What Happened (Matthew 28:1-8)
Gary McManus, 04/09/2023Part of the Easter series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
Easter Sunday / Resurrection Sunday
April 9, 2023 Matthew 28:1-8
The reading with emphasis and the other
Gospel accounts:
Matthew 28:6 "Don't be alarmed,". . .
Matthew 28:8 Trembling and bewildered,
the women went out and fled from the tomb.
They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
John’s Gospel: Two at the tomb saw not Jesus
and the tomb empty. . . John 20:10 Then the disciples went back to their homes.
Were the disciples in shock? Were they traumatized?
They were certainly grieving (Mark 16:10)
Remember, of course, ancient people are not scientific.
But that doesn’t mean something didn’t happen.
Mark 16: 6 (man in white robe) “Don’t be alarmed,
(KJV: “affrighted”) Mark 16:8: And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid.
Many of the words used also describe shock and trauma. Pastor knows that he can’t prove it, but still raises the question.
Mark 16:11: didn’t believe her? or didn’t believe?
Mark 16:14 suggests that they didn’t believe.
Pastor’s appreciation of psychological trauma, allows
him to see reports of Jesus resurrection very differently.
The Bible makes clear that the disciples were completely
psychologically unprepared for Jesus’ death and their own betrayal of Jesus.Another symptom of psychological shock:
“You may feel like you want to run.”
If disciples were in shock, we need not ask what we
might have done in their position. No one can predict their own response to shock or trauma. (Combat veterans)
Doubters complain that events don’t line up.
That is correct, for scientific people.
But the Bible is only written for people, not scientific
people. Remember one of the effects of psychological shock and trauma—disorientation with regard to time. (those grieving). John’s Gospel 20:8, one disciple believed. . .
but not based on what Jesus said, John 20:9.
It was faith. John 20:10, the disciples were literally speechless. John’s Gospel has the disciples speechless from John 18:25 (Peter’s denial) to John 20:25. John shows the disciples headed home without a word.
Resurrection or empty tomb?
Seeing Jesus resurrected turned speechless disciples
into men who would not and could not be shut-up.
Despite arrest, jail, stoning, later shipwrecks, beatings, mob violence, these same people would not stop talking about Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:2 ), Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9), Jesus Christ as Lord (2 Corinthians 4:5), Jesus Messiah is Lord (Philippians 2:11), Lord Jesus Messiah (Philippians 3:20), God has made him both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36),
The disciples encounter with the risen Jesus sends them throughout the known world to talk in the synagogues, in the market places, in homes.
And doubters claim that these disciples were duped by an illusion? Or they started a conspiracy?
The Bible reports them as “uneducated, common men” (Acts 4:13). For what do they pray: boldness (Acts 4:29)
Something happened between Jesus’ death and the
empty tomb and the moment their preaching began.
Pastor suggests: Mark 16:14, John 20:25. Amen.
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