Station #2 of the Resurrection Story

Station #2 ….. Pilate Secures the Tomb from Grave Robbers

After sundown, the high priests and Pharisees arranged a meeting with Pilate. They said, “Sir, we just remembered that that liar announced while he was  still alive, ‘After three days I will be raised.’ We’ve got to get that tomb sealed until the third day. There’s a good chance his disciples will come and steal the corpse and then go around saying, ‘He’s risen from the dead.’ Then we’ll be worse off than before, the final deceit surpassing the first.” Pilate told them, “You will have a guard. Go ahead and secure it the best you can.” So they went out and secured the tomb, sealing the stone and posting guards.  (Matthew 27:62-66)

Worth a Thousand Words: Guards at the Tomb, Tissot

A Reflection:

Beneath the fear that they spoke about to Pilate lay another fear that they had not spoken about to anyone probably, not even to each other. This was the fear which I doubt very much if any one of them had the courage to face more than fleetingly even within the secrecy of his own heart – the fear that the man whom they had crucified would really come alive again as he had promised, that the body that now lay dead in its tomb, disfigured by the mutilations of the Cross, that his body or some new and terrible version of it would start to breathe again, stand up in its grave clothes and move toward them with unspeakable power. To the extent that deep within themselves the Jewish elders feared this as a real possibility, their being told by Pilate to make things as secure as they could was to have the very earth pulled out from under them. How does an old man keep the sun from rising? How do soldiers secure the world against miracle? … Like trying to stop the wind with a machine gun.”  (Frederick Buechner, The End Is Life)

Resurrection, Present Tense:

I gave up all that inferior stuff, that petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules, so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.  (Philippians 3:10-11)