I Securing the Tomb Against the Resurrection
A It is Friday, Good Friday. Some strange things have happened but Jesus has finally died and His body has been put in a grave. The chief priests and elders can finally sigh in relief. It appears that their plot against Jesus has worked. It appears that they are finally rid of the trouble maker. It appears that they have won and Jesus has lost.
Strangely enough, the chief priests and elders did not sleep well that night. Why? Was their conscience bothered by the fact they had condemned an innocent man to death? Were they unsettled because of the way they had manipulated the Passover crowd? Were they feeling bad about the way they mocked Him while dying on the cross? None of this is what kept them awake that night. The chief priests and elders did not sleep very well because a particular thought kept nagging at them:
What if Jesus' disciples take to grave robbery? What if they stage a "resurrection"? What if they recall the impostor's prediction that He would rise from the grave -- and conspire to fulfill the prediction themselves?
The chief priests and Pharisees go to Pilate to get a security order.
(Mt 27:63-64) "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.' (64) So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead.
The Jews believed that the soul of a dead person remained in the vicinity of the body for three days. They believed that only after the third day did the soul enter the realm of the dead, leaving the body to decay. The chief priests and Pharisees, then, wanted to make the tomb secure until they knew for sure that Jesus was really dead.
Pilate's answer, in the light of what happens the next day, drips with irony and humor. "Take a guard," he said. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how" (vs 65).
"As secure as you know how." How secure is that? How far should they go to keep Jesus in the tomb? With Pilate's blessing "they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard" (vs 66). The seal was the seal of the Roman governor. The guard was Roman soldiers. This means that anyone who tampers with the tomb would be challenging the might and authority of the Roman Empire. This means that anyone who tampers with the tomb would face imprisonment and possibly even death. Only a fool would dare to go against such odds.
This sounds like a lot of protection. This sounds like a case of overkill. After all, Jesus' disciples were but a bunch of scared men who ran at the first sign of trouble; one of them betrayed Him, another denied Him, and now they were all cowering and afraid in Jerusalem somewhere. This sounds like a lot of protection against a bunch of women, some fishermen, and a tax collector.
B To their credit we can say that the chief priests and Pharisees did accurately quote what Jesus said. Jesus did predict His own resurrection. At least three times He made that prediction to His disciples. He said:
(Mt 20:18-19) "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death (19) and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!" (cf Mt 16:21-23; 17:22-23)
The angel at the tomb refers to this prediction when he said to the women, "He is not here; he has risen, JUST AS HE SAID" (vs 6).
Obviously, the chief priests and Pharisees knew about this prediction.
C The chief priests and Pharisees made their request of Pilate, they sealed the stone and posted the guard, because they claimed concern for the people. They don't want the people to be deceived into thinking Jesus has been raised from the dead. "This last deception," they said, "will be worse than the first" (vs 64).
What is the first deception they are talking about? Fresh in their minds are the events of Palm Sunday. On that day, according to them, Jesus deceived the crowds into thinking He was the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Son of God. It would be the crowning deception, to their way of thinking, if the people were now to be tricked into thinking He was still alive. "This last deception will be worse than the first."
Throughout the events of that week we hear this same theme over and over again: the concern of the chief priests and scribes for the people. They did not want to arrest Jesus during the Passover Feast "or there may be a riot among the people" (Mt 26:5). They decided to kill Jesus because "it is better that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish" (Jn 11:50). They posted a guard and sealed the tomb so the people would not be deceived.
"For the people." All that they did was for the people. How noble. How sacrificial. What a bunch of nonsense! It wasn't for the people at all.
D So what was the motive for posting a guard and sealing the tomb? What was it that the chief priests and scribes were really scared of?
The chief priests and Pharisees were secretly afraid not of a grave robbery but of something else. At the back of their minds lurked a big question mark; at the back of their minds lurked one big "What if?":
NOT
-What if the disciples will come and steal the body?
BUT
-What if Jesus did arise?
-What if the limp body started to breathe again? -What if the wrapped-up, bandaged, mummified body stood up and silently moved towards them?
-What if Jesus was telling the truth?
This "What if?" terrified the chief priests and Pharisees. For if Jesus did arise that meant He was the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Son of God. If Jesus did arise that meant they had murdered the promised seed of Abraham Who would sit on David's throne forever. If Jesus did arise that meant they had made a horrible mistake. And that was simply unthinkable. It was impossible! Or was it? What if? What if Jesus did arise?
Some of the strange things that happened while Jesus was upon the cross added to their fear. The three hours of darkness, the earthquake, the ripping of the Temple curtain, and the resurrection of the Old Testament saints at the moment Christ died was clear evidence that Jesus was more than just a man; here was clear evidence that Jesus was the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Son of God.
E The chief priests and Pharisees went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. It is obvious that they were trying to secure the tomb against the resurrection. They were trying to keep Jesus in the tomb.
Did their plan work? Of course not! As the angel put it, "He is not here; he has risen, just as he said" (vs 6). Nothing can secure the tomb and keep the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Son of God, locked within. No seal, no guard, no stone, could keep Jesus locked inside that tomb. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is allowed to prevent the completion of God's wonderful plan of salvation.
II Spreading a Lie
A After the women left the empty tomb to tell the disciples the Good News that Christ has risen, "some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened" (vs 11).
Don't forget, the guards were right in front of the tomb the whole time. Frozen stiff with fright they watched and heard everything that happened. They felt the earthquake. They saw the angel roll back the stone and sit upon it. They saw the empty tomb. They heard the angel's conversation with the women. Maybe they even witnessed the meeting between Jesus and the two Marys. All of this they reported to the chief priests.
B After hearing this report it had to be obvious even to the religious authorities that their attempt to secure the tomb and keep the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Son of God, locked within did not work. It had to be obvious that their greatest fear had been realized. Those Roman soldiers were credible witnesses to the resurrection; there was no reason to doubt their word. At this point the chief priests and Pharisees should have fallen on their knees in fear, sorrow, and repentance, begging God for forgiveness and mercy.
Did they, though? Did they repent? Did they admit the enormity of their crime?
Not at all. They added to their sin by devising a plan. They gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them,
(Mt 28:13) "You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.'"
C I ask you, who is blameworthy of deception here? The religious authorities accused Jesus of deceiving the people into believing He was the Messiah. They accused the disciples of deceiving the people into believing Jesus arose from the grave. Yet, it wasn't Jesus Who was guilty of deception. And, it wasn't His disciples who were guilty of deception either. For Jesus was and is the Messiah and He did arise from the grave. It was the chief priests and Pharisees who were guilty of the great deception.
D So many schemes and forces of unbelief have tried – like the chief priests and Pharisees – to use a lie in order to secure the tomb and keep the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Son of God, locked within. It is a shameful thing to admit that even some ministers have used lies in order to secure the tomb against the resurrection.
What are some of these lies, these deceptions?
Some say the soldiers made a mistake and crucified the wrong man. It wasn't Jesus Who died and was buried; perhaps, instead, it was Simon of Cyrene, the man recruited to carry the cross, who was crucified, killed, and buried. This would explain why Jesus was around for the resurrection.
Others say that the soldiers were wrong when they thought Jesus was dead. In fact, He had merely fainted on account of all the pain. The cool air of the tomb revived Him. When Joseph of Arimathea realized Jesus was not really dead he hid Him away and nursed Him back to health.
Still others say it wasn't Jesus' body but His teachings which have been raised up to become immortal – like the art of Rembrandt and the music of Mozart. Or perhaps His historical impact lives on. Or maybe His Spirit still broods over our world in the same way that Abraham Lincoln's spirit lives on at Gettysburg. Or perhaps Easter means only the return of Spring to an earth that has faced a Winter's death.
Topic: Resurrection
Subtopic: Of Christ
Index:
Date:
Title: Because The Tomb Was Empty
One warm spring afternoon near Easter, a teacher gave a large plastic egg to each of her students. Then she sent them outside to find signs of life and put them inside their egg.
Soon they returned. In one was a butterfly. In another was an ant. Others contained flowers, twigs, blades of grass. But one egg had nothing in it. Everyone knew whose it was--it belonged to a boy with Down's syndrome. Some of the kids laughed at him. The teacher asked him why he had not put any signs of life in his egg. He said quietly, "Because the tomb was empty." That boy knew a profound truth -- Easter is more than a celebration of nature's life cycle.
The Gospels and all of the Bible teaches us that Jesus died and arose. For all early Christian preaching and for all the centuries this is the Gospel, the very core of the Good News. On this bedrock fact all Christian faith, hope, and love are founded. In spite of all efforts to the contrary, the Son of God has gotten loose in the world. Nothing can secure the tomb and keep the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Son of God, locked within. No seal, no guards, no stone, no fancy theology, no lie or deception can keep Jesus locked inside.
In a cemetery in Hanover, Germany, is a grave on which were placed huge slabs of granite and marble cemented together and fastened with heavy steel clasps. It belongs to a woman who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Yet strangely, she directed in her will that her grave be made so secure that if there were a resurrection, it could not reach her. On the marker were inscribed these words: "This burial place must never be opened." In time, an acorn, covered over by the stones, began to grow. Slowly it pushed its way through the soil and out from beneath the slabs. As the trunk enlarged, the great slabs were gradually shifted so that the steel clasps were wrenched from their sockets. A tiny seed had become a tree that had pushed aside the stones.
The dynamic life force contained in that little seed is a faint reflection of the tremendous power of God seen at Easter. No more could the slabs keep the acorn within the grave than could the Pharisees keep Christ within the tomb.
Conclusion
Topic: Christ
Subtopic: Suffered and Died
Index: 3367
Date:
Title:
It was June 18, 1815, the Battle of Waterloo. The French under the command of Napoleon were fighting the Allies under the command of Wellington. The people of England depended on a system of signals to find out how the battle was going. One of these signal stations was on the tower of Winchester Cathedral.
Late in the day, one letter at a time, it flashed the signal: "W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N- - - D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D- -." Just at that moment one of those sudden English fog-clouds rolled in. The news of defeat quickly spread throughout the city. The whole countryside was sad and gloomy when they heard the news that their country had lost the war. Suddenly the fog lifted, and the people saw that the message had four words, not two. The complete message: "W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N- - -D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D- - T-H-E- - -E-N-E-M-Y!" It took only a few minutes for the good news to spread. Sorrow was turned into joy, defeat was turned into victory!
So it was when Jesus was laid in the tomb on the first Good Friday afternoon. Hope had died even in the hearts of Jesus' most loyal friends. It looked like the chief priests and Pharisees had won the victory. The disciples, we would say, had "read" only part of the Divine message: "Christ defeated."