"Jesus Appears to the Multitude in Galilee"

"Jesus Appears to the Multitude in Galilee"

Matthew 28:16-17: Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them.  When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.

Unlike the other Gospels, Matthew has stressed Galilee in the resurrection account.  We find it in verse 7, verse 10, and now verse 16.  Christ's greatest successes and the majority of His followers were from Galilee.  That is where He fed the 5000, walked on the sea, and saw His greatest triumphs in ministry. 

The eleven disciples are mentioned, and that fulfills the instructions given by the angel to the two women that they were to tell the disciples to meet Jesus in the pre-arranged spot in Galilee (verse 7).  It is a mountain that the disciples meet with Jesus in Galilee.  By the way, this does not discount the many other appearances that we noted on an earlier e-mail.  Those appearances to the disciples in Jerusalem in that Upper Room had already taken place. 

The significant thing about this paragraph is that matthew wanted to know that even at the greatest moment of proof that Christianity is valid there were some in that crowd in Galilee that doubted.  If the bible was a "made up" edocument that was written to shore up the new faith then the last thing that would be included would be that people doubted even while seeing and hearing Jesus in His resurrection body speak.  It strikes me as incomprehensible that this doubting could have occurred, but it did.  In the end, it gives me more confidence in the Word of God that Matthew chose to include that one small phrase.

Truly, the words of Christ to Thomas bear repeating: "Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed."