Matthew 27 - Part 5

 

Read Matthew 27

God’s plan had reached the dark night of the soul as writers would frame it.  The blood of Jesus had been shed for the forgiveness of sins, but he was still hanging on the cross.

The colt for him to ride into Jerusalem was ready for him.  The room in which he shared the Passover meal with his disciples was available during Passover week.  Had Jesus forgotten one detail?

Did he not have a burial plan?  He knew he was going to the cross.  Did he not make arrangements for his burial?

Evidently, he did.  Joseph of Arimathea, and if we look elsewhere in the gospels, we see he was joined by Nicodemus, and they took care of the body of Jesus.

Joseph put Jesus in his own tomb.  He prepared the body as he knew how and rolled a large stone in front of it and went away.  The Sabbath was upon them.

Mary Magdalene and another woman described only as the other Mary sat across from the tomb and watched.  They would surely have to come after the Sabbath and do the job right.

The next day the senior ranking officials among the religious hypocrites came to see Pilate.  Matthew does an interesting thing in this account.  Instead of saying on the Sabbath, he notes that this is the day after the Preparation Day.  Was he avoiding putting the very hypocrites responsible for setting in motion the events that took Jesus to the cross on the spot?  Did he avoid calling them out for coming to see this pagan leader on the Sabbath?  We don’t know, but Matthew does use some interesting verbiage to set this stage.

In any case, the hypocrites wanted Pilate to place a guard on the tomb to avoid someone stealing the body and claiming that Jesus would rise from the dead.  There were rumors to that effect circulating in the area.  An empty tomb would cause more trouble for them than Jesus walking all over the Promised Land preaching the Kingdom of God. Better to be safe than sorry.

Pilate sent a guard—probably not a single soldier but a detachment—and they secured the tomb the best that they knew how.  The strongest measure was to place a seal—probably the seal of the Roman Governor—on the tomb.

In these parts, the governor acted for Caesar.  If you messed with the tomb, you were defying Caesar himself.  No man would dare defy the authority of the emperor his armed soldiers.

As far as Pilate and the religious leaders were concerned, the body of Jesus wasn’t going anywhere.  We are blessed to know the rest of the story.

Amen.