Holy Week: A Journey With MatthewSample

Sunday | The Resurrection

“Christ is Risen!” This is a traditional proclamation on Easter Sunday to which the response is given, “He is risen indeed!”. Today, Easter Sunday, is definitive for the Christian faith, for if Christ has not risen from the dead, our faith is empty (1 Cor 15:14). Today we rejoice and worship with the women who saw the empty tomb and met the risen Saviour!

Matthew is intimidated by the commission

Matthew records for us the conversation that Mary and “the other Mary” had with Jesus, whose first instruction was to go and tell the others that He is alive. Matthew then leaves us with Jesus’ instruction to go, teach, and make disciples. We could imagine this being a very big turnaround from the grief of Friday and the silence of Saturday, and now Jesus is telling us we need to go into all the world?! However, Matthew shows us that an important response to the resurrection is not to just keep it to ourselves, but to go and bear witness that Jesus is alive!

A follower’s response: Preach

As Pope John Paul II observed, “What this century needs is not teachers, but witnesses”*

Followers of Jesus are to be known not primarily by clever arguments, profound teaching, or skilled orations, but by our love, as Jesus said (John 13:35). Jesus instructed us to go and make disciples and to teach others about the journey of following Him, and in this information age, now more than ever, our words and our actions must align as a witness to the life and hope that is found in Jesus. Each of us are called to preach the gospel to our neighbourhoods and networks, both in word and deed. Christ is Risen!!

Prayer

Father God, thank you for this joyous day of celebrating our risen Saviour. We are so grateful that you have made a way for us to have relationship with you, and to be identified as your children. Help me to shine your light into the world, the neighbourhoods and networks of which I am a part. Thank you for Jesus!

*John Paul II. In Austen Ivereigh. The Great Reformer. Allen & Unwin, 2014. P.278