Matthew 28:15

So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.

So they took the money, and did as they were taught - thus consenting to brand themselves with infamy --

And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day - to the date of the publication of this Gospel. The wonder is that so clumsy and incredible a story lasted so long. But those who are resolved not to come to the light will catch at straws. Justin Martyr, who flourished about 170 AD, says, in his 'Dialogue with Trypho the Jew,' that the Jews dispersed the story by means of special messengers sent to every country.

Remarks:

(1) If the Crucifixion and Burial of the Son of God were the most stupendous manifestations of self-sacrifice, His Resurrection was no less grand a vindication of His character and claims-rolling away the reproach of the Cross, revealing His Personal dignity, and putting the crown upon His whole claims. (See Romans 1:4). As His own Self bore our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24), and so was "made a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13), His resurrection was a public proclamation that He had now made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9:24). And how august was this proclamation! While His enemies were watching the hours, in hope that the third day might see Him still in the tomb, and His loving disciples were almost in despair of ever beholding Him again, lo! the ground heaves sublime, an angel, bright as lightning and clad in raiment of snowy white, descends from heaven, rolls the huge sealed stone from the door of the tomb, and takes his seat upon it as a guard of honour from heaven; while the keepers for fear of him are shaking and crouching as dead men.

(2) What then took place, none of the Four sacred Narrators has dared to describe, or rather, none of them knew. All that we need to know they do record-that when the women arrived, the grave was empty, and speedily Jesus Himself stood before them in resurrection-life and love! What a glorious Gospel-voice issues from these facts! O, if even the guiltiest sinner on the face of the earth would but draw near, might he not hear a voice saying to him, "He is not here; for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay;" and as he looks into this open grave, shall he not hear the Risen One Himself whispering to him, "Peace be unto thee," and as He says this "showing him His hands and His side," in evidence of the price paid for the remission of sins?

(3) How delightful a subject of contemplation is the ministry of angels, especially in connection with Christ Himself, and most of all in connection with this scene of His resurrection; where we not only find them hovering around the Person of Jesus, as their own adored Lord, but showing the liveliest interest in every detail, and the tenderest care for the disciples of their Lord! And what is this but a specimen of what they feel and do toward "this heirs of salvation" of every quality, every age, every clime?

(4) If anything were needed to complete the proof of the reality of Christ's resurrection, it would be the silliness of the explanation which the guards were bribed to give of it. That a whole guard should go to sleep on their watch at all, was not very likely; that they should do it in a case like this, where there was such anxiety on the part of the authorities that the grave should remain undisturbed, was in the last degree improbable; but-even if it could be supposed that so many disciples should come to the grave as would suffice to break the seal, roll back the huge stone, and carry off the body-that the guards should all sleep soundly enough and long enough to admit of all this tedious and noisy work being gone through at their very side without being awoke, and done too so leisurely, that the very grave clothes-which would naturally have been kept upon the body, if only to aid them in bearing the heavy burden-should be found carefully folded and orderly disposed within the tomb: all this will not believe even by credulity itself, and could not have been credited even at the first, though it might suit those who were determined to resist the Redeemer's claims to pretend that they believed it. And the best proof that it was not believed is, that within a few weeks of this time, and in the very place where the imposture of a pretended resurrection-if it really was such-could most easily have been detected, thousands upon thousands, many of whom had been implicated in His death, came trooping into the ranks of the risen Saviour, resting their whole salvation upon the belief of His Resurrection. Now, therefore, is Christ risen from the dead, and become the First-Fruits of His sleeping people!

(5) Let believers taken the full comfort of that blessed assurance, that "as Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him" (1 Thessalonians 4:14). "But each [ hekastos (G1538)] in his own order, Christ the first-fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at His coming" (1 Corinthians 15:23).

(6) The Resurrection of Christ-as it brought resurrection-life not only to believers in their persons, but to the cause of truth and righteousness in the earth-should animate the Church, in its seasons of deepest depression, with assurances of resurrection, and encourage it to sing such "songs in the night" as these: "After two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight." "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord" (Hosea 6:2; Psalms 118:17).