11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.
They paid money to kill Him, they paid money to cover the Truth and they began a lie that circulates to this very day...really, what kind of desperate people were these religious leaders anyway? While the women were running to tell the good news of Jesus’ resurrection, the roaches remained ridiculously romping about to keep the Truth from being revealed. Yet you can’t shut the Truth up nor keep it in a tidy little box. God has a unique way of removing the lid and bringing the Truth to life no matter how hard the darkness seeks to keep it covered. Truth will always stand.
Therefore love truth and peace. Zech 8:19 (NIV)
4 Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; 5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Psalms 25:4-5 (NIV)
“He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” Blaise Pascal
“To do what is right is to side with the truth of God. And never doubt it, the truth of God will always prevail.” “To do what is right is to join the winning side of the fight, though the battle will not be without pain or struggle.” Chuck Swindoll
In our verses for today we discover the macho Roman guards going to the chief priests and telling them everything that happened: the earthquake, the descent of the angel, the rolling away of the stone and the coming alive of Jesus from the grave. Surely they had to have been breathless over the scenes they had just been eyewitnesses to. Seriously, these were no ordinary every day ho-hum happenings. Indeed, these events were the greatest means of conviction that could have been given. It would stand to reason that these religious characters would now seek to embrace Christ yet they stand staunchly and stubbornly in their faithlessness and unbelief and were therefore remained sealed in it. The clearest evidence will not persuade people without the Holy Spirit enlightening that evidence which begins with faith. Pharaoh hardened his heart and hardened his heart until at long last God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. God is patient and long suffering but He is also just and He sets limits – just read about Sodom and Gomorrah:
20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go. Ex 10:20 (NIV)
“Faith is reason at rest in God.” C. H. Spurgeon
“Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe.” Augustine
When we hear Truth we are called to respond. It is our time of opportunity and who knows if we will have another? Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians:
1 As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. 2 For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. 2 Cor 6:1-2 (NIV)
Next, the religious elite make the decision to seek to cover the Truth. They themselves chose not to believe the account and sought to keep others from believing it as well. They decided to bribe the soldiers and instructed them to tell tales. They wanted them to deliberately lie against their own consciences. They very extravagantly pursued their malicious intentions by placing a large sum of money into the hands of the soldiers to silence the Truth and put a lie into their mouths – as sorry as that lie was. How would the soldiers know if the Lord’s disciples stole Jesus’ body if they were asleep? Why all of a sudden did the fearful disciples who fled Jesus’ death become fearless and take His body – and for what reason, so that they could preach a lie of a feigned resurrection. Seriously??? I think it is also interesting that these teachers of the law would so go against the law in offering these bribes. Did they believe they were above what was commanded? God is a God of justice and Truth not of bribery and lies. We find in Exodus and Deuteronomy the following:
8 “Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous.” Ex 23:8 (NIV)
19 Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. 20 Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you. Deut 16:19-20 (NIV)
“No resurrection, no Christianity” Michael Ramsey