Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Matthew 28:18 KJV.

The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 NKJV.

In our Friday Zoom Retreat, we listened to a video by John Ortberg about Gentleness. He reminded us of the verse in Matthew…“Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” (Zechariah 9:9) Matthew 21:5. Your King comes to you gentle. He was the only One who did. And in our chapter, Matthew 28, the last chapter of the first book of the Gospels, everything changed again. In the last chapter, Jesus’ body has been laid in a tomb. Imagine what that must have been like to have lived through. The disciples are in hiding. All of Jerusalem is talking about the events during the crucifixion. And no answers for understanding. Jesus is gone. Do they go back to how things were? How could they? How could they not? After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him.’ Now I have told you.” So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell His disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” He said. They came to Him, clasped His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see Me.” v. 1-10. Can you imagine? It’s no wonder they had to keep being told to not fear…because our minds can’t compute what we cannot explain and our default reasoning is fear. While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. v. 11-15. A lot of fear going around. Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” v. 16-20. I keep thinking about how different the ways of Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, are – to how we are. Our King comes to us gentle. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. The angel came after an earthquake and rolled the huge stone away, witnessed only by two women and two guards. Not so that Jesus’ body could be taken out or so that Jesus could emerge out, because He had already risen – but so that the two women could go inside to see the tomb is empty.

We learned a new big word this morning in our Zoom meeting. Ultracrepidarian. It means “expressing opinions on matters outside the scope of one’s knowledge or expertise.” Does that not sound like our world today? It sounds all too often like me. And the amazing thing is…Creator God IS. He is wisdom, knowledge, expertise. He knows. And we can trust Him with everything we don’t know or have any preparation for understanding. I love that about God. And I love His gentleness with all of us. He carries on and His will is being done and thankfully, He doesn’t need our approval or understanding. One day we will understand and our hearts are being prepared even now as we trust Him. Are we prepared for what we don’t know? They weren’t prepared for all that happened in Jerusalem. But that’s okay. Creator God was.