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Hello again! I appreciate you dropping by! Isn’t God’s timing—that we are studying the resurrection of Jesus just weeks before Easter Sunday 2024—just amazing?! As part of my personal observance, I plan to revisit my steps here in the days leading up to my favorite holiday!
Last Week’s Work
In the meantime, though, let’s have a look at what I discovered this past week in other parts of Scripture and through other translations.
CROSS-REFERENCES
As I worked through the cross-references for vv5-7, I was again drawn to the angel’s statements do not be afraid, and I know that you seek Jesus. Remember a few weeks ago when we discovered the angel’s reason the women didn’t need to fear was because he knew they were seeking Jesus? That’s really good news! Friend, if we are seeking Jesus, we don’t need to fear, either.
My review of cross-references for verse 5 reminded me again of that truth when I read Matthew’s account of Jesus night-time water walk (Matthew 14:22-33). The vision so frightened the disciples, they cried out in fear. Jesus told them do not be afraid in v27. Then Peter wanted to walk on the water, too, Jesus invited him, and he went. Partway there, Peter saw the wind, became afraid, started to sink, and cried for help(v30). Jesus replied, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (v31).
Throughout my studies of Jesus’s miracles last year (which I hope to make available here very soon), I observed a strong link between faith and miracles. Maybe that explains why the women in this text could act even though they were afraid (v8). Maybe their great joy was a byproduct of faith that Jesus had done what He said He would do (seven times according to Matthew 12:40, 16:21, 17:9, 17:22-23, 20:18-19, 26:31-32, 27:63)!
The second part of the angel’s statement in v5 mentions the women were seeking Jesus. I realized that, too, occurred in all the other miracles I studied. The cross-reference that resonated most there was from John 20:14-15. This is part of John’s resurrection account, where Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, but she doesn’t recognize him. Jesus Himself asks her, Whom are you seeking? but she’s so distraught she can’t focus on his question, she just cries out, They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Of course, Jesus absolutely knew whom she sought before He ever asked. But His question made me, thousands of years later, sit up and take notice. Whom am I seeking? And why? Do I just want Him for what He’ll do for me? Or, like the women in our study passage, am I looking for Him so I can serve Him?
OTHER TRANSLATIONS
If you’ve studied with me in the past, you might remember I like to review at least a couple word-for-word (following most closely the original text and its arrangement) translations. Then I’ll look at least one thought-for-thought (more loosely following the grammar and vocabulary of the original) and paraphrase (less likely to reflect the actual words or phrases while trying to convey original meaning) translation each.
This time I felt led to include the Amplified Bible in my review. This Bible, published by the Lockman Foundation (which also publishes the New American Standard Bible), incorporates synonyms and clearly marked extra-biblical explanations to help us better understand the meaning of the text.
I didn’t find anything remarkably different in Matthew 28:5-7 among the translations I compared: the English Standard Version (ESV), the New American Standard Bible 2020 (NASB20), the Amplified Bible (AMP), the New International Version (NIV), and the Good News Translation (GNT). Nor did I perceive the Spirit calling my attention to anything in particular this time.
Dig-In Challenges
Wow, we’re almost to the end of another study already! This week, let’s
- Read the prayer we created in Step 1.
- ALIGN: Then review our study notes and other work, focusing specifically on what we’ve learned.
- ALIGN: As we consider those “lessons learned,” notice what the Spirit is using to convict us in this study. In other words, where is He showing us misalignment between what we’ve discovered and how we practice our faith?
- ALIGN: Next, we’ll think about a part of this study that offers us a way to correct that misalignment. For me, this has often—but not always—been a verse either from the study text or from one of the cross-references.
- ALIGN: And finally we want to reflect on how we can change our walk or talk (or both) to align more closely with God. To really make this work, I commit to changing something and do my best to act on that commitment everyday for at least three weeks.
That may seem like a lot to consider in one week, but my experience has been the Spirit often leads me through steps 2-5 very quickly (though sometimes I have to pray about it more than a couple of times during the week). If you’re working with me, just do what you can. Any study done with the Spirit is good study, my Friend!
Also, I’m looking forward to sharing what the Spirit reveals next week, as well as a preview of our next study text, the final one from our series on miracles of Jesus from last year.