What Does Easter Have to Do With Christmas?
Why would I talk about Matthew 28 the week of Christmas? Matthew 28 has more to do with the Christmas story than you might think. In Matthew 1, the angel who appeared to Joseph in his dream told him that the child Mary was carrying would be called Immanuel, which means “God with us.” The very last words Jesus speaks in Matthew are “I am with you always even to the end of the age.” The Gospel begins and ends with God with us. If we don’t connect Jesus’ birth with Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection we are leaving out some important details.
After Jesus was crucified, the Pharisees asked Pilate for a contingent of soldiers to make Jesus’ tomb secure. They remembered Jesus’ repeated promise that He would rise from the dead and they wanted to make sure that the disciples could not steal Jesus’ body from the tomb. Joseph of Arimathea hurriedly buried Jesus’ body in his own tomb because the Sabbath was approaching. Following the observation of the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene and some of the other women who had followed Jesus made their way to the tomb to finish preparing the body for burial.
As the women approached the tomb, the earth shook, and the angel of the Lord appeared rolling away the stone from the tomb. The soldiers passed out in fear while the angel of the Lord comforted the women and told them that Jesus had risen. He invited them to come and see the empty tomb for themselves. Once they do he commissions them to go and tell the rest of the disciples that Jesus had been raised from the dead and that he would meet them in Galilee. As the women hurry on their way to fulfill this task, Jesus Himself appears to them. The women worship the resurrected Jesus. Jesus doesn’t allow them to linger though and sends them on their way to tell the other disciples.
The 11 disciples head to Galilee and there they meet Jesus. Their response was the same as the women. They worshipped Jesus. Matthew 28:17 reports that some of them also doubted. This is to be expected. They didn’t quite know what to do. Jesus doesn’t leave His disciples in this condition. He isn’t content that they would only express worship of Him. He has something for them to do. That’s when Jesus speaks those powerful words: “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” Jesus’ resurrection from the dead vindicates and demonstrates His authority. He gives his disciples a task: “Go therefore and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19-20).
Jesus is telling His disciples (and all of us today who are His disciples) that worship is supposed to lead somewhere. God wants us to move from worship to witness. Genuine worship leads to witness. What does this mean practically? Look at Matthew 28:19-20 again we can see that Jesus is telling us to do one thing, make disciples. That is the work of the witness. We make disciples in three ways. First, by going. Disciples aren’t to sit and wait. Disciples are to go. Disciples go across the world, disciples go across the nation, disciples go across town, disciples go across the street, and disciples go across the room. Going is part of making disciples. The mission Jesus gives us has movement. Second, we make disciples by baptizing. This is the public declaration of faith in Jesus. Finally we make disciples by teaching others to obey, to put into practice Jesus’ teachings. Though this seems like an impossible task, Jesus promises His presence and therefore His power will be with us.
What is the Christmas story all about? Not just a Savior who came to this earth and is worthy of our worship but one who is also worthy of our witness. God, help us all to be witnesses for Jesus.