What did Jesus say after his resurrection?

The angel directs the women to bear the good news to the disciples and assures them the risen One Himself would go before them to Galilee, and there the disciples would see Him. This appointment was according to His own word. We find it in chapter 26:32. It is peculiar to Matthew and as we shall see later of no little importance.

"And going out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, they ran to bring His disciples word. And as they went to bring His disciples word behold, also, Jesus met them, saying, Hail! And they coming up took Him by the feet and worshipped Him. Then Jesus says to them, Fear not; go, bring word to my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there they shall see Me" (verses 8-10).

This tells us that they had entered into the empty tomb and had looked upon the place His blessed Body had rested. They must have trembled in great excitement; but greater still was their joy. The angel's message had at last brought back the remembrance of the words of the Lord about His resurrection on the third day. They ran, therefore, to bring the news to the disciples. And as they hastened on, eager to carry out the command, behold Jesus met them and greeted them with the word _Chairete "Oh! the Joy" or "Rejoice!" He was full of joy and graciously He revealed Himself to these devoted women. But oh, the joy! when at last His own are all with Him. Worshippingly they fall at His feet, while He Himself assures them "Fear not!" and repeats the message of the angel, "Bring word to my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there they shall see Me."

All this is very tersely told. In the Gospel of John we find the fuller account of the Lord's manifestation to Mary (John 20:11-18). It is often said by those who do not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures that there is a discrepancy between Matthew and John. In Matthew they fall at His feet and worship Him, but in John's Gospel the Lord says to Mary "Touch me not." There is no difficulty here at all. She fell at His feet and touched them, and laying hold of them the Lord uttered the words which are found in the Gospel of John. The taking hold by the feet is reported in the Gospel of Matthew, and the words He spake in the Gospel of John. This is one of the beautiful evidences of the divine authorship of the Gospel records. In our Gospel Christ is seen in relation to Israel. He is the risen Messiah in connection with His believing remnant. Well can she claim Him and take hold of His feet. As the women fell at His feet and worshipped Him, so His earthly people will at some day worship the Lord and own Him as the Messiah. But in John it is the heavenly side. He is to ascend, to go away, leaving the earth and going on high; His bodily presence on the earth in relation to Israel is not the revelation found in the fourth Gospel. Then the Lord calls His own "Brethren." In the Gospel of John we find the same command. Never before did the Lord call His disciples "brethren," but on that glorious resurrection morning He uses this expression. It is now fully manifested that "He that sanctifieth and they are sanctified are all of one; therefore He is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Heb. 2:11-12). The word itself is mentioned in Psalm 22. "I will declare thy name unto my brethren" (verse 22). That Psalm, containing the great prophecy of the suffering and exaltation of Christ, is prominent in the closing scenes of Matthew. We saw the fulfillment of the sufferings on the cross and here the prediction which relates to His resurrection. The main thing, however, insisted upon in the resurrection account in Matthew is Galilee. The disciples are told to go there; there the Lord will meet them and send them forth on their great mission among the nations. Before we behold them gathered in the mountain, which the Lord had appointed, another scene is introduced.

The next whom He saw were clearly Mary's companions, the Galilean women, who were on their way to Jerusalem carrying the angelic message to the disciples, and to Peter. He met them with "All hail! And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then said Jesus to them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me" (Matt. 28:9-10).

But, wonder of wonders, we find the same word again in the very next chapter of Matthew: Chapter 28: the Resurrection Chapter. Perhaps the very first word that our Saviour spoke after His resurrection was this very word, Chaire: 'Rejoice!' Twice over during that terrible time before He was put to death, He had listened to that word in mockery: and now it is the first, or almost the first, word that He uses when He meets His own, alive from among the dead. In Matthew 28:9, we read, "As they (Mary Magdalene and the other Mary) went to tell His disciples, behold Jesus met them, saying, Rejoice!" 'Chairete' (the plural of 'Chaire.')

Now you will remember that before the Lord was seen of the company of the disciples, the angel had by the women sent them these words, "Behold, he goes before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you" (Matt. 28:7). Hastening to carry their message, the women were met by the Lord Himself, who says to them, "Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me" (Matt. 28:10). His disciples were to leave Jerusalem, the spot of ordered religion, and they were to go down to Galilee, a despised place, outside Judea.

As they go they are given the greater joy of being met by the Lord Jesus Himself. Holding Him by the feet, they worship Him. Calming their fears, He instructs them to tell His brethren to go into Galilee, where they will see Him. The Gospel of Matthew emphasizes this matter.

First Manifestation. — To one and another did the Lord appear. First after Mary Magdalene He was seen by the women on their way to the city; then by the two on their way to Emmaus; and also by Peter. What interest He had in His people! He knew about them, and where to meet with them. Distance was nothing. Where they were, He could and did come. And now a fresh proof of His unchanging interest in His followers would be afforded. The two who went to Emmaus had hastily returned, and rejoined the company of the Eleven and the others with them. The doors of the room were closed for fear of the Jews. For of that enmity, of which the Lord had forewarned them (15:19, 20), they began to be aware, ere, as far as we know, any outward evidence of hostility towards them had been displayed. "If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you," He had said. And doubtless His enemies thought they had by His death effectually severed all links between Him and His followers. Had they? A look into that room, if it had been possible, would have convinced them of the futility of any such effort. He who had been crucified and buried was risen, and was again in the company of His followers. No power in the universe could prevent His presence in that room. His disciples were there. He would be among them. So suddenly, without noise, without the opening of a door, came Jesus, and stood in their midst, and says to them, "Peace be to you." This was the usual greeting in that day. It is the same in the East still. How gracious was the Lord in thus appearing to them at a time, and in circumstances, when His encouragement would be specially valued! He had appeared to Mary, and dried her tears. He had walked with the two to Emmaus, and settled their faith on the written Word. And now the Eleven, and those with them, being together apart from the Jews, having interests to which their unconverted countrymen were strangers, were favoured by the appearance of the Lord in their midst. Neither bolts, bars, nor any other material substance could hinder His presence with them. Then, knowing how they had discredited previous reports of His resurrection, He attracted their attention to His hands and His side. All uncertainty was removed from each one present. Unbelief fled, never to return. He was indeed risen. They were glad, for they saw the Lord.

A Commission. — Repeating the salutation, "Peace be to you," and the reality of His resurrection now apprehended, the Lord acquainted them with a commission with which He would entrust them: "As My Father has sent Me, even so send I you" (20:21). In His prayer to His Father He had spoken of a mission to the world which would be fruitful in results. And in view of that, as gathering power would be manifested, and the number of His adherents be increased, He here breathed on them, "saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit [or, forgive], they are remitted [or, forgiven] to them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained" (22, 23). Was this communication the gift of the Spirit, spoken of in John 7:39; 14:17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-13? No. For the Lord in Acts 1:4, at a date subsequent to that of which John here writes, told His disciples that they were still to wait for the promise of the Father. What then was this of which the Lord spoke? The context makes plain. He was communicating of His Spirit to the company to act for Him upon earth, when He should have left it; empowering them thereby to receive and to reject any who would join them professedly as believers. As such were received to their company, they were forgiven their sins. Their past history, their acts, their ways, before conversion were not to be remembered against them. They were forgiven. So Paul, the former persecutor of the Church, was received by believers at Damascus. His sins were forgiven. And those at Jerusalem, when assured of his conversion, never, we may be certain, cast up to him his former ways, grievously though he may once have injured some of them. It was administrative forgiveness. Who can forgive sins but God only (Mark 2:7) is indeed true in an absolute sense. No fellow-sinner can blot out the sins of another before God. That is a matter solely for God. He has never delegated jurisdiction in that to any individual. It is a domain in which no creature has power or authority. The blood of Christ, too, alone cleanses from all sin.

Further, He opens their understanding to understand the Scriptures, and gives them their great commission, but bids them remain in Jerusalem till endued with power from on high, when He sends them the promise of the Father. (Ver. 45-49.) Here the Lord does not say, "Make disciples of all the Gentiles, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." This most fitly has its place in Matthew, spite (yea, because of) His rejection. The suffering but now risen Son of man takes the universal field of the world, and sends His disciples among all the nations to make disciples, and baptize them into the name of the Trinity. It is not, therefore, the old limits of Israel and the lost sheep, but He extends the knowledge of His name and mission outside. Instead of bringing Gentiles to see the glory of Jehovah shining on Zion, they are to be baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, as now revealed fully; and (instead of what Moses commanded) "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."

The Lord having led them to expose their inmost feelings, proceeded to meet their need. And first of all He led them to the Scriptures, chiding them that they had been so slow to believe the prophetic testimony concerning the sufferings of Christ and His glory. Then, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.

Then He began to instruct them, and first of all He emphasized to them what He had already stressed with threefold emphasis to the two at Emmaus, that ALL things written concerning Him in the Scriptures had to be fulfilled, as indeed He had told them before His death. They were to understand that all that had happened had transpired according to the Scriptures, and was in no way a contradiction of what had been written. Then, in the second place, He opened their understandings so that they might really take in all that had been opened up in the Scriptures. This, we think, is to be identified with that in-breathing of His risen life, which is recorded in John 20:22. This new life in the power of the Spirit carried with it a new understanding.

"But the eleven disciples went into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw Him they worshipped Him, but some doubted. And Jesus coming up spoke to them, saying, "All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth. 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; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have enjoined you. And behold I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age" (verses 16-20).