(We take a break from the Gospel of Luke this week!)

The gospel of Matthew concludes with a final character revealing all the characters at the resurrection of Jesus Christ: there are the two women coming to mourn but leave rejoicing; There's the angel in all magnificence sitting on the stone that he has rolled away; there are the guards who witness it all but are prepared to let money and deceit rule their lives; the priests and elders who are determined to hide the truth from the people; the disciples who in all their doubt and confusion, still obey Christ's instructions to see him in Galilee; and then there is you - also called to live out the 'Great Commission' by sharing the Good News to others so that they too may believe and follow Christ's instructions. And so through the Church and Christ's followers today, the Easter story continues.

Matthew 28:1-20

This passage is considered one of the most sacred of passages because Jesus had to have shared it himself to his disciples as there were no other observers. In this passage we see how the Son of God, fully divine, also being fully human faces the battle of temptation. The temptations are not of the sort that only relate to Jesus, for at the heart of all three recorded temptations is the attempt to disrupt the beautiful relationship between Jesus and God his Father. So too, every temptation thrown at us by the forces of evil is an attempt to destroy relationships - relationships that we have with one another, and the relationship between us and God our creator. We were created for relationships, therefore we must do everything we can not to allow temptation to ruin them. Luke 4:1-13