all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything he commanded. The gospel that began in a small corner of Galilee is now aimed at every people on earth. And the book that opened with the name Immanuel, God with us, closes with the promise made good: I am with you always, to the end of the age.
"All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD."
These are the last words of the Gospel, and they answer the first. Matthew opened by calling him Immanuel, which means God with us, and now, having gone all the way to the cross and out the other side of the grave, the risen Lord makes the name a promise that will never expire. Not I was with you, or I will send help, but I am with you, always, to the very end. The disciples are being sent to the ends of the earth, and they are not going alone. Neither are we. The story does not really end; it opens, into every nation and every age, with him in it.
Looking out, to the end of the age.
The genealogy looked back. The geography looked out. The river looked up. The wilderness looked ahead. The mountain looked inward. Chapter six looked beyond. Chapter seven looked down. Chapter eight looked closer. Chapter nine looked around. Chapter ten looked outward. Chapter eleven looked to him. Chapter twelve looked across. Chapter thirteen looked beneath. Chapter fourteen looked into the dark. Chapter fifteen looked past the surface. Chapter sixteen looked him in the face. Chapter seventeen looked into the light. Chapter eighteen looked among us. Chapter nineteen looked at what we hold. Chapter twenty looked at the wage. Chapter twenty-one looked for fruit. Chapter twenty-two looked at love. Chapter twenty-three looked at the whitewash. Chapter twenty-four looked for his coming. Chapter twenty-five looked at the least of these. Chapter twenty-six looked into the cup. Chapter twenty-seven looked up at the cross. And chapter twenty-eight looks up from an empty tomb to a living Lord, and then out, to every nation and every age, with the promise that he goes with us all the way to the end.
All the ways of looking the Gospel has taught us, back to the promises, up to the Father, ahead to the cross, into the dark, were training for this morning. The tomb is empty, and the looking turns at last into going. The risen King does not gather his friends to keep them safe on the mountain; he scatters them to the ends of the earth with the only authority that matters and the only company that lasts. The name he was given at the beginning, God with us, turns out to be the last thing he says. He has been with us the whole way. He is with us still.
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations."Matthew 28:19 ESV
All scripture quoted from the English Standard Version. A study from The Lampstand Project.