Matthew 28:1-10

Easter – Year A

Matthew 28:1-10

I was struck by Chris Haslam's comment on verse 10
“my brothers”: Jesus calls his followers brothers in John 20:17 and Matthew 12:46-50. In the latter passage, doing so implies forgiveness.

Galilee is in some sense home or our usual place. It can also be seen as away from politico-religious domination systems.

A resurrection call might then be: "Do not be afraid; go and tell the already-forgiven to go home; there they will experience resurrection." (presuming upon a retranslation of "brother" to "forgiven", "Galilee" to "home", and "me/Jesus" to "resurrection")

Connecting this to a later comment in Matthew, resurrection-life is expressed in transforming forgiveness to home-space for the naked, hungry, imprisoned, etc.

A priest at a local gathering on the 5th anniversary of the Iraq Occupation, under a banner of "Support the Troops; Bring Them Home", asked an important question - to what home will the troops be coming, what with veteran's benefits reduced, health care for the wealthiest, an unregulated economy, demonized immigrants, etc. Perhaps evidence of resurrection will be what gets done in my "Galilee" to expand what "home" means.

The forgiven live their forgiveness/resurrection in all the usual places. To paraphrase a line from John Wesley, "there is no resurrection but social resurrection".