Wordeed 8: "Expect the Unexpected" Scripture: Matthew 28:1-15

- In a modern-day court of law the reliability of a witness's testimony is of great importance, which is one of the reasons why the modern justice system favors expert witnesses.

- Unless the evidence clearly contradicts an expert's testimony, their statement is proof enough.

- In Matthew's Gospel, we have a situation that pits the expert testimony of the Roman soldiers against the witness of the women and the reader is given a choice.

- Whose testimony will the reader believe either the expert testimony of the Roman soldiers or the testimony of the women?

- Whose testimony will you believe?

- First, let's look at the testimony of the Roman soldiers.

- ¹¹ While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. ¹² When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, ¹³ telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ ¹⁴ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” ¹⁵ So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

- Matthew tells us, "Some of the guards...reported to the chief priests everything that had happened."

- Now, we need to ask ourselves, what did the guards experience? What did they witness?

- Matthew tells us: ² There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³ His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴ The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

- The guards experienced the earthquake.

-The guards saw the angel of the Lord coming out of the sky.

-The guards saw the angel go to the tomb, roll back the stone and sit on it.

- The guards saw the glorious form of the angel.

- The guards were so terrified by this experience that they fell into a dead faint.

- What an experience!

- What did they do after they came to?

- Some of them went and reported their experience to the chief priests.

- Why is that important?

- It was the chief priests which held political power over the Jews, second only to Rome.

- To say the least, they had no desire to see an uprising by the Jews (their own people) that would threaten their power.

- If the resurrection of Jesus was real, then they had motive to cover it up, which is exactly what they tried to do.

- They gave the soldiers a large sum of money, ¹³ telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’

- Not only did they pay the Roman soldiers to spread false testimony. They also promised the soldiers that they would deal with the governor.

- ¹⁴ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.

- The evidence that the Roman guards gave the chief priests was strong enough that the chief priests found it impossible to bring charges against the soldiers.

- So, what did they do? They resorted to payoffs and lies to silence the guards' story of Jesus' resurrection and put a stop to this new threat.

- Now, Roman soldiers were held to the strictest of disciplines, and failure to carry out their duties was punishable by death.

- We read that "Some of the guards" reported to the chief priests.  Some of the guards! How many were there?

- History shows that the smallest number of soldiers for a Roman guard unit was four, but the usual number of soldiers for a unit was 16.

- These were professional, well-trained, highly disciplined soldiers.

- Because Matthew tells us that "some of the guards" reported to the chief priests, rather than all of the guards, then there's no reason to suggest that the guard posted at the tomb was less than the usual number, 16.

- Why is any of this important?

- It is important for two reasons: 1) the tomb was well guarded; and 2) the disciples could not have removed the body illegally.

- Now, this brings us right back to their original testimony and to the fact that the chief priests bribed them not to tell the truth about their experience.

- The Roman soldiers as disciplined, highly trained professionals were our expert witnesses. What can we say but so much for their expert testimony;

- Their false witness actually serves to support the women’s story

- What of the women's testimony? Just like the soldiers...

- The women experienced the earthquake.

-The women saw the angel of the Lord coming out of the sky.

-The women saw the angel go to the tomb, roll back the stone and sit on it.

- The women saw the glorious form of the angel.

- The women were also terrified...

- ...but that's where similarities end.

- Matthew describes for us the rest of the women's experience.

- ⁵ The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. ⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

⁸ So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹ Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

- The women heard the angel's testimony that Jesus has risen, as he promised.

- The women saw that the tomb was empty.

- The women met Jesus and touched him.

- The women were instructed, first by the angel and also by Jesus, not to fear and that he would meet his disciples in Galilee.

- It is no secret that in the ancient world under Roman law a woman's speech and testimony was questionable.

- And under Jewish tradition a woman's testimony was never accepted over the testimony of a man.

- If Matthew wanted to create a resurrection story with reliable witnesses, then he would've made the first witnesses to Jesus resurrection men.

- At that time, the report of the guards, although easily proven false, would have received more respect.

- So why did Matthew include the women as the first witnesses to Jesus resurrection?

- The first reason is simply because the story is true.

- The women were in fact the first witnesses to the resurrection, making them the first to share the good news of Jesus' resurrection with the rest of his disciples.

- The second reason has to do with God's agenda, his plan (i.e., it's a theological reason).

- Just as Jesus allowed women to sit at his feet to hear his teaching alongside men, God is doing a new thing in the resurrection of Jesus.

- In a society that robbed women of their voice and their rights, God announces and restores the dignity of women as created in God's image together with men.

- Because of Jesus, women and men can lift their voices together to witness to the good news that Jesus is risen.

- Women can act as equal witnesses.

- So, whose testimony will you believe? Will you believe the testimony of Roman soldiers who were bribed by the chief priests not to share what they really experienced that Easter Sunday 2000 years ago?

- Or will you believe the testimony of the women who saw the angel, the empty tomb, and heard the message that Jesus lives, and also saw, touched, and heard Jesus and took this news to the rest of his disciples?

- Whose testimony will you believe?

- I hope your choice is to believe the testimony of the women.

- God chose women who would never officially be chosen to speak to be the first to share the good news of Jesus.

- Well, now what? God uses unexpected people to share the unexpected message that Jesus lives!

- Most often, God doesn't use the experts to share the truth that Jesus lives and what it means for us that he lives.

- No, most often God uses unexpected people.

- God longs to use unexpected people, people like you and like me, to share the true story that Jesus is risen.

- The question is: do we want to allow God to use us?

- Once we have accepted the testimony of the women and chosen sides, God expects that we will do the unexpected.

- As we learn to follow, trust, and obey Jesus more, then we can become a people devoted to doing the unexpected.

- God uses unexpected people to share the unexpected message that Jesus lives.