LIFE SCRIPTS

While the women went on their way, some of the soldiers guarding the tomb went back to the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. The chief priests met with the elders and made their plan; they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, “You are to say that his disciples came during the night and stole his body while you were asleep. And if the Governor should hear of this, we will convince him that you are innocent, and you will have nothing to worry about.”
Matthew 28:11‭-‬14 GNBDC

When it seemed that the guards on duty were absent without leave, they suddenly are mentioned in this passage. It has to be remembered, these guards had witnessed the angel move the boulder, they had seen the women being addressed by the angel, they had seen them being led into the empty tomb. It’s fair to suspect that they themselves must have ventured into the tomb to witness for themselves whether what was said was true. They themselves were witnesses of the risen Christ! But as they delivered the news to the chief priests, something striking happens. The chief priests conspired with the elders to bribe them to be false witnesses. They enticed them to confess that the disciples stole the body of the Saviour at night (vs 13) in order to feign His resurrection. And because if it were true, they would be in trouble with Pilate, they still tried to convince them to plead innocent before him (vs 14). This is a lesson informing us that conspiracy to do wrong always has a futile ending. Whereas the chief priests and the elders had a strong point realistically…they doubted the resurrection of Christ…God’s truth superceded their disbelief. Gods truth is absolute truth. What He says must come to pass. The truth they tried so hard to oppose still came out in the open. It exposed them as frauds instead. The crowds they had all along deceived would realize that Christ is the true Messiah. They had no choice but to find a way to cover up their shame…deceitfully so. Deceit begets deceit. If we deliberately choose to oppose the truth, then we’ll have no choice but to conjure up a series of lies in order to cover up the lies we’ve believed all along and have led others to believe in. Truth has a way of exposing lies. Here the truth of the resurrection had dawned on us. Even the same guards enticed to confess a lie were it’s witnesses. But even better, the redemptive work of the resurrection of Christ would manifest itself through the changed lives of men and women who confess Him. Because He died on the cross, we died to sin. Because He lives, we can live for righteousness.