Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army Resurrection Easter Sunday, 20 April 2014 and 614 Warehouse, 16 April 2017
Mary
and Mary from Galilee: Matthew 27:55-28:20 that
we just read: this is Matthew’s account of the resurrection.[1]
This is really quite something. First, we know who Matthew is, right? Matthew
is Levi – a former customs officer / tollbooth operator / tax collector.
Matthew is one of the disciples. He is one of the Eleven who are gathered at
the end of this story. This is quite interesting.
What we have just
read then would be Matthew’s answer to people who meet him as he heads out from
receiving the Great Commission of our Lord. We read how Jesus has just told him
and the other disciples to, “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you
always, to the very end of the age.”
You can then
picture people asking Matthew, ‘Why are you baptizing people in Jesus’ Name;
isn’t he dead?’ ‘How do you know this is all true?’ ‘What exactly happened?’
And then Matthew tells them the whole story that we have here in the Gospel of
Matthew, of which the last chapters of his story are the most important to us
on Easter, Resurrection Sunday. He tells the whole story of how Matthew learned
of the resurrection first and then how he first came to believe and how he had
this whole experience verified by an encounter with the Christ himself – after
Jesus was raised from the dead.
First, before we
go into the conclusion of Matthew’s story that we read today and entitled the
our illustrations, Mary and Mary from Galilee; before we look at Mary
and Mary and their encounter with the resurrected Christ, do we know who this
Mary and Mary from Galilee are?
We know who is
Mary Magdalene? Luke tells us that she was a financial supporter of Jesus’ –
and probably one of means - as well as one of his key followers right from the
earliest days of His formal ministry. Luke also tells that at some point prior
seven demons were actually cast out of her (Luke 8:2).[2]
And some people even think that she is the same Mary who is the sister of
Martha and Lazarus and who anointed Christ’s feat with perfume and cleansed
them with her tears.[3]
Whether she is the sister of Martha or not, Mary Magdalene was certainly an
early disciple of Jesus who supported him with both her purse and her deeds.
She was a lady who –like the contemporary proverb says – ‘put her money where
her mouth was’ as she shared the gospel unashamedly.
We know who is
this other Mary? The mother of James and Joseph; we know who are James and
Joseph, right? We - Protestants and Evangelicals anyway - acknowledge that
James and Joseph are the names of two of the biological half-brothers of Jesus;
therefore Mary in our text today might even be the one whom the Roman Catholics
refer to as the ‘Mother of God’.[4]
This might be the same Mary who was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit; this might
be the same Mary whose son remained at the Temple as a 12 year-old; and this
might be the same Mary whose child is between the cross and the empty tomb in
our text today.
We notice that these
women are everywhere in our story: they are at the cross. They see Jesus die
with their own eyes and they feel it in their own heart. Mothers, if this Mary
is Mary the mother of Jesus, then Mary witnessed the very public death of her
own son and she could do nothing about it.
Mary and Mary are
then the first ones to whom God chooses to reveal that He has raised Jesus from
the dead. After they watch Jesus die,
Mary and Mary from Galilee go out to the tomb together to perform the requisite
funeral preparation practices of their day when an Angel tells them, ‘Jesus is
raised from the dead; go to Galilee and you will see Jesus.’ And then as they
are leaving to do just that, Jesus himself appears to Mary and Mary Magdalene.
And this is neat…
Here we have the
first two ministers of the Gospel of the Resurrected Christ; here we have the
first two Christian preachers in all of history; the first two people that God
ordains and commissions to go and share the Gospel are Mary and Mary Magdalene
– the latter, who, though not one of the Twelve, was one of his earliest
disciples. These first preachers of the Gospel of the Resurrected Christ are
these two women, preaching to Matthew, John, and the others all about the
resurrection of our Lord and Saviour.
The whole Good
News of Easter and the Resurrection and the Salvation of the whole world that
comes to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is brought to us
all through history and even to us here today, first through the testimony and
proclamation, the preaching of these two women from Galilee.
So today I do have
this encouragement for us. This account that Matthew shares with us about Mary
and Mary preaching the Gospel is attested to by many throughout history and –
of course – even in the account we read today Jesus later appears to the
surviving 11 disciples; and he then appears to more than 500 other disciples
many of whom were still alive at the time these things were recorded for
history (1 Corinthians 15:1-11). Jesus appears to all these people. This is
historically verified and we have many eyewitness accounts but the first two to
whom the resurrected Christ chose to present himself are very simply May and
Mary from Galilee and then Jesus ordains and commissions them to go and tell
others and they do and others even move beyond their initial doubt and
believe.
Today is Easter.
Today is Resurrection Sunday. Today we all – no matter who we are - have the
opportunity to be like Mary and Mary from Galilee. We too have the opportunity
to tell all those we meet about the Glory of the Resurrected Christ. We too
have the opportunity to point others to the Salvation that Jesus provided for
the whole world; for God so love the world that He sent His only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Let us pray.
www.sheepspeak.com
---
[1] Mary and Mary from Galilee: Matthew 27:55-28:20. Illustrated
by Captain Michael Ramsay (Sheepspeak.com, Swift Current, SK: 2014). Available
on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com/Mary%20and%20Mary%20from%20Galilee1.pdf
[2] Cf. William Hendriksen, Matthew, (NTC: Baker Academic: Grand
Rapids, Michigan, 2007), 977-978.
[3] Cf. Ángel Manuel Rodríguez, Is Mary, the sister of Martha, the
same as Mary Magdalene?, (Biblical Research Institute: Silver Spring, MD),
available on-line:
https://adventistbiblicalresearch.org/materials/bible-interpretation-hermeneutics/mary-magdalene-sister-martha
[4] Cf. DA Caron, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis
CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/VII. The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus
(26:6-28:20)/A. The Passion (26:6-27:66)/15. Immediate impact of the death
(27:51-56), Book Version: 4.0.2 for a good discussion of this.
Posts
