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Matthew 28:1-20 - Resurrection and the Great Commission

19 min read

Matthew’s previous chapter closes with a stone sealed, a guard posted, and two women sitting opposite the tomb. Human power has done everything it knows to make death final. Then the first day begins to dawn. The angel rolls back the stone and sits upon it; the guards become like dead men; the One who was crucified is announced as risen.

The chapter does more than move from sorrow to relief. It shows what the Resurrection creates. Grieving women become witnesses. Failed disciples are called Christ’s brethren. Worship and wavering stand together before the risen Lord. Baptism, teaching, obedience, and mission flow from His authority and are sustained by His presence. Matthew began by naming Jesus Emmanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). It ends with Emmanuel speaking: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The Open Tomb Becomes a Commission (Matthew 28:1-7)

1 Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. 3 His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. 5 But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”

The two Marys come after the Sabbath “as the first day of the week began to dawn.” Matthew does not give enough detail to reconstruct the hour more precisely, and the opening phrase has been translated in more than one way. Its narrative force is clear: Sabbath and burial lie behind them, while the first day opens before them.1 The women come to see a tomb. God gives them a proclamation.

The earthquake and the angel do not describe the instant when Jesus rose; no one in the New Testament watches that mystery happen. The stone is rolled back so that the empty place can be seen, not because the risen Christ needs help escaping.1 St John Chrysostom reads the scene in exactly this direction: the angel removes the stone for the women, enabling them to see the tomb empty and believe.2 The stone that had closed the grave now serves the truth, and the angel sits upon it. Human precautions have become a seat for heaven’s messenger.

Matthew places the guards and the women under the same revelation, but their responses differ. Armed men shake and become “like dead men.” The women hear, “Do not be afraid.” The distinction is not natural courage. They are received because they seek “Jesus who was crucified.” The angel keeps the Cross inside the Resurrection proclamation. The living Lord is the Crucified One; His rising does not erase His self-offering or turn the Passion into an unfortunate episode left behind.

“He is risen, as He said” joins the empty tomb to Christ’s own word. He had repeatedly told His disciples that He would be killed and raised (Matthew 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:17-19). Their memory failed under grief and fear, but His promise did not. The angel therefore gives the women three linked commands: come, see, and go tell. They are allowed to look at the place where He lay, yet they are not permitted to build a home around the evidence. What they receive must become witness.

This order still guards Christian life. Worship and Scripture teach us to “come and see”; obedience sends us toward the person who needs truth, mercy, or courage. Witness without communion soon becomes noise. Communion that never becomes love and confession has stopped short of the angel’s command.

Fear and Great Joy on the Road (Matthew 28:8-10)

8 So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word. 9 And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

The women leave with “fear and great joy.” Matthew does not tidy their hearts before sending them. Fear remains, but it no longer rules their feet. They run in obedience, carrying a joy greater than their trembling.

Jesus meets them while they are going. His word “Rejoice!” translates a Greek expression that can also serve as an ordinary greeting, “Greetings” or “Hail.” The grammar does not force a command to feel joyful, yet Matthew’s setting allows the greeting to bear the full weight of Paschal joy.3 Joy has a face and a voice because the risen Jesus Himself meets them.

The women hold His feet and worship Him. Matthew gives bodily detail where a vague account would have been easier. These are the feet of the Jesus who was crucified, and He receives their worship. Resurrection is neither the survival of an idea nor the disciples’ refusal to let a memory die. The body laid in the tomb is risen, and the proper response is worship.

Chrysostom sees both assurance and honor in this encounter: touch confirms the reality of Christ’s risen body, and the women are entrusted to carry the good news to the disciples.2 Their witness is not an ornamental preface to the apostles’ mission. Christ chooses these faithful women, who had remained near His Cross and burial, to summon the scattered disciples.

Then mercy enters through one word: “My brethren.” Jesus is speaking about men who slept in Gethsemane, fled at His arrest, and left the apostolic circle wounded by betrayal. He neither calls their failure good nor makes humiliation the price of return. The risen Lord restores kinship and calls them to the place He appointed. Before the disciples can preach reconciliation, they must receive it.

Many servants wait for fear to disappear before obeying. Matthew shows another path. Bring the trembling heart into the next faithful act: make the truthful confession, return to prayer, visit the grieving person, or serve without controlling the outcome. The women do not find Christ by mastering their emotions. Christ meets them on the road of obedience.

The Truth Reported and the Lie Purchased (Matthew 28:11-15)

11 Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. 12 When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ 14 And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.

“While they were going,” a second report leaves the tomb. The women carry the word that Jesus has risen. Some of the guard report “all the things that had happened” to the chief priests. The leaders are therefore not shown investigating an uncertain rumor. They hear the report, assemble, consult, and spend money to replace it with another story.

The purchased account defeats itself. The soldiers are to say that the disciples stole the body “while we slept.” Sleeping witnesses could not identify thieves or describe what happened. The same disciples who had scattered in fear would also have needed to overcome the guarded tomb. Chrysostom presses these contradictions, while Matthew’s larger point remains the one his narrative has built since the seal was set: the dispute now concerns how the tomb became empty.4 1

Money secures cooperation and protection. It cannot put the body back in the tomb. The leaders promise to appease the governor and keep the soldiers safe, creating a small system in which everyone has a reason to preserve the lie. Truth threatens position; the false story offers temporary security.

This passage has been misused to justify contempt for Jewish people, and such misuse contradicts faithful reading. Matthew names particular chief priests, elders, and soldiers acting in a specific conflict. He does not turn an entire people into a single guilty character. The text’s sharpest Christian use is self-examination. Churches, ministries, families, and individual believers can all manage a story to protect reputation, money, influence, or the illusion of innocence. The empty tomb gives no shelter to a lie, but the risen Christ gives sinners a way out of one: confession, repentance, and truth.

The Eleven Worship While Some Waver (Matthew 28:16-17)

16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.

Matthew calls them “the eleven.” Judas’s absence remains visible; Resurrection does not require the evangelist to disguise the wound in the apostolic body. These incomplete disciples return to Galilee, the main region of Jesus’ earlier ministry, where they first learned to follow, hear, and serve.5 The mountain is the one Jesus appointed, but Matthew does not name it. The place of commission is therefore received through obedience, not recovered through speculation.

“When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.” The sentence refuses an easy picture of flawless apostles. The Greek verb translated “doubted” can describe hesitation or wavering; its only other New Testament use is Matthew’s account of Peter wavering on the water while already moving toward Jesus (Matthew 14:31). The grammar also leaves some uncertainty about whether Matthew means a subset or the group more broadly.6 He tells us enough to see the tension, but not enough to identify or rank the hesitant disciples.

Wavering is neither praised as spiritual maturity nor treated as unforgivable treachery. The disciples go where Christ appointed, see Him, and worship. Jesus answers by coming near and speaking. Chrysostom admires Matthew’s honesty in recording their weakness and observes that Christ assures the wavering through His presence.4

A hesitant believer may be tempted to withdraw until every difficulty is resolved or every feeling becomes certain. Matthew gives a more faithful place for weakness: before Christ, within worship, attentive to His word, and ready for obedience. We do not offer Christ a performance of certainty. We offer Him the mind and heart that still need His approach.

All Authority, All Nations, All the Days (Matthew 28:18-20)

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Jesus “came” to the worshiping and wavering disciples. The commission begins with His approach and His authority, not their confidence. The One mocked as “King of the Jews” now declares authority “in heaven and on earth.” The Cross has not been corrected by a more impressive form of kingship. The risen Lord possesses universal authority as the Crucified One who gave His life.

“Go therefore” depends on that authority. In the Greek sentence, “make disciples” is the governing command; going, baptizing, and teaching belong together around it.7 Christ does not send the Church merely to travel, attract hearers, or produce decisions. A disciple enters through Baptism and is formed through a continuing life of learning to observe everything Christ commanded.

Baptism is “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The wording uses the singular “name” while naming the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.8 The Church receives this within her confession of the one God in three Persons. To be baptized is not to acquire a religious label. It is to be joined to the life Christ gives in His Church, to die and rise with Him, and to live before the Father by the Holy Spirit.

Teaching completes neither a course nor a transfer of information. Christ says, “teaching them to observe.” The Sermon on the Mount, forgiveness from the heart, protection of little ones, freedom from mammon, watchfulness, mercy, and cross-shaped service must become life. Chrysostom therefore distinguishes doctrine and commandments while holding them in one charge: the Church teaches the truth and teaches a life obedient to Christ.4 Baptism without formation becomes a forgotten beginning. Teaching without sacramental communion becomes information at a distance.

“All the nations” breaks every ethnic boundary around discipleship, but it never licenses coercion, cultural domination, or political conquest. All authority belongs to Christ, not to the unchecked will of missionaries or leaders. The means named by Christ are baptism, teaching, and obedient discipleship under His presence. People are received as persons to be loved and joined to Christ, never as projects that prove a ministry’s importance.

The command would crush the eleven if the passage ended there. Instead Christ says, “I am with you always.” The underlying phrase has the concrete sense of “all the days”: every ordinary day of teaching, parenting, serving, forgiving, failing, repenting, and beginning again.9 Chrysostom hears the promise as given not only to the eleven, who would not remain bodily until the end of the age, but to the continuing body of believers.4 Eusebius likewise sees the nations’ discipleship as Christ joining the effect to His own word, evidence of the Lord’s active power rather than apostolic self-confidence.10

Matthew ends without narrating an Ascension. His final accent falls on presence. The Gospel that began with Emmanuel now places the Church’s whole mission inside the same promise. We go because Christ has authority. We endure because Christ remains.

Heard in the Church’s Resurrection Prayer

Two directly verified Coptic lectionary rows from 2026 place Matthew 28:1-20 as the Matins Gospel: the first Sunday of Abib on July 12 and the first Sunday of Mesra on August 9.11 12 The first date coincided that year with the Apostles’ Feast, but a single dated row does not establish the origin or universal rationale of the placement.

The spiritual logic is still clear within the verified evidence. The Church hears the whole chapter before the Eucharistic Liturgy: the empty tomb, the women’s witness, the exposed lie, the apostles’ worship, Trinitarian Baptism, obedient teaching, and Christ’s presence. Resurrection and mission are not separate subjects. The risen Lord creates and sends a worshiping people.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

  1. Bring grief to the place where Christ can address it. The women come expecting a tomb, yet they still come. When sorrow narrows the future to what has been lost, remain near Christ through prayer, Scripture, the Eucharist, and the faithful people who can carry hope with you. Love may arrive without understanding; the Lord can turn that love toward witness.

  2. Obey without waiting for fear to become calm. The women run with fear and great joy. Notice where fear has become a respectable reason to postpone confession, service, reconciliation, or truthful speech. Ask for courage, then take the next faithful step that the passage makes clear. Christ often strengthens His servants while they are going.

  3. Refuse peace purchased by a managed story. The guards’ report is replaced because the truth threatens security and reputation. Examine the version of events you repeat to remain blameless, keep influence, or avoid an apology. Bring the whole truth into confession, make restitution where needed, and accept the humility of being known honestly. The risen Christ is strong enough to meet us outside the lie.

  4. Bring wavering into worship instead of isolation. The eleven worship while some still hesitate, and Jesus comes near. Do not make doubt a badge, but do not make certainty a costume. Pray the difficulty plainly, stay within the Church’s worship, seek wise teaching, and obey what Christ has already made clear. His presence is the beginning of steadiness.

  5. Live your Baptism through ordinary discipleship. The commission joins Baptism to learning and obedience, then places every day under Christ’s promise. In family life, parish service, and work, teach first by becoming teachable: forgive, protect the vulnerable, speak truth without domination, and keep Christ’s commands when no one is impressed. Mission is the risen Lord forming one life through another while He remains with both.

Footnotes

  1. USCCB, notes on Matthew 28:1-4 and 28:11-15, including the probable dawn sense in context, the stone rolled back to reveal the empty tomb, and the counter-story concerning why the tomb was empty, https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/28 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. St John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Homily LXXXIX, on the opened tomb, the women’s touch and worship, and their commission to carry the good news, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110.iii.LXXXV.html ↩ ↩2

  3. MorphGNT SBLGNT Matthew row 012809 and BibleHub interlinear Matthew 28:9, on Χαίρετε as a second-person plural imperative that can also function as a greeting, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/morphgnt/sblgnt/master/61-Mt-morphgnt.txt and https://biblehub.com/text/matthew/28-9.htm ↩

  4. St John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Homily XC, on the implausibility of the theft story, Matthew’s honesty about the disciples’ wavering, doctrine and commandments in the commission, and Christ’s promise to the continuing body of believers, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110.iii.LXXXVI.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. HarperCollins Bible Dictionary, “Galilee,” hosted by Bible Odyssey, on Galilee as the principal region of Jesus’ ministry, https://www.bibleodyssey.org/dictionary/galilee/ ↩

  6. MorphGNT SBLGNT Matthew row 012817; BibleHub interlinear Matthew 28:17; and USCCB note on Matthew 28:17, on ἐδίστασαν, its possible subjects, and its other New Testament use in Matthew 14:31, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/morphgnt/sblgnt/master/61-Mt-morphgnt.txt, https://biblehub.com/text/matthew/28-17.htm, and https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/28 ↩

  7. MorphGNT SBLGNT Matthew rows 012819-012820 and BibleHub interlinear Matthew 28:19-20, on μαθητεύσατε as the finite imperative with going, baptizing, and teaching joined to the command, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/morphgnt/sblgnt/master/61-Mt-morphgnt.txt, https://biblehub.com/text/matthew/28-19.htm, and https://biblehub.com/text/matthew/28-20.htm ↩

  8. MorphGNT SBLGNT Matthew row 012819, BibleHub interlinear Matthew 28:19, and USCCB note on Matthew 28:19, on the singular “name,” the threefold naming, and baptismal union with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/morphgnt/sblgnt/master/61-Mt-morphgnt.txt, https://biblehub.com/text/matthew/28-19.htm, and https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/28 ↩

  9. MorphGNT SBLGNT Matthew row 012820 and BibleHub interlinear Matthew 28:20, on πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας, literally “all the days,” https://raw.githubusercontent.com/morphgnt/sblgnt/master/61-Mt-morphgnt.txt and https://biblehub.com/text/matthew/28-20.htm ↩

  10. Eusebius of Caesarea, Proof of the Gospel, Book 3, chapter 6, trans. W. J. Ferrar, on Christ joining the effect to His word in the discipling of the nations, https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_de_05_book3.htm#C6 ↩

  11. CopticChurch.net, readings for July 12, 2026, identifying the first Sunday of Abib and Matthew 28:1-20 as the Matins Gospel, https://www.copticchurch.net/readings?g_year=2026&g_month=07&g_day=12 ↩

  12. CopticChurch.net, readings for August 9, 2026, identifying the first Sunday of Mesra and Matthew 28:1-20 as the Matins Gospel, https://www.copticchurch.net/readings?g_year=2026&g_month=08&g_day=09 ↩

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