Matthew 27:54 - 27:66

Gospel of Matthew — Steve Gregg

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Matthew 27:54 - 27:66

Gospel of MatthewSteve Gregg

In this discussion, Steve Gregg delves into the biblical passage of Matthew 27:54-66, providing context and analysis. He highlights the various women mentioned in the passage, including Mary Magdalene and Salome, and delves into the significance of the sealing of Jesus' tomb. Gregg addresses various skeptical theories surrounding the resurrection of Jesus and encourages believers to consider the evidence supporting this foundational event in Christianity.

Transcript

If you're able to turn along with us in your Bible to the passage that we're looking at today, it is Matthew chapter 27, beginning with verse 54. If you are doing something that prevents you from looking on your Bible, I understand. I hope that you'll be able to listen carefully and follow the text with us nonetheless.

We've been studying Matthew 27 for several sessions now, and we've actually passed the point where Jesus has yielded up his spirit. He's died on the cross, but the surrounding events are still being described. And it says, And those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened.

They feared greatly, saying, Truly, this was the Son of God. In Luke 23, 47, we read that one of the centurions said, Truly, this was a righteous man. Some would see this as a contradiction in Scripture, because Matthew has the saying, Truly, this was the Son of God.

And Luke has the saying, Truly, this was a righteous man. There's a great difference between a righteous man and the Son of God, and yet these two different terms are used in the different Gospels. There's no problem, however, with this necessarily, because we're not simply talking about what one person said.

It says, Now when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and that it happened, they feared greatly, saying, There's more than one person speaking here. Some apparently said, Truly, this was a righteous man. Others may have said, Hey, this was the Son of God.

Both statements were no doubt uttered by different parties, but one is recorded in Matthew and the other in Luke. It says, And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's sons. Now, this is three different women that are mentioned.

We know there were other women as well. For example, Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there. But these ones who are mentioned are mentioned as women who, it says, had followed him from Galilee, ministering to him.

Now, this ministering to him, no doubt, is a reference to financial assistance that they've given to Jesus during his ministry. Jesus, you know, when he had left home, he left carpenter work. He apparently worked as a carpenter until he was about 30 years old, at which time he left that occupation to enter the ministry.

And from that time on, we have no record of him ever doing profitable labor in the sense that it would earn money again. So, for about three or more years, Jesus apparently had no gainful employment, and his support seemed to come from people who believed in his ministry, many of whom were women. We read of these women in Luke chapter 8, verses 1 through 3, which says, Now it came to pass afterward that he went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and the twelve were with him.

And certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for him from their substance. Now, providing for him from their substance means that these women were women with some money, and they helped to support Jesus and the apostles in their travels.

Mary Magdalene is mentioned in that passage, Luke 8, verses 1 through 3, as are a couple of other women, Joanna and Susanna, about whom we know very little, but it says, and many other women too. Well, over here in Matthew, we read of many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him. They were looking on from afar.

Now, some of the names are given, not all of them. Mary Magdalene is mentioned first here also, as in the other passage. Apparently, Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus had cast at one time seven demons, also was a woman who had some substance, some money.

She may have come from a wealthy family, or she might have been the widow of a wealthy man. But she had some money, and she was one of those who helped to finance Jesus' ministry. And she was one of those who stood near the cross.

Others are mentioned as being with her here. One is the mother of James and Joses, and it doesn't give—she's just called Mary. And the other woman is said to be the mother of Zebedee's sons.

Well, we know who Zebedee's sons were. They were John and James, the two apostles, John and James, were Zebedee's sons. This is their mother.

Matthew does not tell us their mother's name, but we can learn some things about these women by comparing the other gospel accounts that mention these women. For example, in Mark 15, and in verse 40, it says, There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the less, and of Joses, and Salome. Now, we have three women here mentioned, and they are probably the same three women.

We have Mary Magdalene, that's obviously the same. Then Mary the mother of James the less, and of Joses, that's the same mother of James and Joses found in Matthew. But then the third woman mentioned here is called Salome.

In Matthew, this third woman was called the mother of Zebedee's sons. So, apparently, the mother of Zebedee's sons, or the wife of Zebedee, was named Salome. So, we get some information here.

We already know James and John's father, his name was Zebedee. Now we learn of their mother. Her name was Salome, and she was one of the disciples who helped to support Jesus.

Now, there's additional information on these women in John 19, and verse 25. In John 19, 25, it says, Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Now, here we have mention of women, the same setting.

This time we read, Mary Jesus' mother was there. Alright, well that's easy enough. She's added, however, to the other three, because Matthew and Mark didn't mention her.

But Matthew and Mark did mention three other women. One of them is Mary Magdalene, who is in this list. Another is said here to be Mary the wife of Clopas.

Probably this Mary the wife of Clopas is the same one who's Mary the mother of James and Joses, mentioned in the other two passages. So, we got that same Mary. But there's apparently a fourth woman here in view, and it says, his mother's sister.

In other words, there are four women. Number one, Mary the mother of Jesus. Number two, his mother's sister.

Number three, Mary the wife of Clopas. Number four, Mary Magdalene. It is likely that his mother's sister is the same person as Salome in the other accounts.

And that would mean that Salome and Mary, the mother of Jesus, were sisters. And that would mean that Jesus and James and John were first cousins of each other. Because their mothers were sisters.

This Salome, the sister of the mother of Jesus, was the woman who once came to Jesus and asked if her two sons could sit at his right hand and his left hand in the kingdom. No doubt, because she was his aunt, she thought perhaps she would have some clout with Jesus. But she found that he was not able to grant, or certainly not able to promise, that which she asked for.

However, by comparing these three passages, Matthew 27, 56, Mark 15, 40, and John 19, 25, we can deduce a number of things. One is that the mother of the sons of Zebedee was named Salome, and that she was the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus. And these women stood by the cross, and they paid attention to what happened to Jesus.

Now, the reason this is mentioned, it will be important later, is that these same women, at least some of them, came a few days later to anoint the body and became the first ones to find that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Verse 57, Matthew 27, 57, says, Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had become a disciple of Jesus. In John's Gospel, we're told that Joseph was a dissenting member of the Sanhedrin.

I'm sorry, Luke actually tells us that. And in John, we're told that he was joined by Nicodemus in this particular story. So we have the Sanhedrin was the Jewish court that condemned Jesus to death, but there were dissenting members who did not agree with the decision made by the Sanhedrin.

Among them were Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. And Luke tells us this in Luke 23, 51. But in John 19, 39, we read that both Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus approached Pilate to get permission to bury the body of Jesus.

This story is compressed a bit here in Matthew. So he says that this rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had become a disciple of Jesus, this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body be given to him.

Now in Mark's Gospel, we read that when Pilate was given this request, that he marveled to find out that Jesus had already died, because Jesus died much more quickly on the cross than men usually would die who were executed in that manner. And that caused Pilate to marvel. In fact, it caused him to check up on it and make sure it was true.

And it was. And of course, the reason that Jesus died more quickly than the average man is that he died on purpose. He gave up his spirit.

No one could take his life from him, and so he gave up his life voluntarily, and he did so at the hour that he chose, which was six hours after being nailed to the cross and not three days later or more, as would happen with some men. Now it says that Pilate gave permission for Joseph of Arimathea to take the body of Jesus. And verse 59 says, When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid it in his new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock.

And he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and departed. And Mary Magdalene was there and the other Mary sitting opposite the tomb. So there can be no question of misidentification of the right tomb.

Some people have thought that the reason that there was an empty tomb reported three days later was that the disciples had mistaken one tomb for another. They had returned to a tomb that they thought was the tomb Jesus was buried in, but in fact it was a different one that was open, and they mistakenly thought Jesus had risen from the dead. That's how some skeptics read it.

But the idea of misidentification of the tomb is not possible because, first of all, the tomb in which Jesus was laid was owned by one of his disciples, Joseph of Arimathea. And it is not likely that this man forgot which tomb was his own. Furthermore, we read that Mary Magdalene and another Mary, probably Mary the wife of Clopas, were sitting by watching as he was buried, and so they knew exactly what tomb it was.

And these are the women who were among the first to return on Sunday and discover the tomb empty. The idea of misidentifying the tomb is simply not realistic at all. Now we have this one little story at the end that's very important for us to note.

Verses 62 through 66 of Matthew 27 says, On the next day, which followed the day of preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember while he was still alive how this deceiver said, After three days I will rise. Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say to the people, He has risen from the dead. So the last deception will be worse than the first.

Pilate said to them, You have a guard. Go your way, make it as secure as you know how. So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard.

Now a number of things are interesting here. One is that the enemies of Christ understood that he had predicted that he would rise from the dead. They had heard him say this essentially in Matthew 12, 40, when he had said to them, As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

And therefore they thought, Hmm, he's predicting that he'll come forth. Now all the other times that Jesus plainly predicted his resurrection, as for example when he said, I'm going to be delivered to the chief priests and delivered up to die, and they'll crucify and kill me, and on the third day I'll rise again. Those statements were made privately to his disciples.

They were not made in the hearing of his enemies. Therefore the enemies knew of this prediction largely from one statement that's been recorded as far as we know, and that is the one about Jonah, the sign of Jonah. Of course Jesus had much earlier said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it again.

And he was referring to this very thing, the resurrection of his body. But he spoke in terms that no one understood until afterward to be a prediction of his resurrection. So the enemies of Christ knew of this prediction from the time when he said that no sign will be given to this generation except the sign of Jonah.

And they said, Well, you know, there'd be some real trouble here if the disciples stole the body and then claimed that it was risen from the dead, because then we might never be able to stop this heresy. Remember they had crucified Jesus with the mind of ending his influence. They were threatened by his influence.

They thought, Boy, oh boy, we'll be in trouble if news got around that he rose from the dead. Now of course their concerns about this are all being expressed prior to his actual resurrection. They did not anticipate that he would rise from the dead, but they did remember that there was a prediction about it.

And they thought this would be something that if it were faked by the disciples, and convincingly faked, we might never be rid of the influence of this Jesus of Nazareth. Well, their fears were well-founded. Not so much that they feared the disciples might steal the body.

The disciples had no such intention, nor did they have the ability to do so. But the fact is they were right that the resurrection of Jesus, once reported, would give them no end of troubles from this Nazarene. That the damage done to them and to their system and to their evil would be worse as a result of Jesus reported as resurrected than it was before.

And of course the report of Jesus' resurrection is still being reported 2,000 years later and is continuing to do its mischief as they would discount it. Of course we don't consider that mischief. We consider it to be the spreading of a benevolent kingdom of salvation and of righteousness.

But the Jews who sought to silence the testimony of Jesus certainly had their worst nightmare realized when Jesus was reported risen from the dead and none were able to refute that claim. Well, they did their best to prevent that from happening. They asked Pilate to do something to prevent the disciples from stealing the body.

And Pilate said, well, you've got your own resources here. You've got some guards appointed to you. You set them.

You set the guards there. You make it as secure as you can. And so they did.

And they made the tomb secure, sealing the stone. The sealing of the stone might represent actual mortar around the edge of the stone so that it was sealed airtight and therefore difficult to move the rock. Or it may simply mean that they put a seal on it, that is to say an emblem, a signet, an official government seal that was essentially forbidding anyone to tamper with it.

But in addition to sealing the stone, they set actual human guards at the place to watch and make sure that the disciples could not steal the body. Now what size of a regiment or a garrison or whatever, what size of a group of guards did they have guarding the tomb? We don't know the answer to that. Some might think that, you know, perhaps the disciples eventually did overcome these guards and to steal the body.

But that's not likely. For one thing, the enemies of Christ had a good idea of how many disciples there were. And they put guards at the tomb for the express purpose of preventing the disciples from stealing the body.

So they certainly would have put an adequate guard there in anticipation of being overrun by the disciples. What's more, of course, it would be impossible, even if the tomb was guarded by only one man, it would be impossible for the disciples to steal the body without being seen by that one man or overcoming him, in which case he would have been found dead or whatever, and no such evidence ever did show. There was never any evidence of a struggle at the tomb.

So even one guard at the tomb would be sufficient to prevent the disciples from getting away with it if they wanted to steal the body. But, of course, as we know, they had no interest in stealing the body. It didn't even cross their minds.

When Jesus died, they'd even forgotten that he said he'd rise again on the third day. And that being so, the guards really had a pretty quiet shift until God showed up. And we will read about that in the next chapter.

In the next chapter, of course, an angel appears in an earthquake, and the stone is moved, and Jesus is raised, and the guards are terrified. And eventually the guards run back into the city to report what they'd seen. And we find that the chief priests are going to pay them off to spread the rumor that Jesus' body was stolen by the disciples while the guards were asleep.

Now, everything about that story is unreasonable, as we shall see next time when we actually look at the passage that describes it. But we need to remember also that if the disciples had stolen the body, at least they would know it. In other words, when they began to preach later on that Jesus had risen from the dead, if they had indeed stolen the body, then they would be deliberately deceiving people.

And in order to suggest that the disciples were deliberately deceiving people about the resurrection, we would have to ask ourselves, what motive would they have for doing so? What did they have to gain? I mean, we might say, well, these men have become famous because of this. Well, they didn't know they would become famous. All they knew is they'd be persecuted.

You begin speaking out publicly in favor of a man who was just crucified as a criminal in the presence of the same authorities, and you're inviting your neck to be put on the block next. There was no guarantee to the disciples that they would become famous leaders of a great movement if they began to preach that Jesus rose from the dead. It was more likely that they'd get themselves killed.

In fact, they did. All of them faced martyrdom. Only John died a natural death, but that was after facing a condemnation to be boiled in oil, but he survived it.

But all these men faced death and endured death for the sake of their testimony. This is not the kind of thing most people will lie in order to win for themselves. Men might lie in order to get rich.

They might lie in order to get famous. But most men will not lie in order to get themselves killed. And that is what we would have to assume.

If the disciples stole the body and went about claiming that they had not stolen it, but that indeed Jesus had risen from the dead, then we'd have to say these men were motivated as no other men in history have ever been motivated to champion the cause of a dead man, act all their lives as if they believed him to be alive, although they knew he was not, and allow themselves to be tortured and put to death and put everything in their whole lives at risk for this testimony. Now, I'm afraid human nature does not encourage us to believe that this scenario works. More than that, there's even a more basic question.

And that is, were the disciples the kind of men who wanted to live a lie? Were these dishonest men? Were these con artists? Certainly nothing I've ever read about these men in the records of their lives gives me any impression that they were men who were devious, con artists who decided to deceive the world, especially when they had nothing personally to gain by doing so. Now, I'm afraid all theories, apart from that which is recorded of the resurrection of Christ in the Scriptures, all alternatives don't seem to make very much sense at all, which is why so many people have come to be believers by considering the evidence concerning the resurrection of Jesus. We will look at the story of the resurrection as we come back to this gospel next time.

However, this time we've run out of opportunity to discuss it, so I hope you'll join us next time as we go back into the gospel of Matthew.