Week 17—Sunday Matthew 28:11-15
Week 17—SUNDAY
“IN THE ABSENCE OF THE MULTITUDE”
How far can lies and clever manipulation go? The soldiers were given money as a bribe and were told to say that his disciples came and stole away the body of Jesus. That lie is the most exposed lie ever told. The world knows it was a lie. And to stop the movement by money—by bribery? How much money do you think it would take to stop the Christian movement now? Judas took thirty pieces of silver to sell his Lord. I have one of those thirty pieces of silver, or one like them, bought for me by the coin collector of the Chase National Bank at a coin auction. I have also two other coins—one the widow’s mite, the same kind of coin the widow threw into the treasury, and a copper coin with its melted edges taken out of the ruins of Hiroshima where the first atomic bomb fell. One I call the Coin of Desecration; the second, the Coin of Consecration; and the third, the Coin of Destruction. But Judas took the money on condition he would betray Jesus “in the absence of the multitude” (Luke 22:6). “In the absence of the multitude”—and it became the best advertised fact in history, and the most execrated.
Jesus raised all these questions in his body and spirit and answered them in his risen body and spirit. Had he raised them in his body and spirit and had answered them in his spirit, only by a spiritual resurrection, that would have been no answer. They were raised in a material world, and they had to be answered in a material world. And he was very careful that they should not take him for a disembodied spirit: “Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put out your hand, and place it in my side’” (John 21:27). “Come and have breakfast” (John 21:12). They offered him a piece of fish they had cooked which he took and ate before their eyes.
So the Word of victory became flesh—become manifested flesh.
O Jesus Lord, you are the Open Manifest Victory. You quietly rose from the dead and lo, darkness turned to light, questions turned into hallelujahs, and complete defeat turned into complete Victory. Nothing could be more decisive. We thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My victories shall be manifest victories.