This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Easter” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 3, 1994.
About this sermon
Matthew 28:1 begins ‘after the sabbath,’ as the two Marys come to the tomb. The chief priests and Pharisees stand against them, guarding the grave. The two Marys waited for the resurrection, and we wait for the second coming.
Sermon transcript
We are reading this morning from Matthew’s Gospel. We are beginning in the twenty-seventh chapter at verse fifty-seven. This is Matthew, chapter twenty-seven, verse fifty-seven. Give your attention to the Word of God. there came a rich man of Arimathea named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple. He went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock. and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre and departed. And there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sitting over against the sepulchre. The next day that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together under Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that That deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command, therefore, that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead, so the last heir shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went and made the sepulchre, sure sealing the stone and setting a watch. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead. And behold, he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall ye see him, lo, I have told you.” And they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, and did run to bring the disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail! And they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid. Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.”
Let’s pray together. Our Father, who work by your Spirit and by your Word, your Word and your Spirit agreeing, so, O God, You have worked in us by your word, in the Spirit, we have been made alive. Lord, we are preserved in our life by the ministries of your Spirit through your word. O God, we love you for your word, and we would give our attention to that word. We would fear, and we would obey. this in our love for you, O God. We pray it through Christ, through the one by whom all of these things are possible. Amen.
After the Sabbath, after the Sabbath. That’s how we should best read that opening line in Matthew’s account of the resurrection. Verse 1, chapter 28. Not late on the Sabbath, as the New American Standard renders it, but after the Sabbath, as the New International Version renders it. That is, when the Jewish Sabbath had ended, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary come to look at the tomb.
It is Matthew’s purpose that these two women shine brightly, shine brightly in the light of the early morning sun. They rise like the sun itself, as if like the sun keeping an appointment that neither the early hour nor the lingering darkness can hold back. Such is their piety, such is their genuinely true godliness, that its brightness stands out so marvelously over against the darkness in those with whom they are most immediately contrasted. I have in mind the chief priests and the Pharisees. Now, Matthew has set us up for this contrast by mentioning these very same women earlier.
Did you note verse 61 in chapter 27? There they are, and only they, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave. So we have the two Marys mentioned. first in that sixty-first verse of chapter twenty-seven, and then once more in verse one, chapter twenty-eight. But in between, we are given this exposé of the chief priests and the Pharisees, verses sixty-two through sixty-six of chapter twenty-seven. But notice now what interests Matthew as he sets these two women over against these Jewish leaders, these chief priests and pharisees. Chapter 27, verse 62, begins Matthew’s description of the exchange between these leaders and Pilate.
We are told that this exchange takes place on the day after Christ’s crucifixion. Now, as we all know, Jesus was crucified on Friday, making the day on which the priests and the Pharisees conferred with Pilate Saturday. or the Jewish Sabbath, nor is this just any Sabbath. This is the Sabbath of Passover week. This is the Paschal Sabbath, heightened all the more in its sanctity because of its relationship to the High Feast. What do we find these Jews, these Jewish leaders, doing on this high, holy Sabbath? Not only do they convene a council among themselves, for how else would they decide on their course of action? But they gather at Pilate’s palace, the home of a Roman.
A Gentile, no less. All of this on the Sovereign. But even more, as Matthew states it in the last verse of that twenty-seventh chapter, stating it in such a way so that you do not miss the point, these priests These Pharisees are actually those, then, that go out with the armed guard on the Sabbath for the purpose of sealing the tomb, and it is as if they are involved in the actual sealing of that tomb. Sounds like work to me.
The picture given us, therefore, is of these leaders, these leaders of the Jews, these teachers of the law, these definers and defenders of the law, these who insist on meticulous observance of that law, who are merciless in their judgments upon others who violate that law, these who have attacked even Jesus and his disciples for their Sabbath-breaking. and attack Jesus himself for blasphemy, violation of the law, and the trials in which Jesus was subjected. These are themselves violators of the law. They are Sabbath breakers.
But what of the women? As I said, their piety and genuinely true godliness radiates against the dark background of these with whom they are so strikingly contrasted. Note the time in which we first see them. Late on the day, Friday, they are specifically mentioned as the two women following Christ’s death and entombment, who now sit opposite the grave. That’s late Friday afternoon. But then, you see, they are deliberately removed from the narrative.
Next time we hear of them, it is Sunday morning, specifically after the Sabbath. Today, with respect to them, about which we hear nothing, is the Sabbath. And what might these women be doing on the Sabbath? The clear suggestion of Matthew is that while the priests and the Pharisees are breaking the Sabbath, These women are keeping the Sabbath. Here’s the beautiful irony. The followers of Jesus, the so-called Sabbath breakers, are keeping the Sabbath, while the self-professed Sabbath keepers and Sabbath defenders are actually breaking the Sabbath. at an even more deeper level. These two women, the two Marys, will not even use their magnificent devotion to and love for Jesus as an excuse to break the Sabbath. But the priests and the Pharisees will in fact use their hatred for Jesus as an excuse to disregard the Sabbath and the law to boot.
Matthew is preaching here. Matthew is preaching to his audience. Matthew is not preaching to unbelievers. He’s preaching to the Church, and he’s saying, yes, those who love and follow Jesus are keepers of law. They are law-abiding. While those who reject Jesus, despite what they might say about themselves, are actually lawbreakers, and in the final analysis, hypocrites, because in fact, these who break the law are themselves broken by the law. Still, Matthew is saying, he is proclaiming, he is preaching more than this.
And here I call your attention to the subtle communication employed by Matthew with respect to the disposition of the women, their posture that speaks to us of their attitude of soul. I love these women. They are magnificent. These women are remarkable in their persistent patience. These women are remarkable and sublime in their humble faith.
You see, Matthew presents them as those who wait. Those who wait. In chapter 27, verse 61, once more, They sit opposite the grave, but you must read into that. They sit opposite the grave in expectation. They don’t understand everything about the hope that is even presently bearing witness in their souls that they can’t suppress it, they can’t deny it. They sit opposite the grave in expectation. Then we have their mention again, 28 verse 1, and here they come not just to see the grave as it is stated in the King James, or to look at the grave as it is stated in the New American Standard, but to consider it. to contemplate it, to ponder it.
Their very posture and behavior communicates hope and speaks, yes, ever so gently, yet persistently, of that faith that is in them. But what is the character of the faith that these women have? And what is its substance? In the most general sense, you see, they are poised, as are the faithful people of God of old, in expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promise with respect to salvation and nothing less, which they at this time cannot disassociate from this Jesus recently laid in the tomb.
But we can go further. It won’t be merely some general hope with respect to God’s promise of salvation. They are at a tomb, after all. They are sitting in front of a tomb. So the faith that is taking shape in these women is moving on, you see, to grasp hold of what is central to that general promise with respect to salvation. That faith in them is laying hold of nothing less than resurrection, whatever that may mean. For there is something in them born of the by the word itself that has convinced them that death cannot be the end. So here they are. Yes, there’s confusion. They are, to be sure, befuddled, but they are feeling after the resurrection. They are groping for the resurrection.
In this, the women become those visibly expressing what lies hidden within the disciples, who out of fear have retreated and presently are nowhere to be seen. But again, drawing through our contrast between these women and the Jewish leaders, here once more they strikingly contrast those priests and Pharisees, the reputed defenders and interpreters of the hope of Israel. The Pharisees, being the party of the resurrection, they’re the ones that preached it. distinguishing themselves from the Sadducees, as you well know. This being the case, where might we expect these Jewish leaders to join the women, to see if the prophecies of this prophet from Galilee would in fact come true? But of course, as the events themselves prove, Not only don’t these men believe their doctrine, which they hold in theory, they then go on to positively deny their doctrine and suppress the truth when the truth is facing them.
Learn the lesson from this, dear friends. in Christ. Belief that God has made promises with respect to salvation, belief that he can raise the dead, belief in the resurrection itself, is not inherently commendable. Simply because you have some confidence that God has made promise and will keep his promise Simply because you say that God raises the dead, this is not especially commendable in God’s sight.
Even the chief priests and Pharisees believed in a resurrection. What is blessed by God is evident in His treatment of the women. What is blessed by God is patient, humble faith. Yes, object faith. that confidently waits for him, that is God and the salvation that he shall accomplish. This faith is poised and ready to receive that salvation when it is revealed. And it is no different for us at this critical point than it was for these women. For there are the common operations of true faith.
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things not seen. For these women know less than for Abraham, or Noah, or Moses, or any of the Old Testament saints. Know less than for us, who live presently. Without this kind of faith, it is impossible, impossible, to please God.
Their faith is of the same stripe as ours. And our circumstances, you see, despite the distance between us time-wise, the similarity between them and us, despite the time difference, is striking in its own regard. For as these women wait in faith, this kind of faith which we have spoken about, before the tomb in the face of death for the sign of life, for the vindication of Christ, this One in whom they have placed their confidence. So we now wait for His appearance in the clouds of glory, and consider the character of His coming.
He will come bringing a final shaking to the earth and to the heavens and to all things. more than merely a local earthquake as took place on that first Easter morn. And on his coming, there will not be merely one angel who comes descending out of heaven, but the entirety of the angelic host. And it won’t be a few men standing around a sealed grave. But to come as dead man, no, his coming again will mean the undoing of all his enemies, that is, all who have not had a stating faith in him.
And most positively and gloriously, the story moving on, we who wait for him in faith, faith like unto that faith. in these two women. We’ll, in fact, meet Him. We will cross-pray ourselves before Him. Will we not? We will take hold of Him. He will allow us to touch Him, and we will worship Him. Don’t let the future aspect of what is laid within that ninth verse of chapter 28 to allude you.
But consider this also just as the priests and Pharisees in all of their power contrast these women in their weakness. The world and its religious power-mongers contrast the true Church of Jesus Christ in that Church’s weakness and apparent powerlessness. And this is as it must be. For those of the world, even though they claim God on their side, have a power that is of the world and of the world alone. It is of their own making. It is devoid of any genuine faith. It is filled with self-righteousness.
But our power comes without. It comes from heaven, it is found in the risen Christ, who abides with us as the very presence of God. In this gospel he is identified as Immanuel, God with us, unseen but present, perfecting his reign in us by a righteousness that is by faith in him, that expresses itself by way of humble imitation of him, and conformity to his image. Such power then as we have, though we have it in earthen vessels, though we are seen as those who are weak and powerless, knows enough not to boast in its keeping of the law. And these women did not do that. But neither will such power as we possess boast of its patient, humble faithfulness.
But rather, such power as we possess is, in fact, of God, from whom our salvation has come to light in the resurrection of his Son. The Church which the living, risen Christ presently builds, could not do better than live in quiet, expectant, patient faith.
In other words, with the faith evidenced in these two women, the two Marys, even to the close of the age. Is this your faith? Is this your faith? Are you tried, even here, by these two women and the marvel of their devotion? Isn’t your faith being proved presently, even as you sit in this congregation today, listening once more to the story of the resurrection?
If you believe it, do you not know that such faith as you possess is presently preparing you to greet the risen Christ upon his return. With that very faith of the same kind with which these women greeted him on that day near the tomb. O God, may we be ready. Help us, O God, in our believing, if we draw back, if we are overcome with doubt, if we are terrorized by fear. Lord, draw us through these things in faith, that we, with patient expectation and humble faith, might await the appearing of our Savior. and the fullness of our salvation. In that day, O Lord, we shall see him, and we shall be like him. And he will welcome us to touch him, and we, Lord, will worship before him. Bring that day, O God. Bring it. We know it shall come as certainly as we know that you have raised him from the dead on the third day.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.