Matthew 27:62-66

A Guard Is Set On Jesus' Tomb In Order To Ensure That The Body Is Not Stolen (27:62-66).

There is nothing that reveals the truth about people more than their interpretation of the anticipated action of others. That is why you ‘set a thief to catch a thief'. It is because they both think in the same way. And sadly that is why these particular Pharisees who came to the Chief Priests, and then to Pilate, thought as they did. It was because they themselves would have felt able to be free with the truth when they were seeking to maintain their position, so that they assumed that others would do the same. It is the kind of behaviour that you find in well established fanaticisms. The first two or three generations of any new movement which has a firm moral basis, and which is being successful, are strong for the truth as they see it, and are convinced that others will see it too. They do not therefore see the need to resort to the tactics of deception, and would scorn doing so. They are confident in the truth that they uphold. It is the generations that follow, who are seeking to bolster up something that is slowly dying and for whom the moral dimension is dying, or who feel that they have to give their ideas a new impetus at whatever cost because they are not succeeding as they had hoped, who feel that they have to resort to such dishonesty.

The disciples were in fact locked away for fear of the Jews (no one would have invented such an idea), because they thought that those who had taken and crucified their Master would undoubtedly follow up their action by seeking to do the same to them. That is how they thought. It was what they would have done themselves in the circumstances because they were not astute politicians. They thus saw themselves as being seen as a danger by the Jewish leaders. But they had misinterpreted the aims and attitudes of their opponents. They simply judged by what they themselves would have done in the same situation because they had a higher opinion of themselves than they should have had, and did not see things from a position of long experience of such things. They had not realised that in fact to their opponents everything had hinged on the presence of Jesus. The disciples had thought that they too would be seen as a danger. But no one else saw them like that. Their opponents were confident that with Jesus out of the way the bubble would burst. They had seen it all before, and they were not worried about the disciples. Thus the Apostles were in hiding when they need not have been, because no one was looking for them, and that was why everything was being left to the women. We can be sure therefore that they would not have had the remotest thought of stealing Jesus' body in order to practise a deception. People who do that kind of thing seek to present a brave face to the world. They reveal a confidence that they hope will cover up their deceit. They do not hide away like disillusioned men. But the disciples were disillusioned men (just as their opponents had expected), and their concern was therefore for survival. To them there was no expectancy of a resurrection, and they were totally devastated by what had happened. All their hopes had gone. They were not men with great influence who could extend that influence by deception. They were men who had lost their way, and whose influence had collapsed with the death of Jesus. They would have seen no point in stealing the body.

Furthermore can anyone really suggest that men who had stolen a body as a deception, or had perpetrated a deception, would then have been willing to face persecution, imprisonment and even torture in order to maintain their deception. What would have been the point? At that stage becoming a Christian was not the ladder to wealth and success, it was the road to the cross, it was the way of ignominy and shame. It was the way to being despised and rejected by their fellows. Would men then choose that way on the basis of a lie?

And by the time that Matthew wrote his Gospel Christianity was spreading rapidly and being successful. There was no need to resort to lies, especially as part of their success actually depended on the fact that they had brought a new level of morality into the world. It is quite incredible to think that Matthew and the early church could have brought us the Sermon on the Mount with its huge emphasis on truth and then have bolstered it with what they knew to be a lie.

But how do we know that the story about the guards was not an invention with the aim of demonstrating that the body was not tampered with? The answer lies in the details of the story. For it in fact proved nothing of the kind, because the guards are said to have been asleep (Matthew 28:13). Now what kind of person practises a great deception in order to prove something and then immediately appends an explanation that could be seen as invalidating the deception? When you practise a deception you keep quiet about anything which might throw doubt on the deception. You do not immediately suggest possible holes in it. The only reason for mentioning this incident in this way is that everyone knew that the tomb had been guarded, and that therefore the Jews had given this as an explanation for their failure to prevent the body disappearing. It is actually further evidence that the body had unexpectedly disappeared.

These particular Pharisees on the other hand were convinced that deceit was precisely what the disciples would practise as a short term expedient. (But even they would have acknowledged that a movement based on such a lie would not have lasted long). They genuinely saw Jesus as a deceiver, for how could He not be when He disagreed with them? And they therefore assumed that His disciples would be deceivers too. Having learned to paper over the truth with regard to their own ideas, they assumed that others would do the same. For they were the later exponents of a position which had initially started out with such enthusiastic promise, but which had become bogged down by ritual and artifice, (even the later Rabbis drew attention to the fact that this was so), and they now feared that it was not gaining in popularity as it should. People were beginning to discover that there were holes in it. That was one reason why they had hated Jesus so much. He had kept on pointing out those holes. Thus they thought in terms of cover up and deception, and then assumed it of others.

Those who suggest that the early church invented this story in order to convince people that the body could not have been stolen are either totally unthinking, or are revealing the fact that they have the same tendency towards deceitfulness of mind as these Pharisees had. It suggests that they have within their own hearts a certain level of dishonesty which they see as acceptable, because they read it into others. They judge others by themselves, and thereby judge themselves. For there is not a single thing about the disciples that suggests that they would have been like this. Such deceit was certainly something that the later church would have practised centuries later when the church had become corrupt, had lost its first vision, and had much to gain materially by distorting the truth, but it was not the kind of action likely in a church where honesty and truth were seen as central (Ephesians 4:15; Ephesians 4:25; Ephesians 4:29; Colossians 3:9), where the teaching of Jesus was still very much hot in the memory (Matthew 5:33), and where they themselves were undergoing suffering and poverty precisely because they believed in ‘the truth' and were determined to proclaim it at all costs. Such people do not set out deliberately to deceive, or build their teaching on deliberate deception. It would take away any reason for their efforts. Rather they preach in the face of ridicule because they earnestly believe in what they say and are not interested in deception. Furthermore this was being circulated at a time when there were still people alive who knew the facts because they were in Jerusalem at the time. Had it been untrue the opponents of Christianity would have stood up and said so very firmly, (and so indeed would its friends), for these opponents were not men who were hidden in a corner, but men who had their own positive agenda and were rebuilding what they themselves believed in. And yet no one ever suggested that the tomb was not empty.

Note that it was certain ‘Pharisees' who came to the Chief Priests with the suggestion of what the disciples would do. This was because they thought of the disciples in their own terms. They assumed that the disciples would try to fake a resurrection (they did not realise that they were in hiding), and that they would do it because they were deceivers like their Master. With their own strongly held belief in the resurrection these Pharisees (not all the Pharisees) were thus demonstrating that they would themselves not have been averse to considering doing the same thing, if they had thought that they could get away with it. They were no longer hot for a truth which had burned its way into their soul, but hot in support of a long held tradition, a second hand faith, which they supported by any means possible. They could not understand men of genuine moral fibre who were enthusiastic for truth. Nor could they believe in any resurrection that did not occur in the way that they anticipated. Thus they considered that any talk about Jesus rising had to be a deception. They were clearly not very reliable people.

The Chief Priests listened to what they had to say, and being sceptical about the possibility of resurrection could see that someone who was trying to prove the idea might well resort to such trickery. It was what they would have done themselves. And they probably also saw in these Pharisees before them fellow-tricksters who might well have used the same tactics. But this again revealed the trickiness and deceptiveness of their own minds. They saw the Pharisees, and everyone else, as being like themselves. Thus together they went to Pilate in order to guard against what was never going to happen. And some today follow the same tactics, because that is the kind of people that they themselves are. They are not above resorting to trickery themselves, and so assume it in others, even though the teaching of those others demonstrates their high moral standing. Such tricksters cannot understand moral standing. So to dismiss the disciples as deceivers is either to be guilty of shallow thinking, or to condemn our own attitude towards life.

The situation has a certain humour to it. The Apostles were in hiding from a danger that was never going to materialise, and with no thought of trickery, and the Chief Priests and Pharisees were setting a guard against a possibility which was never going to happen, and did it because they themselves were essentially tricksters. Such is what happens when men judge others by themselves.

Analysis.

a Now on the next day, which is the day after the Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees were gathered together to Pilate, saying, “Sir, we remember that that deceiver said while He was yet alive, After three days I rise again” (Matthew 27:62).

b “Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest haply His disciples come and steal him away” (Matthew 27:64 a).

c “And say to the people, ‘He is risen from the dead,' and the last error will be worse than the first” (Matthew 27:64 b).

b Pilate said to them, “You have a guard, go, make it as sure as you can” (Matthew 27:65).

a So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, the guard being with them (Matthew 27:66).

Note that in ‘a' they were fearful of a deception about a rising again, and in the parallel they take all precautions against it. In ‘b' they were fearful that the disciples would steal the body, and in the parallel are told to set a guard in order to prevent it. Centrally in ‘c' is what they were finally afraid of.