Matthew 27:62-66
The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.
The request for guards to be posted at Jesus’ tomb is another detail unique to Matthew. It seems likely that one of the rumors that plagued Matthew’s community was, in fact, the charge that Jesus’ disciples had stolen his body in order to claim resurrection. And so Matthew deals with that via his narrative by sharing the account of the guard detail.
Once again, the Romans come off in a slightly better light than do the Jewish religious authorities, as it is the Pharisees who request the tomb and Pilate who, rather than send his own soldiers, tells them to see to the matter themselves.
But this brief scene serves another purpose, too, as it sets up the climatic reversal to come. For Pilate’s command is to make the tomb “as secure as you can.” And they do, sealing the stone shut. But, as readers of the gospel both then and now know, no human effort can prevail against God’s intention to resurrect the Christ and renew humanity and, indeed, the cosmos, by defeating death once and for all.
The Pharisees in this story are neither the first nor last to attempt to take matters into their own hands, to secure their fate and future by their own means, and to order the world as they desire. We see such attempts everywhere, not least in our own lives and homes. But now as then, such efforts finally are futile, for whether noble or self-serving they are all bounded by the mortality that is ours as children of Adam and Eve. For this reason, God enters into our story not to fix us or change us or improve us, but to redeem and resurrect us. Jesus, as the Apostle Paul says, is the first fruits of this redemption, the sign and promise of all that is to come.
Prayer: Dear God, we give you thanks that your will to love and redeem all will not be thwarted…even by our best efforts. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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