Matthew 26-28: Death, Resurrection, and the Great Commission

The life of Jesus is anchored within the historical trajectory of Israel by opening with a genealogy that periodizes Jewish history into three eras. This structure points toward the end of Israel's exile and presents Jesus as the Davidic Messiah who fulfills the ancient covenant promises. By organizing the core teachings into five major discourses, the structure deliberately mirrors the Pentateuch, casting Jesus as a new and greater Moses. Rather than abolishing the Mosaic Law, Jesus fulfills it by demanding a radical, internalized righteousness that prioritizes mercy, justice, and faith over punctilious ritual observance.

This reconfiguration of the Torah establishes a community defined by an inner transformation of the heart. The prophetic injunction that God desires mercy and not sacrifice becomes the interpretive lens through which all commandments are understood. Consequently, the kingdom of heaven operates not merely as a future apocalyptic hope, but as a present reality enacted through radical obedience and compassionate discipleship.

Entering Jerusalem, Jesus deliberately provokes the religious and political establishment. By overturning tables in the Temple courts, he directly challenges the authority and financial interests of the priestly aristocracy. This action guarantees his execution. Jesus possesses absolute foreknowledge of his death and orchestrates the events leading to his crucifixion, embracing his fate as an act of profound obedience to God.

The Last Supper further frames this impending death as a necessary sacrifice. Utilizing the context of the Passover, which commemorates liberation from Egyptian slavery, Jesus reinterprets the meal to signify a new covenant. His blood serves as an atonement that achieves the forgiveness of sins, establishing a theological foundation where his execution becomes a redemptive victory rather than a tragic defeat.

The trial of Jesus exposes severe violations of both Jewish and Roman legal protocols. The proceedings before the Sanhedrin occur at night and on the eve of a major festival, directly contravening established Jewish jurisprudential norms for capital cases. Furthermore, the conviction relies on inconsistent testimonies from false witnesses, and the confession regarding his divine identity is extracted under intense coercion. These procedural failures underscore the corruption of the religious leadership, who seek a death sentence to preserve their own societal power.

When the case transfers to the Roman jurisdiction, the charges are reframed as political sedition to force the hand of the governor. Although Pilate recognizes the innocence of the accused, he succumbs to the pressure of the mob and the religious elite. Crucifixion, a brutal public execution reserved for rebels and the enslaved, is employed to reassert Roman imperial control and mock any Jewish political aspirations.

At the exact moment of Jesus' death, a series of cosmic and apocalyptic phenomena occur, including three hours of darkness, a violent earthquake, the splitting of rocks, and the tearing of the Temple curtain. The rending of the veil from top to bottom signifies the obsolescence of the exclusive temple cult and demonstrates that the barrier between humanity and the divine presence has been destroyed. These prodigies reveal that the crucifixion operates as a profound cosmic rupture.

By attaching these apocalyptic signs directly to the moment of death, the final eschatological age is inaugurated. The death of Jesus functions as a decisive victory over Satan and the forces of evil. It is a theophany that dramatically displays God's saving power breaking into human history, validating Jesus as the true Son of God precisely at the moment of his deepest humiliation.

Following the earthquake, the tombs open and the bodies of many sleeping saints are raised to life. This event serves as a startling theological declaration that the atoning death of Jesus has immediately defeated the power of death itself. Rather than waiting for a distant future judgment day, the resurrection of these holy ones acts as the firstfruits of the new creation. Their emergence from the graves demonstrates that the curse of human disobedience has been permanently reversed.

These resurrected individuals eventually enter the holy city and appear to many after Jesus' own resurrection. This sequence links the vindication of Jesus directly to the creation of a new, redeemed community. The appearance of the saints provides tangible, visible proof to the inhabitants of Jerusalem that the promised messianic salvation has arrived, bridging the gap between the faithful of the old covenant and the believers of the new age.

In the ancient Mediterranean world, the testimony of women was universally dismissed as unreliable and was legally inadmissible in standard judicial proceedings. Yet, women are explicitly positioned as the sole percipient witnesses to the empty tomb and the resurrected Jesus on the crucial third day. For hostile outsiders, relying on female witnesses appeared to severely weaken the credibility of the resurrection claim, making the movement look foolish and nonthreatening to the imperial order.

However, within the specific nuances of Jewish oral law, there existed a highly developed exception that permitted a woman to testify regarding the death or survival of her husband. Because women were culturally expected to identify their closest loved ones, their testimony in this exact context was considered irrefutable. By positioning women as the first witnesses, this celebrated legal exception is covertly invoked, transforming an apparent cultural vulnerability into a masterful legal endorsement of the resurrection.

The historical narrative culminates on a mountain in Galilee, where the resurrected Jesus claims absolute, universal authority over heaven and earth. This declaration fulfills the ancient prophetic visions of the Son of Man receiving an everlasting dominion that encompasses all peoples and languages. The original mission, which was strictly limited to the lost sheep of Israel, is now dramatically expanded to include every nation on earth.

In the formulation of the Great Commission, the primary grammatical imperative is the command to make disciples. The act of going is framed merely as an attendant circumstance, indicating that the true focus of the new community is the active transformation of people through baptism and theological instruction. By teaching the nations to obey the reconfigured Torah of mercy and love, the followers of Jesus enact the ultimate triumph of God's kingdom across the globe.