Hide And Go Seek

Matthew 28: 1 – 20

Hide and go seek

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.” 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.” 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. 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. 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.

Today we are going to finish our study in the Gospel of Matthew. This last chapter is just as thrilling as the previous chapters. A lot of interesting things are reported.

The thought that came to me for a topic was ‘Hide and go seek’. We will see that not only the apostles went into hiding but so did the ‘soldiers’ who were guarding the tomb.

I want you to keep an eye out for the verses that instruct the apostles to go to Galilee. Before our Lord Jesus was arrested He had told them that He would meet them there. However, with all that occurred all they could do was hide. It took personal visits by our Lord Jesus to get them moving to Galilee as He had instructed.

I mentioned in our last study that I believe that the soldiers were Jewish not Roman. I will give you my reasons in a little while. We will see that some in fear for what happened went to the Jewish priests to tell them what happened at the tomb. The rest of the other soldiers just disappeared. Perhaps some fled from the city in fear of being arrested themselves. Perhaps the ones who did not come to the Priests were the soldiers who punched our Lord Jesus after putting a bag over his head. Having witnessed His resurrection, they could run but where could they really hide.

Late on the same day as the Chief Priests sealed the tomb, two of the women disciples go to survey the tomb and assess the situation. We learn from the other Gospels that it was to see whether there might be any opportunity of anointing the body of Jesus. Their main problem is how they will remove the large stone guarding the entrance. They are unaware of what others have done, Joseph in anointing the body of Jesus, and the Chief Priests and Pharisees in setting a guard and sealing the tomb. But when they arrive at the tomb they discover that the great stone has been removed from the mouth of the tomb, and that a glistening figure is sat on it. This glorious figure then reveals to them that Jesus has risen.