The Eight Day of Creation: Matthew 28

The epistles are not the only place which affirm Christ’s election before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8). The Gospels themselves affirm that Jesus was the purpose and fulfillment of creation itself. This section examines Matthew 28 to show that Matthew writes the resurrection account as the completion of creation. 

Matthew 28 begins with an awkward Greek statement. The two expressions in verse 1 literally mean, “late, (or evening) on the Sabbath” and “it was dawning on the first day of the week.” These seem like two contradicting statements. Is it late on the Sabbath, or dawning on the first day of the week?

Matthew wants the reader to sit in this seeming contradiction because this is what the Marys felt as they walked to the tomb with the morning light peeking over the horizon, streaks of orange and yellow just visible. They thought a new day had dawned in Jesus, but then Jesus died, and they were back in the dark with the same wants, the same confusion, the same oppression. Even as they walked in the darkness, a new day had dawned, but they were still in the dark. The Lord they were going to grieve had already risen. 

This contradiction between two worlds, between evening and morning, dark and light, is where all humanity lives. In every human, there lives a hope for a new day, a new life, but it seems far away. What if that new day has already arrived, and humanity is still walking as the sun has yet to rise?

To understand what Matthew is doing by writing this awkward and contradicting time stamp in Matthew 28:1, we have to go back to when the first morning broke the horizon.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” Genesis 1:1-5

Days 2-6 end in the same way. “And there was evening and there was morning, ____ day.” However, day 7 breaks this pattern not only because God rested, but it does not say at any point for day 7, “And there was evening and there was morning, the seventh day.”

“And so the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their heavenly lights. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”  Genesis 2:1-3

After humanity was created on day six, the next day they were called to participate in rest. From the beginning, God’s relationship with His creation has been one of pure grace. God’s attitude toward His creation and His purpose for creation is the greatest distinction between the creation story of the Hebrew Bible and any other creation story. 

In most, if not all, other creation stories, humans are created to serve the gods, to be their slaves. In contrast, God creates humans and creates them as His image bearers, not slaves, but as His living representatives, giving them dominion over creation. Where the God of Israel differs from any god of the Ancient Near East or any other god is that His creation was made completely out of love, and the creation’s purpose was to live in that love and share that love through their vocation. Instead of striving to please a god or a person, humanity was completely whole and welcomed into a relationship with God.

This was supposed to be the eternal state of creation. Humans were to rest in God for our entire existence: an existence marked by plenty, purpose, and peace. Days one through six close with, “there was evening, and there was morning,” and then names the day. Day seven, this does not  happen. It is a door left open, waiting to be walked through, with eternal rest, purpose, and wholeness on the other side. What Genesis calls the Tree of Life: life as it was always meant to be. 

However, humanity, rather than resting in God, strove in its own power. They traded an existence of perfect wholeness for one in which they have to put the pieces together and strive for completion. Because of that, the seventh day life was never experienced by humans: where humanity eats of the Tree of Life forever, living the life God intended for them. 

Until the Marys are walking in silence in that time between dark and light, evening and morning, to honor their fallen Lord, when they arrived at the tomb, the ground shook violently, and a flash of light pierced the darkness. An angel came down, hovering from the sky, and rolled away the stone, as he shone like lightning in a dark storm. The Roman guards saw what happened and collapsed in fear, as the angel sat upon the stone. The angel says to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said.” (Matthew 28:1-10)

The light of all humankind had pierced creation’s darkness. God’s new creation had breached humanity’s chaotic existence. The life the Tree of Life had always promised had come in person. 

Matthew wants the reader to see that as the women were walking to the tomb, they were walking in the in-between of the old and new creation. The sun had set on the old order, and the dawn of God’s new creation had arrived, and they were unaware. Then there was light, announcing that creation had been made new. The seventh day life had been obtained, and a glorious eighth day had broken open, not just restoring what was lost, but exceeding everything that came before it, for all who believe to live in now.

Justin Martyr, a second-century Church Father, called Jesus’ resurrection the eighth day. Why? Because Jesus did not come just to restore the Garden. The seventh day was left open-ended because it had not been fulfilled. Humanity, until the moment of Jesus’ resurrection from the grave, had not had access to the life God intended for us. In Jesus, humanity can access God’s life not just when they die or when Jesus comes back, but in Jesus humans are born into life as it was always meant to be.

Matthew’s resurrection account shows that Jesus’s resurrection closes the loop which Genesis 2 leaves open by announcing in the first verse, “there was evening on the Sabbath and morning on the first day of the week.” Using the language of Genesis 1-2 to show that the life God intended for humanity and all creation from the beginning has been made available in Jesus.

References

“The Belgic Confession,” Article 14, in Historic Creeds and Confessions, electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Lexham Press, 1997).

Kirk R. MacGregor, “Predestination,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary, ed. John D. Barry et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

Karl Barth, Geoffrey William Bromiley, and Thomas F. Torrance, Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of God, Part 2, vol. 2 (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2004)

Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, ed. and trans. Richard B. Gaffin Jr., vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012–2016)

John Miley, Systematic Theology, Volume 2 (New York: Hunt & Eaton, 1893)

Robert Letham, Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019)