The Report of the Guard
We return to devotional material appearing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Matthew 28:11-15
11 While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 After the priests had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 telling them, ‘You must say, “His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.” 14 If this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.’ 15 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story is still told among the Jews to this day.
The religious leadership had a problem. When the guards at the tomb revived from fainting away (Mathew 28:4), they went into Jerusalem and told the authorities that the body of Jesus was gone. To try to counter any possible claims the followers of Jesus might make about Jesus having been raised to life by God, the religious authorities paid the guards “a large sum of money” to spread the rumour that while the guards were sleeping the followers of Jesus stole the body from the tomb.
How did the guards know what took place when they were sleeping? How did the guards manage to sleep through the major effort, most likely not a quiet effort, it would have taken to move the stone? And why were military guards announcing that they had fallen asleep (miliary guards who fell asleep on the job were flogged or worse)? No, the suggestion that the disciples stole the body is far-fetched and illogical in the face of the evidence.
If we are prepared to say that God raised Jesus to life again, then all the evidence falls into place. But those who insist that the resurrection is impossible because it is unscientific, are left with challenges like the one the religious authorities had. Explaining away evidence that points to the fact that Jesus was raised to life again. At the end of the day, it is more logical, more rational, as Lee Strobel says, to believe in the resurrection of Jesus than it is to say the resurrection did not take place.
Allowing for the resurrection of Jesus opens the door for miracles. Miracles are part of our lives. In our lives, and the lives of our friends and family, things have happened that have no other explanation than that God acted, that the Holy Spirit guided. That a miracle took place.
PRAYER:
O Lord, we rejoice that you did raise Jesus Christ to life again. We rejoice that you continue to be at work doing miracles in the world. Open our eyes and hearts to seeing and acknowledging and rejoicing in your work in the world. In Jesus’ name. Amen.