"As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.
The Guard at the Tomb
The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 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. This last deception will be worse than the first.”
Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard." Matthew 27:57-66
Black Shabbat
 |
| Everyone was in the Dark |
He is dead.
And that Friday night He was buried. The next day is Saturday, and on the surface nothing really happened during this time. For one, the Jews call this period Shabbat, or their day of rest. Not really hard to imagine that nothing happened or was written about it.
And second, the disciples too were silent and obviously grief stricken and disappointed and possibly scared and confused. Only two women, both named Mary were there, along with Joe and Nic (Joseph and Nicodemus - as recorded in John 19).
But Matthew recorded something significant, that the Pharisees and Pilate ordered a guard to be posted, as well as a seal placed at the tomb of Jesus, so as make "sure" that no one is able to get in or out or possibly take the body of Jesus.
So it seems like, Jesus as the Messiah is not yet done.
Even with a lifeless body, His detractors were still afraid of and paranoid about Jesus. Yes, even as He lay dead and buried. And rightly so, because Resurrection Sunday is coming and this is what Christianity is all about. The apostle Paul said, if Jesus has not been raised, then his preaching is in vain and our faith in Him is in vain, and if in Christ we only have hope in this life, then we, of all people are to be most pitied.
So why believe in Jesus anyway, unless what He said was all true, including what had happened on the first Resurrection Sunday.
Next: Resurrection Sunday
No comments:
Post a Comment