Hi ,
At this time of year, I enjoy reading once again an incredible account that shows the ridiculous
lengths to which mankind will go to deny obvious truth.
The account concerns the desperate attempts that were made by the Jewish leaders to deny the fact of the resurrection of the Lord. Matthew 28 is one of my favorite passages! But the story actually begins at the very end of chapter 27 when the Jewish leaders ask Pontius Pilate to make the
tomb secure. They were so afraid of the statement that Jesus had made that He would rise again in three days after being killed. They were certain that the only way this prediction could come true was for His disciples to come during that period and steal the body out of the grave, and then claim that Jesus rose from the dead. So, securing the tomb is exactly what they did. (And, in the next email, we’ll see just how secure that tomb actually was!)
So, in chapter 28 we see the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy! And, what a dramatic fulfillment! An earthquake and then an angel that appeared like lightning, sitting on the stone that had been rolled away! The Roman guard units, well-seasoned in war and killing, fainted and became like dead men! Those were the "bad" secular guys. Now, let’s look at the "bad"
religious ones…
I personally am convinced that there was absolutely no reason whatsoever for the religious leaders to not recognize that Jesus was in fact the Messiah. So many prophecies had specifically been fulfilled in Him. But the one I’m particularly fascinated with is the one in Daniel 9 that predicted the number of years between the
Persian king’s command to rebuild Jerusalem and the timing of the arrival of the Messiah. It was very, very specific. The religious leaders would have known exactly when that command took place, and would have been able to count the years since that time. No matter how you look at it, those years were fulfilled right around the time that Jesus was walking on the earth! They knew it, too!
Like so many scientists of today who reject the clear evidence of creation design, these Jewish leaders specifically decided to reject the obvious truth. The coup de grace happened when the Roman soldiers went to these religious leaders (NOT to their own commanders, who would have had their heads!) and told them what happened. The Israelite leaders would know that these Roman soldiers were not going to lie or exaggerate.
They had indeed seen an angel and felt an earthquake at the resurrection! So, what did the religious leaders do? Give money to the soldiers as a bribe, and tell them to lie!
Willful unbelief, lies, deceptions, bribes, and cover-ups. It didn’t work. It’s like trying to use a Band-Aid to cure cancer. You can’t keep the truth down. Jesus rose from
the dead, and no amount of money could keep the truth at bay!
