Matthew 26-28 record the events leading to Jesus’ arrest; the Last Supper; Jesus’ arrest, trial and condemnation by the Jewish leaders, His condemnation by the crowd, which led to Pilate’s condemnation of Him; His crucifixion, death, and burial; His resurrection and ascension (return) to heaven. We have read these chapters several times now, but every time we turn to them, we are reminded of the amazing love God had for us that He permitted Jesus to endure what He did for us. As the God of the universe in the flesh, Jesus endured the weight of every sin past, present and future on the cross. When He rose from the dead, the miracle of the stone being rolled away from the tomb and the angels who accompanied it, tell us it came from heaven. The guards at the tomb were overwhelmed to the point of “becoming like dead men,” at the coming of the angel and the earthquake. Jesus proved His resurrection by appearing to a handful of people the day He rose from the dead. But the Apostle Paul tells us at the end of 1 Corinthians, Jesus was seen by 500 people after He rose, certainly an adequate number to convince us of the reality of the resurrection. Before Jesus returned to heaven, He charged us to go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations. That “Great Commission” is repeated in some manner in all four gospels and the book of Acts. That tells us how important it is and how necessary for us to pursue it.
As the book of John closes in John 21, John offers us the account of Jesus reinstating Peter. In a powerfully simple scene, Jesus takes Peter aside and asks him three times, “Simon, Son of John, do you love me?” Each time Peter tells Jesus he does. When Jesus asked the third time, Peter was cut to the heart, because he realized this was the number of times, he had denied Jesus. As the conversation drew to a close, Jesus told Peter a powerful truth: He would die bearing witness to Jesus. He would be known not as the one who denied Jesus, but the one who stood fast even to death. John closes the book by telling us Jesus did many other things not recorded in the book, and if everything were written down, all the books in the world wouldn’t contain them. While that might sound like an exaggeration, think about it for a moment. Jesus was with God the Father from the beginning. In John 1, we’re told He created all that exists. Imagine everything Jesus has done from then until now! It wouldn’t be possible to write down each detail. The great news for us is: That same Jesus loved us enough to die and rise again for you and me, so we, too can experience being reinstated from our sins, and given opportunities to love and serve Him now and forever.