Bible Commentaries
Matthew 28

Verses 1-20

“He is not here, He is risen!" That, surely, is the sweetest music. How beautifully it crowns the King. His enemies have rejected Him, and have proved their malice by handing Him over to their common, their last, their most terrible enemy-Death. The King proves His Kingship by overcoming that enemy in His dying, and on this Easter morning, the first, stands on His own earth again, having grappled with and vanquished the great foe of the race.

In verses Mat 28:8-20 we have a glimpse of the living One. All the suffering is behind, the conflict is won. Now the heavens receive Him for a season. He will come again to reign over the whole earth.

Before His departure He gathered around Him His band of apostles and gave them the great commission, urgent with the urgency of His "GO," wide as the world in its scope, strong as the strength of Deity, and resourceful as He is Himself, for He promised to be always with the messengers, even to the end of the age.

So ends the Gospel of the King. He came and declared the laws of the Kingdom, and revealed its beauty in His life and its beneficence in His deeds. His own would have none of Him, and in unholy coalition with Gentile powers uttered the verdict, “We will not have this Man to reign over us." They slew Him. Yet the last note is not that of man's rejection, but of God's exaltation, and we gather around the risen One, and cry, Long live the King!