Matthew 27:62-66

THE WATCH AT THE SEPULCHER

Matthew 27:62-66. “ And on the following day, when, after the preparation, the high priests and Pharisees came unto Pilate, saying, We remember how that deceiver said while yet living, After three days I will rise; therefore command that the sepulcher be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples may steal Him away by night, and say to the people, He is risen from the dead; and the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said to them, You have the watch; go, make it secure as you know. And they, going, made the sepulcher secure, sealing the stone, with the watch.” Thus we see the ecclesiastical authorities had finally succeeded, as they flattered themselves, in getting rid of what they regarded as the greatest nuisance that had ever afflicted the Church. These three years they have been in hot water, awfully perplexed and puzzled, studying night and day, laying all their wits and genius under contribution, to devise some plan or light on some scheme to get rid of Him. O how He has haunted them these three years! They have been tossed in a tempest of fear and solicitude. O the sleepless nights of the high priests, the ruling elders, and many of the leading Pharisees! Now they feel that God has delivered them of the awful nuisance, mistaking the devil for God. So they hold a council, putting their heads together, and unanimously resolve to hold the victory already won. As the removal of the body out of the sepulcher might prove a delusion to many in thinking that He has risen as He had predicted, they unanimously vote for a Roman guard to watch the tomb night and day. They have already subjugated Pilate and gotten him afraid of them, as they had threatened to arraign him before the emperor under charges of high treason if he dared to vindicate the cause of Jesus the Nazarene, who had repeatedly declared Himself King of the Jews; so now the governor grants their request, sending to the sepulcher a platoon of those formidable, sturdy, Roman soldiers, who are proof against peril and, knew no fear. Besides, the governor's seat is placed on the stone which closes the sepulcher, the breaking of which is punishable with death. It is also a death penalty for a Roman soldier to go to sleep on guard. Therefore the magnates of the Church sleep soundly, enjoying a degree of nervous relaxation unknown the last three years, sinking away into ambrosial slumber, congratulating themselves, “All is well.”