Matthew's Gospel has the women less fearful than the guards when the angel appeared to roll away the stone. The message was specifically given "for you (plural, the women)." They (the women) would see Him in Galilea. As they were going to tell the disciples, Jesus appeared to them (the women). They fell at His feet in a great reunion of love and worship. Then they were instructed to go and tell the disciples, hiding together in fear, that Jesus would meet them in Galilea. Jesus loved these women. God loves these women. Jesus chose to appear to them and to make them the first witnesses of His resurrection. Even in the First Century, hardly a time of lifting up the value and power of women, Matthew's Gospel has much of this resurrection announcement given just for them. There is no reaction by the disciples offered in Matthew, or even mention of them meeting with Jesus until they were directed by the women who had seen Jesus, as to which mountain they must go for the great commission. God loves those who are rendered powerless in any society, and lifts them up, honors them with God's presence and messages of hope in new life.
Matthew's Gospel also deals with the forces of worldly empire. The Temple Cult leaders, in collusion with Rome, had to cover up that Jesus was raised from the tomb. It was one thing to have a dead martyr who opposed them in their corrupt collusive power, in the memory of the people of God. It was quite another thing to have a risen Lord and sign of the power of the Kingdom of God behind one who opposed them in their corrupt, collusive power. It was logical. Make the soldiers fall on their swords. They are sworn to defend empire. The Temple Cult leaders, adept at stirring up crowds and spinning current events to their benefit, even twisting the Word of God for their own purposes, knew what to do. To be clear, it was Rome that executed Jesus. They had the power and used their favorite method of execution with Him. But the Temple Cult leaders were in collusion with them, as was King Herod, and His death was the result that they all wanted, but certainly His resurrection and accounts of it were not at all pleasing to them. Whatever would happen next, the one who claimed to be the Son of God could never be perceived as being that. They could not let that happen. Worldly empire stands because people believe it is the only real power and that its wealth is the only real wealth. Without that illusion intact it would be clear that "the emperor is wearing no clothes." They had to discredit any witnesses to the power of God in a corrupt world. Some Christians have done the same by making the resurrection solely a "spiritual warfare" reality, and not one about how we live in this part of God's Kingdom out of new hope in new life.
This resurrection thing is about new hope in the midst of hopelessness. Their circumstance did not change politically or economically after Jesus' resurrection, but they were now equipped with a blueprint for resistance to the practices associated with empire. They were now equipped with the knowledge of God's presence, power and love to sustain them in the fight to live Kingdom of God values. What was new was the Good News in the midst of the horrible world around them. What was new was the promise of new life when it all turned to shit. The Temple and holy city would be destroyed (again) in a few years after the first public reading of this Gospel. The violent, zealot way would not deliver them. But in their collective memory, they held onto the teachings, commands and examples of Jesus on how to live Kingdom of God values within worldly empire. Their circumstance had not changed, but their hearts, minds and spirits were affected powerfully by Emmanuel. They were changed within the circumstances, to respond differently.
It is about new life and new beginnings that start out of destruction of the old way and old life. We are baptized into Christ Jesus' death. We die to sin and are raised to newness of life. To whom do we belong, then? Empire? The values of empire? The practices of empire? Or do we belong to God in the midst of empire? Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, one is forced with either...or choices on values. This new life in Jesus is no exception. Will we be followers of Jesus, who died and thus took our sin to its death, and was raised so that we could have new life? Will we follow those who still have worldly power and wealth, and hold onto those values as the only "real" things on which to depend? Will we live those values as the way to be in the world? Will we try to straddle both realities and live the duplicitous life of the Temple Cult leaders who give lip service to God but devotion to Empire? We must choose. We must decide whose way we will follow - the risen Lord who brings life out of death and reconciliation with God out of alienation, or the empire that destroys the lives of the many for the sake of a very few elites, and thus puts us at odds with God. It is clear in Matthew that we have to make a choice. The choice in Matthew is clear. To follow Jesus, we must turn our backs on empire and all its values and practices, and live what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us as Kingdom of God values.
We in the United States ARE Empire. If that was not clear to you before this time, it must be becoming abundantly clear now. Since 1981, the forces of Empire with its values of wealth, power and position have become more and more normalized as our true American values. Even the leaders who profess to be "liberal" or "justice oriented" or "progressive", and who claim to love Democracy, Equality and Equitable treatment for all, have been at best promoters of empire, American Civil Religion instead of Christianity, American "exceptionalism", American corporate imperialism and an inherent right as a nation to exploit, coerce, manipulate and dominate other peoples in the world as we marginalize, exploit, discriminate against and hold many of our own people down, back and out for the sake of the elites in our society. Our citizens do not want to change a system that does those things to other citizens, but instead hope to be among the elites who benefit from them at the expense of others around them. Our churches are in collusion with this Empire, and offer Prosperity Theology, personal salvation theology and church growth practices in the place of the Gospel of Jesus, spiritualizing everything in the Word to the point of irrelevance to life in these here United States.
A person hearing Matthew's Gospel read to them in the First Century knew exactly how it spoke to them, to Empire, to collusion with Empire and to how Kingdom of God values fly in the face of the values of empire. We do not see it, because we have been under the yoke of the corrupt American Temple Cult leaders for far too long. We believe that Caesar is "Son of God" because Caesar exhibits power that we believe only God could have given. We believe that wealth, power and position are the only values that truly matter in the world today. We believe that if we are wealthy it is because we are being blessed by God or have "pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps" or are "self made", and that if we are poor it is because we just do not measure up in faith or the God-given characteristics that make us blessed by God. We refuse to see that the few have most and the many have little, not because God has not provided equally, but because it has been distributed unequally to benefit those who ruthlessly live worldly empire values. We refuse to see that our hatreds for others around us have been manufactured by the elites so that we can be easily manipulated to keep them rolling in power and wealth, and that our hatreds are not of God, but the product of the twisting of the Word of God by the American Temple cult leaders. We also refuse to see that the Good News of Jesus calls us to resist those values and resist living them, and calls us to live Kingdom of God values and spread them like leaven so that the nation is changed.
The Good News of Jesus calls us to new hope in the midst of our current hopelessness. It calls us to live Kingdom of God values and put them in the face of the worldly empire values that 'murika is known for today. It is about new life and new beginnings that start with the death of the old ways that have dominated us since 1981. It is about being baptized into death and resurrection as our hope, of choosing Jesus' Way in the face of the American Worldly Empire way. It is about reconciliation with God because we have been reconciled with one another in Agape Love. It is about turning around (repenting) in our minds so that our direction changes. It is about leaving the things that lead to death and destruction and embracing the things that lead to life, here and now. It is about loving God and loving Neighbor. It is about dying to the sin of living worldly empire values (The American Empire Way), and being raised to newness of life (Jesus' Kingdom of God Way).
Will you be raised? Into what will you be raised? Matthew's Gospel presents us with a choice.
Choose wisely in faith and how you live it. Die to sin. Be raised to new life. Alleluia!
Pastor Jamie
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