06 Apr 26 | He Called Them Brothers
The risen Jesus meets the women on the road, sends a message to the men who abandoned him, and calls them brothers, which is the only way grace has ever worked.
The Gospel: Matthew 28:8-15
⁸ Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples. ⁹ And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
¹¹ While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had happened. ¹² They assembled with the elders and took counsel; then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, ¹³ telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.’ ¹⁴ And if this gets to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” ¹⁵ The soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has circulated among the Jews to the present day.
Today’s Focus
The women leave the tomb carrying fear and great joy at the same time because both are the honest response to something that has shattered every available category. Jesus meets them on the road and they take hold of his feet. The physical contact is not incidental. Paul will later argue in 1 Corinthians 15 that if the resurrection is not bodily it is nothing at all. Then Jesus sends a message to the disciples, men who fled and denied him and were nowhere near the tomb, and calls them his brothers. Psalm 22 moves from the desolation of the cross to the vindicated sufferer proclaiming God’s name to his brothers. That arc closes here. The title is not earned. It is given to the ones who did not earn it, which is the only way grace works. The Gospel ends where it began, in Galilee, with the unlikely people in the overlooked place, carrying news that changes everything.
In the Margins
The women leave carrying fear and great joy simultaneously. Both are the honest response to an encounter with something that has shattered every available category. The appropriate reaction to the in-breaking of God into human history is not calm. Jesus meets them on the road and they take hold of His feet. The physical contact matters theologically. This is the same body that was sealed in the tomb, but can be embraced and held. Paul will later argue in 1 Corinthians 15 that if the resurrection is not bodily it is nothing at all. This points to the fact that without a real resurrection the entire Christian proclamation falls apart. The women hold His feet before anyone has written a word about what resurrection means.
The commission Jesus gives carries the word that reorients everything that preceded it. He calls the disciples His brothers. Psalm 22 is the foundation beneath this. It is the psalm Jesus quoted from the cross, the one that opens in desolation, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, and ends with the vindicated sufferer proclaiming God’s name to his brothers in the great assembly. The movement of that psalm is from abandonment to brotherhood, from the cross to the community gathered on the other side of it. Jesus calling these particular men brothers, men who fled and denied and were nowhere near the tomb, is the completion of that arc. The title is not earned, it is given precisely to the ones who did not earn it, which is the only way grace works.
The Galilee instruction closes the narrative circle Matthew has been drawing since chapter 4. Jesus called His first disciples there beside the sea, in the region the religious establishment had long dismissed as peripheral. The great commission that follows in verses 16 through 20 will be given on a mountain in Galilee. Matthew’s Gospel ends where it began, in the place no one expected, with the people who failed Him being gathered back and sent forward. The geography is not incidental. God has consistently chosen the peripheral and the unlikely as the location of His decisive acts, and Matthew has been making that case since the genealogy in chapter 1.
What the chief priests do with the same morning is worth examining less for its irony and more for what it reveals about how people respond to evidence when something is at stake. The authorities who sealed the tomb and took every precaution against the claim of resurrection find themselves paying soldiers to provide an alternative account. The explanation they settle on, that sleeping guards failed to notice disciples removing a body, was recognized even in antiquity as incoherent. Justin Martyr and Tertullian both engaged it directly in the second century because it was still circulating widely. Matthew notes it was circulating at the time of his writing. It has never stopped circulating.
The two responses this Gospel holds side by side here are not finally about evidence. Both groups have access to the same empty tomb and the same missing body. One runs toward what it means. The other constructs a version of events that allows them to remain where they are. The resurrection does not force a conclusion. It demands a response. This is the response this season calls us to provide as well. As we celebrate this resurrection, we must remember the gift that it provided us – not just the event and miracle. We now have the opportunity to share this news with the world. We have all been called after the resurrection, the question is how we will individually respond.
Reflection Question
How are you responding to Jesus’ calling of you post resurrection?
A Small Invitation
If this reflection helped you, consider sharing it with someone who may benefit from hearing this message.