Resurrections Reflections: Lines from the Four Gospels: Matthew 28:4-5

Jesus Who Was Crucified

Matt. 28:4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. ⁵ But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 

There are experiences that we go through that actually stick so closely to our identity, they actually becomes part of one’s identity. A person who survives cancer becomes a cancer-survivor. Some cases may be more obvious than others. But with Jesus, it could not be more obvious. We believe in Jesus, who was crucified. The crucifixion is critical to the identity of Jesus our Savior.

The angel actually clarifies this for us. He helps the women to understand that he knows they are seeking “Jesus who was crucified.” I’m not sure that this had permeated their understandings yet. They knew Jesus from their experience of His earthly ministry, and probably had not yet integrated the significance of His crucifixion into their  faith and understanding. 

The question for us, even as we prepare to celebrate the Resurrection, is this: have we sufficiently integrated the fact of “Jesus crucified” into our faith? Do we regard it as absolutely necessary in our worship of Jesus? Could we worship Him had He not been crucified? Remember Paul’s statement: "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1Cor. 2:2).

Practically speaking, the fact of Jesus being crucified is necessary for our celebration of the Resurrection. Crucifixion means death. There were no crucifixion-survivors. And death is necessary for resurrection. Living people are not raised from the dead. Jesus, who is the Son of God, really died. 

Secondly, as the crucifixion is integrated into the very identity of Christ and our faith in Him, it actively shapes our lives. Again, Paul said it so well: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). Jesus’ identity and “Christ crucified” now attaches itself to you and me - we are those who are crucified with Christ. A little later in Galatians, Paul says: “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24). Peter tells us what Jesus did:  “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit (1Pet. 3:18). Now we walk with this God to whom we have been brought, “consider(ing) (y)ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11). 

And one more thing: as we prepare to celebrate the Resurrection, just as much a part of Jesus’ identity as is the Crucifixion, is the Resurrection. We believe in Christ Crucified, Risen from the dead. The angel goes on to say, ^“He is not here, for he has risen” (Matt 28:6).