About this song
About this song
This song belongs to the Matthew collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.
- Collection
- Matthew
[Verse 1 - Quiet, dawnlike]
After the Sabbath, before morning grew,
Two women came where the sealed stone still stood.
Then earth shook hard as an angel came down,
Rolled back the stone and sat over the ground.
Lightning in visage and white in his dress,
Guards fell like dead men beneath sudden dread.
But fear was forbidden to those at the grave:
The crucified Jesus was risen, not laid.
[Chorus - Bright, rising]
He is risen. Look where he lay.
Death has an empty place at break of day.
Go tell the brethren; Galilee lies ahead.
The tomb has been opened, and Jesus is not dead.
[Verse 2 - Joyful, moving]
Fear and great joy ran together that morn,
The women left quickly to carry the word.
Then Jesus met them alive on the way,
They held to his feet and bowed where he stood.
Again came the message: go tell them to leave,
The brothers will see him in Galilee.
They worshiped the One they had mourned as the dead,
Then carried the message exactly as said.
[Bridge - Expansive]
Eleven climbed up to the mountain assigned,
Some worshiped at once, some wrestled with doubt.
Then Jesus came near and authority framed
A mission no border or nation could cage.
Make disciples everywhere peoples are found,
Baptize and teach what he handed them down.
And though he would leave their immediate sight,
His presence was promised through all of their days.
[Final Chorus - Strong, open]
He is risen. The stone could not hold.
Death has an empty place where a body lay cold.
Go to the nations; the command has been given.
The Gospel of Matthew ends facing the world.
[Outro - Warm, resolved]
The women ran from the grave.
The disciples went toward the nations.
Named in this songJesus
About the passage
Matthew 28: The sealed ending opens onto all nations
Matthew 28 begins where the previous chapter tried hardest to close the matter: at a sealed tomb under guard. The women return, an earthquake accompanies the angel’s descent, the stone is rolled away, and the keepers become “as dead men.” The empty place is not left unexplained. The women are told that the crucified Jesus is risen “as he said,” then they meet Jesus himself, take hold of his feet, worship, and carry his summons to the disciples. At the same time, some guards carry another report to the leaders, who answer it with money and a rehearsed account of theft. The book finally gathers the eleven in Galilee. Worship and doubt remain in the same company, yet the commission rests on Jesus’ authority rather than their perfection. The Gospel closes by expanding from Israel toward all nations and by returning to its opening Emmanuel theme in Jesus’ promise to remain with them.
Study Matthew 28 in depth →