Upcoming Easter Sunday Scripture Commentary (April 20)

April 20 (Easter Sunday) Sermon – “Who Were the Twelve Disciples of Jesus? Matthew & John”

Colossians 3:1-4

The Apostle Paul who is most likely in prison when he writes this letter wants the new church in Colossae to know about their new life in Christ because of the good news of Easter.

V. 1 – “Raised with Christ” – This is an obvious reference to the resurrection of Jesus. This also sounds like baptism language where we are buried to sin and raised to new life in Christ. “Seated at the right hand of God.” – This is referring to Jesus who is now ascended. The Apostles’ Creed includes this phrase to remind us that Jesus is our ascended king.

V. 3 – “You have died.” This refers to a spiritual dying to what the world offers apart from Christ.

V. 4 – The revealing of Christ is referring to the second coming of Christ.

John 20:1-10

Matthew and John are the only two of the twelve disciples who have gospels attributed to them. In John's telling of the Easter story, he wants us to see what the disciples saw when they first entered the empty tomb.

V. 1 – The reference to darkness early in the morning continues John’s creative approach by connecting Easter with the creation story when there was nothing but darkness. New life eventually came from the darkness!

Mary Magdalene doesn’t appear in John’s Gospel until the scene at the foot of the cross on Good Friday. She becomes the first “apostle” since she ends up seeing the resurrected Lord and then goes and tells those that she has seen him.

At this point in the Easter story, it is still a mystery as to why the tomb is empty. Remember, we have the advantage of hindsight but we need to put ourselves in the place of those first disciples.

Peter and the other disciple (most likely the gospel writer, John) run to the tomb. The carefully placed burial cloths show that the body was not stolen but was raised according to the Jewish understanding of resurrection in which a body is transformed and is no longer subject to death.

Verses 8-9 – What did the disciples believe? This is a mysterious question. Maybe they simply believed that the body wasn’t stolen or that Mary was right about the tomb being empty. It wouldn’t be until Jesus’ appearance to them in his resurrected body that they would come to full Easter faith.


[Note: The resources used for these scripture reading commentaries are based on the Everyone series by NT Wright, The Wesley Study Bible, and the “Montreal-Anglican”lectionary commentaries.]