Matthew 27:62-66…
The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate. Jesus was dead, but the religious leaders were still afraid of Him. They were willing to do anything to put a stop to people believing in Him. The day before, they would not enter Pilate’s palace, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover (John 18:28). But now they broke their own law by entering into a Gentile dwelling on the Sabbath.
Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, 'After three days I will rise.' Now they also change their story, admitting their deceitfulness. During Jesus’ trial, they had used Jesus’ words to say that He was talking about tearing down the temple building. Yet they knew all along that Jesus was not talking about tearing the temple down. They knew He was talking about dying and being raised again the third day (Matthew 12:40).
Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day. They were afraid that the disciples would fabricate a resurrection to keep the movement alive. Of course the disciples had no such thought at all (John 20:9), even though Jesus had mentioned it many times (Matthew 16:21, 17:23, 20:18-19 / Mark 9:9-10). The religious leaders convince Pilate that if Jesus was a problem before, when the people had believed He was the Messiah, it would be much worse if people thought He had risen from the dead.
So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. By placing the Roman seal on the stone, it would be known if anyone had tampered with the tomb. Ironically, by making sure that there was no way that anyone could steal the body, they actually provided additional witness to the fact that the resurrection wasn’t a fake. The enemies of Jesus guarded the evidence! Indeed, God uses the wrath of men to praise Him (Psalm 76:10).
Think about it. God had all these details worked out, in the midst of all this hardship and hatred, this darkness and deceit. Doesn’t it make sense that you can trust Him with your details, no matter who is against you, and no matter how dark it seems right now (Romans 8:28-31)?
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