Thursday, April 17, 2008
Matthew 28:1-4, 11 Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men . . . Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened.
THE ENEMIES OF JESUS ATTEST TO HIS RESURRECTION: THE GUARDS
On that first Easter Morning, the testimonies of Jesus' resurrection were all around. Surprisingly, these testimonies even came from the most unlikely sources: His enemies.
Maybe one could say that those Roman soldiers who guarded the tomb were more like enemies of Jesus by association -- meaning they were associated with the Jewish leaders who were employing their services. Still the same, by their very job description, they were not on Jesus' side. They would have considered it a job well-done if Jesus remained dead and in the tomb, just as the Jewish leaders hoped would be the case.
In retrospect, the placement of the Roman guards at the tomb of Jesus was probably the worst thing that the Jewish leaders could have done after everything played out the way that it did. By doing this, they placed third-party eyewitnesses at the scene of Jesus' resurrection.
As our reading says, after the guards awakened from their state of shock because of everything that had happened on that morning, all they could think to do was to go directly to the chief priests, whom they had been working for, to tell them everything that had happened.
As they told the chief priests all these things, there would have been no reason for them to make up these things. These were not the kind of things that Jewish officials would have wanted to hear, but at this point, there was not any reason to try to deny the truth any longer by trying to come up with a story that the chief priests would have liked to hear better. After experiencing the miraculous events (sky darkened, earthquake, boulders splitting apart) that everyone in Jerusalem plainly experienced at the time of Jesus' suffering and death on that first Good Friday, and now having experienced their second earthquake in such a short amount of time, along with the overwhelming presence of the powerful angel, these men were most likely in such a frazzled state at this time that they could do no other thing than simply to report the truth.
Indeed, Jesus was gone from that tomb -- and no man had taken his body. Indeed, He had risen from the dead, just as He said He would.