Friday, April 18, 2008
Matthew 28:11-15 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. When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, "Tell them, 'His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.' And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him and make you secure." So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
THE ENEMIES OF JESUS ATTEST TO HIS RESURRECTION: THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND ELDERS
As the group of soldiers stationed at Jesus' tomb came to the chief priests and told them everything that had happened on that first Easter morning, interestingly, one thing that we do not hear recorded in our reading is that the chief priests and elders questioned the validity of these claims. If these men truly believed in the uprightness of their cause against Jesus and His ministry, wouldn't they have sought some kind of investigation? Rather, they didn't even waste time trying to give the appearance of uprightness under these circumstances. At this time, they were busy enough trying to invent their own lies; they didn't need to make things more complicated by going through the charade of accusing anyone else of lying.
Often times, when individuals try to engage in a hasty cover-up of the truth, they don't do a very good job and end up incriminating themselves even further by additional dishonest actions. In this case, the enemies of Jesus offered up a poorly-concocted story and a bribe to the Roman soldiers in an effort to make this all go away.
More than anything else, the hastily put-together actions of the chief priests and elders on that day actually attest to the truth about Jesus' resurrection from the dead, and thus, to the truth about His Gospel. It has often been demonstrated that the story the Jewish officials circulated, about Jesus' disciples coming by night to steal away His body from under the noses of the sleeping guards, is far from plausible. And, of course, the bribe offered by the Jewish leaders was a clear indication that they were the ones who were trying to get away with something underhanded in this matter, and not Jesus and His disciples.
