Proof from wicked men
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is well documented. There is a paper trail. The infallible Word of God and historical documents from the period speak of His resurrection.
I have some things in common with one group of men, and their actions give me no doubts about Jesus’s resurrection. These men are the guards of the tomb.
Their story begins in Matthew 27:62-66. “Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.”
Pilate assigns a small group of soldiers to the high priests to guard a dead man already in the grave.
Seeing that Pilate did not want to crucify Jesus to begin with, he made that point clear by washing his hands of the affair in front of the multitude during Jesus’ socalled trial (Matthew 27:24). He was probably tired of the whole affair and gave the high priests what they wanted to keep them quiet.
How many guards would the Romans need to guard a grave? The Romans did not think Jesus would walk from the tomb on His own power; therefore, the guards were there to protect from theft. The Apostles, Jesus’ closest followers, were the most likely candidates to do the job. There were eleven of them left, and only one had any military training, Simon the Zealot. The Bible records that the Apostles had two swords when they left the Last Supper and headed to Gethsemene (Luke 22:38). T rained Roman soldiers, all wearing the best body armor of the day, swords at their side, experienced at war and killing in hand to hand combat versus a group of eleven, mostly fishermen with only one with any formal training at combat, this won’t be much of a fight. Assign two to deal with Simon, in case he is better prepared than they think, and four others should take care of the other ten. Pilate probably gave the high priest a half-dozen men.
The high priests showed the soldiers their duty for the night. The tomb was a hole in the side of a hill. A large stone was rolled into a low spot directly in front of the grave. The stone would have to be rolled up an incline to walk in or out of the tomb. Moving the stone would take 4-6 men. These soldiers understood that there was a small amount of danger but also saw this as the easiest overtime they would ever work.
Come Sunday morning, at dawn, a bright light, an earthquake, the stone rolling away, and the Son of God walking out of the tomb. It is unclear how much the men saw. All the Bible says is, “The keepers did shake, and became as dead men” (Matthew 28:4). One thing is sure: they all knew the tomb was now empty.
What these soldiers do next shows us that Christ did rise from the dead.
If nothing happened, when their shift ended, the commanding officer would have told the men, “Time to go home guys. Mission accomplished. He’s still in the grave.”
Instead of calling it a shift, they go to the priests and explain what happened.
Interestingly, they went to the priests and not their Roman superiors. They did face punishment from the Romans for a job not done, but what help could the Jews give them? These men had just witnessed, over the last few days, these same priests orchestrate the murder of Jesus at the hands of the Romans. They knew they could not trust them; the Romans hated dealing with the Jews and vice versa. These soldiers appear to be men scared out of their wits, with no idea what to do next.
The priests give them “large money” to say the body was stolen while they slept. They also told the soldiers they would talk to Pilate and make sure no punishment would come from the hands of their superiors (Matthew 28:12-14).
The Romans did not treat anyone with compassion, even their own. The large amount of money given to the guards proves they believe retribution is coming their way. Yes, they had the verbal commitment from the high priest to convince Pilate otherwise, but that was uncertain. Since they risked losing their livelihood, prison time, or worse, they needed a lot of money to go along with the stolen body story.
Could the stolen body story be true? It seems unlikely that all six soldiers would be sleeping. If they did all fall asleep, the work the Apostles needed to do by rolling the stone and retrieving the body could not be done in silence. Could all the guards be that deep of sleepers? Unlikely. Also, if you are about to pull off the most enormous hoax in the history of the human race, and when you arrive, you find all the seasoned killers asleep, would it not be advantageous to kill them before they kill you? If Jesus is not the Son of God and is still dead in the tomb, the odds of the Apostles pulling this off are nearly nill. The stolen body story does not hold water.
The actions of everyone involved in the guard detail point to the fact of the resurrection; in the angel’s words, “Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come see the place where the Lord lay” (Matthew 28:5-6).
Preacher Johnson is the Pastor of Countryside Baptist Church in Parke County Indiana. Website: www.preachers-point.com; Email: [email protected]; Mail: 25 W 1200 N; Kingman IN 47952. Facebook: https:// www.facebook.com/Timothy-Preacher-Johnson- 101171088326638. All Scripture KJV.
