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 names the two Marys at the tomb, and their name, their gender, and their number all carry meaning. We stand with them in the history of salvation, as the first witnesses of the risen Lord.
Sermon transcript
Tonight we are reading from Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 28, and we are beginning with verse 1. Give your attention to the Word of God. Now, after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.
And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his garment as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.
And the angel answered and said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen. just as he said, Come, see the place where he was lying. And go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you into Galilee, for there will you see him. Behold, I have told you.’ And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to report it to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them, and they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. And Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid, go and take word to my brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see me.
Now while they were on their way, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and counseled together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, You are to say his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep. And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.’ And they took the money and did as they had been instructed, and this story was widely spread among the Jews and is to this day.” in relationship to your word.
Bless us, our God, as we would be benefited by all that you say. May we receive, O God, your commandments with fear, and in love, O God, prompted by your Spirit, may we obey. Help us also, our Father, to give to your word that proper respect, that we might honor you by honoring it, realizing that that word has come forth from you, that it is inspired, that it is infallible in all that it teaches, and our faith is to grasp hold of it submissively in every respect. Now, Father, may we profit from your word as we hear it. We ask, Lord, that this may be the same for your children throughout the world. We ask it in Jesus name.
It is important that we complete our thoughts on these two women that we considered in our morning message. This evening, we want to reflect specifically on their name, their gender, and their number. their name, their gender, and their number. Now, each of these considerations has implications for the other two, which makes any systematic analysis of any one of them quite complex. We are not going to be able to avoid these complexities all together. However, my hope is to be direct this evening and as simple as possible. First of all, then, with respect to the name.
Both women bear the same name, Mary. We have them mentioned for us as was set before us this morning. We have them mentioned, first of all, in verse 61 of chapter 27. Spoken of there as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. Now mentioned again for us in the opening of chapter 28, verse 1. there once more Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. Both women bear the same name. This common name does two things.
One, it lends to this gospel a sense of completion. It lends to this gospel a sense of wholeness, as we are brought back through the name to the gospel’s beginning. The name Mary ties, then, the conclusion of this gospel to the gospel’s opening. The Mary who gives birth to Jesus at the beginning of the gospel now is complemented by these Marys in whom the gospel closes. The Mary who gave birth to Jesus gives way to these Marys who become witnesses to his rebirth, if you will, in the resurrection. Now, interestingly, there are corollary features that link beginning and conclusion in this gospel.
For instance, in each story, beginning and conclusion we have a Joseph. At the beginning, of course, the Joseph to whom Mary is betrothed. At the end, we have another Joseph, specifically Joseph of Arimathea. Taking things even a step further, and I don’t want you to laugh at this, For I have such authorities on my side as Ambrose and Augustine and Jerome.
There is a drawing together of the strands of the gospel’s beginning and conclusion as the new tomb. The Virgin too, if you will, of Matthew 27 parallels the Virgin’s womb in Matthew 1. Now, lest you think this is too far-fetched, there is the common thread that moves through both considerations. a constant theme, that theme being human impossibility. The theme of human impossibility and of divine supernatural power, punctuating then the gospel from beginning to end.
The birth of Jesus, then, linked decidedly with the resurrection of Jesus, even to such an extent that in later reflection by biblical writers, the resurrection of Christ can be described as a birth—in fact, as his birth. Do you remember the New Testament commentaries on those wonderful words out of Psalm 2, Thou art my Son, this day I have begotten thee. Do you remember to what specifically those words are applied by the New Testament writers? No, not the incarnation of Christ, not his birth by the Virgin Mary, but rather to his resurrection. Do you remember our exposition of Revelation chapter 12, verse 5, and the birth of the child in that passage, in which we said it could not simply be linked to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, but had to be linked to the resurrection of Christ from that tomb outside of Jerusalem.
And nothing less than this is in view when Paul preaches his sermon, his great sermon, at Antioch of Pisidia, Acts 13, verse 33, where Paul takes those lines out of Psalm 2 and specifically applies them to the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection, then, is seen specifically in light of birth, a birth for the Christ.
Also emphasized in this regard, joining the tomb with the womb. Emphasized also in this regard is the utter uniqueness of Jesus. No other child is so generated from Mary’s womb, with whom Jesus then might be confused. And no one, you see, has as yet been laying in Joseph’s tomb. It is a new tomb, freshly cut. Jesus is the first to be laid there. So the first thing the name does, this common name, Mary, is to bring the beginning and the ending of the gospel together into a common testimony.
From beginning to end, then, we are assured, are we not? We are confronted by the facts, are we not? Declared to us, is it not? This gospel is about supernatural generation. Beyond human capability, supernatural generation and even resurrection, the resurrection of the Lord’s Messiah, the unique Son of God.
But the second thing the name does is that it sets before us a particular mood in which this gospel is set. a mood which we dare not miss, for it is instructive concerning our own deportment, the way in which we conduct ourselves, even see our lives as the people of God.
You see, the name Mary means tear. The name Mary means tear. And this name, especially then, is associated with pathos and with sorrow. Now, one may want to think about tears of joy, and even relate those tears of joy to the birth of the Messiah or his resurrection.
However, these tears that are specifically in view are related to the sorrows of the people of God, to which they, even though visited by the gospel, even though drawn to faith in the gospel, even though regenerated by the gospel are subjected. Specifically in you, then, are the many sorrows, even the many afflictions of the righteous. Do you recall that famous line in Psalm 34? Verse 19, many are the afflictions of the righteous, out of all of which the Lord delivers them. In the name Mary, the sorrows of the people of God are particularly set before these sorrows, especially defined by Christ’s cross, to which they, as God’s people, are called. According to Jesus himself, we, believers in the gospel, we who have received gospel continue to be defined as those that mourn. The second beatitude, Matthew 5 verse 4, we continue to be defined, described as those that mourn.
And that’s specifically because of the evil to which we, as the people of God, are subjected in a hostile world. Now, mention of this hostile world and its evil leads us even deeper into our considerations and takes us to our next. consideration, namely the issue of gender. We move now from the name to the gender. Obviously, the Marys are women.
But consider now how appropriate they are as vehicles for the revelation of Christ They are particularly appropriate because of their inherent weakness, because of their inherent powerlessness. They are of service to the Lord even in, and specifically because of, their frailty. They speak then to us once more of a native human inability. Lack of strength. You see how this is communicated as in the scene at the tomb, they must sit before the seal upon that tomb. In Mark’s gospel, you may recall, they specifically are asking the question, who will move the stone for us? this weakness, this powerlessness, even this native human inability. They speak to us about the general condition, do they not? By their own words, humanity represented in these women cannot bring about humanity’s redemption. It is impossible for them. That’s the appropriateness of the vehicle of the women.
So it is also that these women, from the vantage point of their gender, take us back beyond Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus at the gospel’s beginning, to the mother of us all, to Eve, and the collapse of the covenant of works. These women then offer to us a window through which we see the entirety of the plan of redemption That plan tied together, not just then a matter of us bringing together the opening and the conclusion of Matthew’s gospel, but the opening of the human story and its conclusion.
The meaning of their name is not extraneous to this consideration, as the people of God’s sorrow over their sins and lostness apart from the gracious supernatural intervention of God. Humanity’s condition as reflected in these women, however, is answered in our story by the appearance of two other figures, these supernatural figures. The first, the angel of the Lord, who comes and then the risen Lord himself, the angel serving as messenger to the final solution, that solution being the Savior himself who brings with him the power of an indestructible life, that his life in glory to which humanity would have been brought in the first place had Eve, the mother of us all, with her husband, not father. The angel of this story stands in contrast to the angel from the other story, specifically the angel with the flaming sword. the angel here in the resurrection’s story directing us to that one who is in himself the tree of life.
So much then for the gender. What about the women’s number? We have here two women presented to us. If you are reading along in Mark, parallel text, chapter 16, verse 1, there you will see that another woman is mentioned as being a part of the company, Salome. Mark says three, Matthew says two. Why does Matthew set in front of us simply the two? Is there an answer to that question?
Well, here things become unavoidably complex. These two women, sat before us by Matthew, having the same name, the same gender, are speaking to us about a continuity. A continuity. However, the doubling now, woman to woman, the two, the doubling serves the purpose. At the same time there being this affirmation of continuity, this doubling serves the purpose of representing the people of God under a double aspect. Now hang with me, don’t give up.
Matthew’s intention with the two women will be to circumscribe the entirety of the history of God’s people. There will be this doubling for the women, useful to Matthew in declaring the resurrection as it serves the purpose of representing the entirety of God’s people under a double aspect.
That double aspect has to do with the transition that is taking place in the story. As you are moving from one situation to another, as the people of God are moving from one to another, as we see them under one Mary moving to consideration under a second Mary. A transition that is taking place now, climatically, in the history of redemption. specifically as we move from the pre-resurrection world to the post-resurrection world. Thus we see in these women the embodiment of God’s people as they, in faith, move toward resurrection, and the embodiment of God’s people as they, with faith in what God has done, move past that resurrection even unto consummation. The entirety of God’s people are wrapped up in these two women, set before you here at the transition of the agents.
Now, Matthew communicates this to you. He communicates this to you with the opening line of chapter 28. The line of demarcation that he sets before you there is that which separates two periods of time. those periods of time then spoken of in such a way as to be reflective of or representative of two administrations. They are here considered under two successive days. After the Sabbath, that’s the one administration, you see.
That’s reflecting the law and the prophets which were unto the appearance of the Christ in the flesh, and the realization of the kingdom of heaven in him. But then that day, the Sabbath, which is over, and in a sense completed finally, with respect to its intention, is complemented by the next day, the first day of the week. as that day is indicative of the dawning, not just of a new day or a new week, but of a new creation.
The women then, in their doubling, the two Marys are representative, are comprehensive figures in whom we see the whole of God’s people, old and new, faithful. in their devotion. With a common piety, with a faith that binds them, together saved, yet at the same time distinct with respect to their positionings in the plan of God, their intersection being the resurrection. The resurrection of Christ.
Now, this being the case, Do you understand just how thoroughly comprehensive these women are? You see, they can speak to us in their actions, in their demeanor, in their posture, of that faithful piety that characterized those who lived before the resurrection occurred. back through the exile, back through the days of the kingdom, back through all those who heard the songs of David and responded with genuine faith, back through the days of the judges, back through the conquest of the land, back through the wanderings in the wilderness through Moses, the Patriarchs, Abraham himself, Noah, all who truly believe. They’re all in the women.
But not just those who preceded the resurrection, of all who come after, is your piety to be any different than theirs? They waiting for the coming of the resurrection, you waiting for the return of Jesus. Is your piety to be any different than theirs?
We too, then, are found in them. We too respond with fear at the greatness of the resurrection. We, too, respond with great joy at the triumph of God’s Messiah. We, too, move in obedience to Heaven’s command. We, too, bear the message about the risen Lord. We, too, worship Him and move toward a rendezvous with Him, which He has told us will surely take place. just as surely as he rendezvoused with his disciples in Galilee shortly after the resurrection.
You are in the women. They speak to you about your piety. your godliness, your response to the risen Christ. Learn the lesson of the two women. Bless us, our God. Help us, Lord, with the simple things from your word. We would be benefited by them to the full measure. But, Lord, help us also, even with the complicated and complex matters of your word, that we might be benefited by them also to the full. Help us, Lord, in relationship to your word, and draw us into it, that we may see our life there. And seeing our life there, may we benefit, O God, wonderfully, from the warnings that are uttered, but also, O God, from the comforts that are extended. and the assurance that is ministered to us, even in our faith. As we believe. Those things which are true concerning your son. As surely as he has been raised. So surely shall he come again. And Lord, we ask. That in the day of his appearing. May we be prepared. Amen.
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.