Monday 05 April 2010

Background

This is Matthew's version of the appearing of Jesus to the groupof remaining disciples (after Judas' suicide in Matthew 27:3-10). In this account there isn'tthe same degree of fear or terror as indicated in other Gospelaccounts. Rather they worship him. (Andthey will again, later in this chapter, when Jesus meets them on ahillside and instructs them to "Go ... and make disciples of allnations.") The signal is clear. This is not merely a friendreunited, or a corpse resuscitated... this is the risen Lord, theson of the living God, the one who was dead but is now alive. Thereis continuity and discontinuity in the risen Christ.

Matthew is characteristically negative about the chief priests, andany reader of his Gospel to this point will be unsurprised at hisfocus on their speedy attempt at cover up. They've opposed Christfrom the start and aren't going to change now. This part of thetext implies that there was a story going around that Jesus' bodyhad been stolen, which Matthew wants to debunk as quickly aspossible.

The 'truth' and 'proof' of the resurrection of Christ remains a hotpotato today as it has ever been. Was the risen Jesus merely anapparition? If so, how come he eats, can be touched, and 'appears'to many people at once? Did the Jewish authorities steal his body?And if they did, why didn't they simply produce it when thedisciples began to claim he was alive? Matthew makes it clear, asdo the other Gospel writers: Jesus is believed to be risen, andthis becomes an object of faith. The idea that the early disciplesmade the story up and kept a corporate secret pact intactthroughout their lives is nearly as great a leap of faith as theresurrection itself!

Christian discipleship is about staking your life on the beliefthat Jesus is alive, not on forensic evidence that proves beyondall possible doubt that he was raised from the dead. That's whyit's the Christian faith rather than the Christian fact!

To Ponder

Is regarding the resurrection of Jesus as a'faith fact' rather than simply a 'fact' a help or a heresy?

To what extent does the 'case for theresurrection' made by some scholars and rehearsed a little here,still have a useful place in advocating the Christian faith in aworld of increasingly aggressive secularism?