Before we get to this text proper we see the paranoia of the enemies of Christ. With these guards assigned to guard the body of Jesus there is a triple redundancy in the provision to make sure that Christ doesn’t fulfill his promise to rise as repeated several times during his Ministry.
Matthew 16:21
From that time on Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
John 10:18
No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.”
Matthew 26:61
“This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.'”
Here were these promises that Christ’s enemies seemed more conversant with than Christ’s disciples. Christ had repeatedly promised to rise from the dead and His enemies knew it and were determined to stop it at all costs.
One of the impediments to Resurrection is the Stone mentioned in Matthew,
He (Joseph of Arimathea) rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away (Matthew 27:59,60).
But not only was there the matter of the Biggly Stone that was no easy matter of dispensing of from the inside there was also the
Roman seal on the Stone and a Roman guard to insure that the Stone was not going to be removed and the body stolen.
And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone (Matthew 27:66).
The idea of making the grave secure means they worked to the end that no one was toing to easily get inside that tomb… or get out of that tomb It was secure. The enemies of Christ were doing their flat level best to make sure Jesus Christ stayed in that grave.
Now understand that Roman seal, if broken, bore the penalty of death for the one who broke the seal illegally.
So … we have the big stone… we have the grave made secure … we have the Roman seal. Next there is the guard assigned.
The guard assigned was either the Roman guard or the Jewish temple police.
Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone (Matthew 27:65,66).
There is a question as to which one of the two groups was watching over it. The context seems to favor the Roman guard. The Roman guard, which in my conviction was likely the guard that was set was a sixteen-man unit that was governed by very strict rules. Sixteen Roman soldiers were watching a grave made secure, as closed by a big stone having upon it a Roman seal that promised death for all who would dare break the seal.
Now … this Roman guard found each member responsible for six square feet of space. The guard members could not sit down or lean against anything while they were on duty. If a guard member fell asleep, he was beaten and burned with his own clothes. But he was not the only one executed, the entire sixteen-man guard unit was executed if only one of the members fell asleep while on duty.
And remember all this against an opposition who couldn’t stand up against a servant girl making inquiries as to whether or not the chief disciple was indeed a disciple at all.
This redundancy of all this to protect the grave from potential chicken hearted grave robbers reminds us of Houdini hancuffing himself, putting himself in a safe, and then wrapping the safe in chains before dumping it into the harbor.
But despite all their redundancies their best laid plans came undone.
2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the (Big) stone and sat on it.3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
Just like that … the Big Stone … the Roman Seal … the 16 man Roman guard. Poof.
Then we are told
11 … behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. 12 When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ 14 And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
We note here that the response of the Deep State elite here was to create a conspiracy that would both dismiss the facts of what really happened while at the same time reconstructing a false narrative at to what really happened. While certainly not the first occurrence of what we now call “fake news” it is a classic example of CNN or New York Times type reporting.
Here we learn from God’s Word that God’s enemies will consistently do all they can to invert and twist truth. God’s enemies live by conspiracy and as God’s enemies own the organs of information now as they did on that Resurrection Sunday as Christians we must not be so naive to believe the “news” as reported by God’s enemies who always have an ax to grind against God’s narrative. The Scripture repeatedly teaches us that the wicked conspire and we are fools if we don’t seek to see through the conspiracy of dunces put forth on a daily basis.
If nothing else, Resurrection morning reinforces the idea that we should be believers … big believers in conspiracy theory. To not believe in conspiracy theory would have found us believing that Jesus had not really resurrected but instead his body had been stolen by the disciples. This ranks right up there with the single bullet theory, that high rise buildings which have not been hit by hit by jetliners fall down, and that a virus can cause all by itself a multi-trillion dollar worldwide economy to fall.
Second, we should note that the purpose of all this skulduggery on the part of the deep state at the time was to keep a community from rising which would worship Jesus as the Messiah. The Pharisee deep state had an interest in controlling the people and part of that control was to control what they would and would not believe. A community of faith would never rise up to follow a Messiah who remained dead and buried and so they created a false narrative that would steal the resurrection from any fledgling faith community. Take the money. Tell a lie. Shut up.
I don’t want to press this too far but we still have a deep state that has an interest in not seeing a faith community corporeally gather to worship. Don’t physically gather. Shut your services down. You can risk your lives by going out to get your food and liquor but don’t you dare go out to get your food unto eternal life. Trust us. We wouldn’t lie. We know what’s best for you. Worship at home.
Third we should note here that this narrative underscores the advice that this Pastor always reminds you of and that is when it comes to the truth of matters an important consideration is to always follow the money. If one had followed the money that the Roman guards pockets were heavy with they would have found out what was motivating the lies on that Resurrection morning. Follow the money is good counsel.
Note next that the Pharisees now know beyond any shadow of doubt that Christ had resurrected. They had first hand hostile witness accounts of what had happened. These guard had experienced some form of catatonia (Mt. 28:4) and yet had remained aware enough to realize what had been going on. They were the first and perhaps most direct witnesses of what the Father had done in raising the Son. They were the most immediate witnesses and they had reported directly to the Pharisees what they had not only heard but which they had seen with their own eyes, what they had gazed upon and what had put them in a catatonic fit.
Did the Pharisees then and there repent? Did they cover their mouths in shock admitting that they had been wrong about their Messiah? Did the truth that they had murdered their long promised Messiah cause them to second guess themselves? No … instead they went all MSNBC and doubled down and concocted a plan that would keep their false narrative as the narrative.
And remember this is all in the face of being told by their own guards who had been scared whitmerless by witnessing the resurrection. That’s what the text says. These guards witnessed to the Pharisees ALL THAT HAD HAPPENED.
This reminds us in our apologetic endeavors that people don’t give up the lie they are invested in simply because they are brought face to face with a indubitable and indisputable truth. Instead what they are prone to do is to find someway to support their false narrative that they have invested themselves in.
Of course this action by the Pharisees proves what Jesus had said, by way of parable, that
Luke 16:31 ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
They had first hand testimony that someone had indeed risen from the dead and they believed enough to try and suppress the story in unrighteousness but not enough to bow to the truth. At this point they know they are actively seeking to cover up the Resurrection. They know what has happened but they intend to kill the story.
This account of Matthew and the payola to shut up the guards who witnessed the resurrection is the best evidentiary material that Christ was bodily resurrected. His resurrection here isn’t a matter of “the faith of the early church” that some talk about.
Some Christians infected with modernity talk about “the faith of the early Church,” and by that they mean that the early church believed such and such but they also often mean that just because that is what the faith of the early Church was that doesn’t mean that is what really happened. Rather it is merely what the early church believed happened. If you even hear someone talking about “the faith of the early Church” you need to ask said person if they believe to be historically and actually true what the early Church believed.
So, here we have testimony that Christ was resurrected. Physically resurrected. Not a resurrection that was spiritual. Not a resurrection that finds Christ “rising into History.” Not a resurrection that was a result of mass hysteria. Not a resurrection that was metaphorical. Not a resurrection that finds its reality in the fact that “He lives within my heart,” but rather a real live genuine physical historical resurrection as testified to by men who suffered paralysis in the presence of this happening.
John Updike
Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His Flesh: ours.
The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that — pierced — died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.
The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.
And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.
You will forgive me if I belabor this point but so much of the Church today doesn’t believe in this kind of resurrection…. Doesn’t believe in a Resurrection where there are nail prints in a real body that can be examined by him whom we dub, “Doubting Thomas.” Doesn’t believe in a Resurrection that is so concrete that hardened military men are left in a catatonic state by coming face to face with the Resurrected one. Doesn’t believe in a Resurrection that finds the Resurrected one sharing a breakfast with His disciples,
John 21:12 Jesus said, “Come and eat!” But none of the disciples dared ask who he was. They knew he was the Lord. 13 Jesus took the bread in his hands and gave some of it to his disciples. He did the same with the fish.
To much of the Church no longer finds it credible to believe in a Resurrection that is corporeal, distinct, and personal. Jesus had a glorified body to be sure but it was not more glorified than it was body nor more body than it was glorified.
And so on this Resurrection Sunday we articulate again for those with ears to ear that we believe in the Resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Christ is Resurrected. He now sits at the right hand of the Father as the Resurrected God man. Your life beyond this life depends on your faith in this Resurrected Christ. A lack of faith in this Resurrected Christ means that you go from this life to eternal and unremitting death. A presence of faith in this Resurrected Christ means that you go from this life to eternal and unremitting life. It means that you go from life unto life in this life. It means life and life abundantly. It means the only familiarity you will ever have with death is the fleeting moments you go from this life to even more life.
Friends.. own Christ. Cast your all on the Resurrected Christ. Taste and see … know for yourself the quality of the Resurrected life as given by the Resurrected Savior.