Matthew 27:57-66
Jesus is
Laid in the Tomb with Guards
Posted
Matthew
27:57 When it was
evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea,
named Joseph, who himself had also become a
disciple of Jesus.
58 This man went to Pilate
and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate
ordered it to be given to him.
59 And Joseph took the body
and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
60 and laid it in his own new
tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he
rolled a large stone against the entrance of the
tomb and went away.
61 And Mary Magdalene was
there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the
grave.
62 Now on the next day, the
day after the preparation, the chief priests and
the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate,
63 and said, "Sir, we
remember that when He was still alive that deceiver
said, 'After three days I am to rise again.'
64 "Therefore, give orders
for the grave to be made secure until the third
day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him
away and say to the people, 'He has risen from the
dead,' and the last deception will be worse than
the first."
65 Pilate said to them, "You
have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know
how."
66 And they went and made the
grave secure, and along with the guard they set a
seal on the stone.
This
is the Word of the Lord ... It is meant to change
the way that we think, and the way that we live.
Commentary
by Bob Pardue
The Burial of
Christ in a Borrowed Tomb
The Pharisees got what they
wanted. Or, did they? Now they were afraid that
Jesus would rise as He promised even though the
disciples were nowhere to be found.
A risen Christ would be worse
to them than the 'live' one. Their power would be
more challenged if people learned that Jesus was
the true Messiah.
This is one of the reasons
the religious leaders wanted a guard placed at the
tomb. They did not want to leave anything to chance
and feared the worst.
Jesus could not physically
walk out of the grave, nor could His body be stolen
with a seal and a guard. They underestimated the
fact that no rock could hold the Son of God when He
arose. He was no longer body but spirit so their
efforts to keep Him contained were
futile.
This part of the Easter story
is pretty much self-explanatory but one question
comes to my mind after reading this.
Do we sometimes try to keep
Jesus hidden away too? If we fail to bear witness
when we have opportunities, we are taking the same
precautions as the Pharisees.
Let's try not to keep the
love of Christ a secret by keeping Him hidden
behind a rock. He is no longer in the tomb but a
light to the world.
Love in Christ
- Bob
If you have never made the
commitment to receive the love and life-changing
experience of Jesus Christ, please take a moment to
go
here and take the
first
steps to salvation.
Verses about the burial of Jesus in Matthew
are from New American Standard Bible
Comments are welcome. Please email
me with any questions or comments you
may have.
Another Lesson for Bible
Study
Matthew
27:45-56 - Jesus Dies on the
Cross -
This is it; or is it? Yes, it's true that Jesus
really died on the cross that day. A sad occasion
for the people then and for us. But the glorious
awakening is just about to begin.
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