The Bible Study Hour

Mark Daniels: What really went through the minds of the Jewish leaders as they approached Pilate to seal the tomb of Christ? Were they really afraid of the disciples moving his body or was it something more?

Welcome to the Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically. The disciples themselves offered little threat to others as most had scattered and abandoned the Lord at his arrest. But the Jews had seen the miracles and heard the words of this man, and doubts rightly lingered about who he was and of what he might be capable.

Join Dr. Boice as he walks us through the events of that time and the thoughts and motives of the characters in the unfolding drama that followed the crucifixion.

Dr. James Boice: Usually the Bible is not a funny book because the issues that it's dealing with are too serious. But it is an honest book, and from time to time, when it reports one of those naturally amusing situations that occur in human life, it does report it with an appropriate sense of humor.

I think there's an example of that in Matthew's account of an event that took place after the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ, just before his resurrection. The chief priests and the Pharisees, who were the leaders of the people in those days, had been stalking Jesus for months, and at last they had succeeded in attaining his death by crucifixion through the hands of Pilate, the Roman governor.

In any other circumstances or dealing with any other person, that would probably have been the end of the story. But these men were shrewd observers of things that had happened and that Jesus had said. And so they came to Pilate shortly after his death with a most unusual request.

They said, "We remember that while this man was still alive, he said, 'After three days I will rise again.' So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead, and this last deception will be worse than the first."

I don't know what thoughts went through Pilate's mind when he received that request, but I think he must have been amused. At any rate, he replied with what I am sure was a note of humor in his voice, "Take a guard, go make the tomb as secure as you know how." And we're told that as a result of that, they tried to make it secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting a guard.

I think as I have said that Pilate must have been jesting, as seems to have been his custom, and to have been doing it at least for one or two reasons. Either he was making fun of the chief priests and the Pharisees because of their folly. Imagine putting a guard on the tomb of a dead man! Or else he was mocking them because of their fears.

It was as if he was saying, writes Matthew Henry, "Do your worst, try your wit and strength to the utmost, but if he be of God, he will rise in spite of you and your guards." Well, when the priests and the Pharisees came to Pilate, they explained their unusual request by the anticipated possible action of the disciples.

They said, "Jesus, while he was living, said, 'I'll rise again on the third day.' Maybe the disciples will come and steal him away and pretend that he's risen." I wonder, however, when I think of that explanation, if that's really what they had in mind. For one thing, they didn't have much to fear from where the disciples were concerned. If there'd been any doubt of that, all doubts were certainly dispelled on the night of Christ's arrest.

Give me ten men who are stouthearted men! These stouthearted men scattered when Jesus was arrested. Most of them went back up over the hill toward Bethany where they'd be safe, away from Jerusalem. Only Peter and John actually made it into the city. We know what happened to Peter. Peter denied the Lord, was disgraced and dishonored in his own eyes and in the eyes of other people, and all but the Lord who knows our frame and remembers that we're dust. Peter went out and wept bitterly.

Besides, if the chief priests and the Pharisees had really feared Peter and John and the others, it would have been a simple matter to arrest them when they arrested Jesus. Or if they failed on that occasion, they could have rounded them up shortly afterwards. The fact that they didn't do this indicates that so far as they were concerned, they had nothing really to fear in this regard.

So why did they go to Pilate and ask that the tomb of Christ be made secure? I'm sure they wouldn't have said this, but I think that deep in their hearts, what they really feared was the resurrection. After all, they are the ones that had been watching Christ throughout the three years of his ministry.

They, perhaps better than anybody else, knew the things that he had done. They had seen the miracles: how he had given sight to the blind and healed the sick and given strength to the impotent and cleansed the lepers. And then worst of all, just shortly before his arrest and crucifixion, they had seen how he had raised Lazarus from the dead.

Oh, early in the ministry, they'd tried to discount the miracles. They said, "He's not doing miracles. Those are just stories that people are making up." But there were too many miracles and there were too many witnesses. And later on, they didn't even try to argue against the miracles. They acknowledged that he was doing miracles. They tried to explain what was happening in some other way.

They said, "Well, he's doing it by the power of the devil." But the miracles were there. They couldn't doubt the miracles. What if? It seemed far-fetched and they didn't want to believe it, but what if? What if Jesus really should, whether by the power of God or by the power of Satan, it didn't matter, what if Jesus should really rise from the dead?

So they went to Pilate and they said, "Let's make that tomb secure, because the last deception if it happens is going to be worse than the first." And Pilate said, "Go ahead, do it, make it as secure as you know how." And so they went and they posted their seal, the seal of the great Sanhedrin. Oh, who would dare to break the seal of the Sanhedrin, thus setting himself against the combined political and spiritual powers of the nation?

And they posted their guard, their officers actually, part of their temple guard, Jews, those who had been used in the arrest of Christ. They could be trusted! And so the tomb was sealed, the guards were posted, and the hours and days began to tick by. Friday and Friday night. Saturday and Saturday night.

And then suddenly, there was a violent earthquake. An angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothes were white as snow. And the guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. Make it as secure as you know how. Secure against God? Safe against the power of the resurrection?

It wasn't very long, a few years later, when there was a rabbi who arose to great prominence and influence in Jerusalem. His name was Saul of Tarsus. He'd studied under Gamaliel. He knew all the law of Israel. He was fanatical in his zeal to maintain the traditions of his fathers. And in the eyes of this man Saul, this new sect, this company of the followers of the Nazarene, they weren't even called Christians at that time, just "The Way", these people, these followers of this Jesus were threatening Judaism.

As Judaism was monotheistic, and these men and women from all walks of life were claiming that this Jesus of Nazareth, this alleged prophet that the Sanhedrin had rightly condemned and Rome had rightly executed, that this Jesus of Nazareth was God. Now that was blasphemy! Saul of Tarsus was determined to stamp the error out.

And so he went about it. He was doing everything he knew how. He was trying to do two things at once. He was trying to preserve Judaism, and at the same time he was trying to preserve himself. Sometime later when he described what had been said of him during this particular period in his life, he described God as having said to him, "Saul, Saul, you're having trouble kicking against the goads."

It was an image drawn from the life of the time, the way in which you would prod an animal to go in a certain direction, and an animal was resisting. He had been described as that. This indicates that in addition to this great struggle that he was waging on the outside against Christianity, there was an even greater struggle going on within his heart. And perhaps it was even because of the inward struggle that he had become so zealous outwardly in trying to persecute and eventually eliminate the Christians.

I don't know whether Paul at this stage in his life would have confessed this to himself either. But he was not an ignorant man. He was what we would call a lawyer, as well as being learned in all the traditions of Judaism. He knew how to think, he knew how to reason, he knew what evidence was. And Saul of Tarsus, somewhere back in his mind, must have been thinking, "What if? I hope it's not true. I don't believe it's true. I don't want it to be true. But what if? What if the Christians are right?"

What if Jesus is the Son of God? What if his death upon the cross really was God's own vicarious sacrifice for our sins through whom alone we're saved? What if Jesus is the Messiah? What if he really did rise from the dead? Better not to think like that, Saul. Better to bury those thoughts. Better to get active. That's right, get active! Go persecute the Christians. Do everything you can to stamp out the heresy.

And so he did. We're told about it in Acts. He went and got letters from the chief priests in Jerusalem to introduce him to the synagogues of Damascus because this pernicious sect was spreading there. And so he went out on the way to Damascus to see if he couldn't arrest the Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial.

You know the story. Saul was traveling along the road and was near Damascus on his journey when suddenly a light flashed from heaven and he fell to the ground. And he heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" And Saul of Tarsus, the fierce rabbi, answered, we can tell the way he answered that he was afraid of what was coming, he said, "Who are you, Lord?"

And Jesus answered, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and there you will be told what you should do." And Saul, who was now no longer master of his own life, obeyed Jesus, the resurrected one. And he got up from the ground, he discovered he was blind temporarily, he couldn't see. He went into Damascus and there he waited as he was told.

And God sent one of the disciples, a man named Ananias, to him to confirm him in the faith and to tell him what things Jesus, the Master, was calling him to do. And Jesus said, "This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel, and I will show him how much he must suffer for my sake." And Saul of Tarsus became Paul, the first great Christian missionary.

Go make it as secure as you know how. Make your religion as secure as you know how. Make your tradition as secure as you know how. Make your own life as secure as you know how. Wrath, persecutions, murders, feverish activity, yes, yes. And suddenly, the blinding light and the voice from heaven.

There's another character who got into this act. As a matter of fact, he was in the act all along. This character is Satan, who is the enemy of Christ, and there has been no enemy of Christianity so great as that of the great deceiver, Satan, the father of lies. We see him way back in Genesis at the beginning, where we find him in the garden tempting Adam and Eve.

We find him in Egypt stirring up the first antisemitism against the race through whom the Messiah promised by God is to come. We find him in every great persecution against the Jewish people. And finally in the days of our Lord, we find him exercising all his strength, all his cunning and wisdom against the Christ.

He was there at the birth, stirring up Herod the Great to murder the innocents of Bethlehem if perhaps by that means he might kill Jesus. We find him at the temptation: "If you're really the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. If you're really the Son of God, jump down from the temple because it says in the Old Testament he'll give his angels charge concerning thee and they'll lift thee up lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Look at all the kingdoms in the world and their glory. All these will I give you if you'll fall down and worship me."

Satan was there all through the events of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. And the time came when finally he stirred up the leaders and the people to demand Christ's crucifixion. Oh, what triumph Satan must have felt as Jesus was arrested and brought before Pilate! Oh, what glee must have filled his heart as he heard Pilate pronounce the sentence and saw Jesus led away to death on the cross!

What rapture must have been his as he heard the blow of the hammer as it struck the nails through the outstretched hands of Jesus, the Son of God! What rapture, what ecstasy must have filled his heart as Jesus finally shouted, "It is finished. My God, my God, into thy hands I commend my spirit," and then breathed his last and died.

Oh, Satan had won! Satan had eliminated Jesus. Satan had gotten rid of him who was called the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and he had made his own evil kingdom secure. And then the resurrection! And Satan's kingdom began to fall.

Satan didn't give up even then. Satan marshaled all of the powers of Judaism against the new sect. And when that didn't prove strong enough, he marshaled the power of Rome. He led Rome against the Christians in the greatest of the persecutions under Nero. Thousands were turned into torches to light the ways of Rome and others were driven to their death before wild animals in the arena.

In these days under Decius and Valerian, it became a crime to convert to Christianity, and those who already were Christians had their property confiscated. In the year 303 AD, Diocletian began the fiercest and the longest of the persecutions. In those days, false documents were circulated, and the old ancient cults of Rome were revived and Christians were mercilessly hounded and the mobs were raised against them. Under Julian the Apostate, the same thing happened a generation or so later.

Hated, persecuted, banished, murdered: these were the responses of the Prince of Darkness against the way of him who was the light of life. Go make your kingdom as secure as you know how. Then the resurrection and the power of Jesus Christ through the triumph of his followers began to preach this gospel of the crucified but resurrected Lord throughout the world.

And so I ask the question last of all of you. Here were the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were trying to defend their ecclesiastical establishment. They tried to make it as safe as they knew how. Here was Saul of Tarsus. He was trying to defend his tradition and even his own life. He was trying to make those as safe as he knew how. Here is Satan, the Prince of Darkness, trying to defend his kingdom. He's trying to make that as safe as he knows how.

And I ask you, are you trying to make your life safe against Jesus, the one who millions profess to be the resurrected Lord? Trying to defend your time against his encroachments? Are you trying to defend your conception of yourself against his judgment upon who you are and what he would have you be? Are you trying to defend your good works against his holiness, your way of life against his salvation, your desire to rule yourself against his authority to rule?

If that's what you're trying to do, let me make a few suggestions. I suggest that one way you can try to make yourself secure against Jesus is by activity. That's it, fill your life up! Somebody asks you to go to a Bible study in the evenings sometime during the week? Well, that would be a good night in which to take a course. Everybody offers courses! Take a course in art, or public speaking, or aerobics, anything you can think of. Thousands of them are offered today.

Perhaps Sunday morning, there's some Christian that wants you to go to church with them. Well, that's a good time to play golf or racquetball or some such thing. Fill your hours. Don't go to church. And above all, fill your evenings. Watch television, read a book, get out one of those bestselling, high-rated, everyone talks about novels or nonfiction work. Above all, don't read the Bible, because the Bible is that through which Jesus customarily lays his claims upon human souls.

I'd add pleasures, the pursuit of pleasures. Activity is fine, yes, but pleasures, especially if they're sinful pleasures, because Christ is the holy one and sin if anything will keep you from Christ. Fill your life with sin. You'll find that it'll possess your mind and soul and body. And not only won't you have time for Jesus, you won't want him, because his way is a different way entirely. Yes, that's it, fill your mind and heart and soul with the sinful pleasures of the world.

Maybe you could indulge in religion. Now not the real thing, not real godliness, above all not the content of Christianity, because the content of Christianity has to do with Jesus. He's what Christianity is all about. Not that, rather fill your life with the ceremonial aspects of Christianity. Indulge in that where you don't have to use your mind. Enjoy the aesthetics of the faith, but not the Christ in whom all true beauty is to be found. That's it, become religious, because religion is a great defense against God.

I'm afraid it won't work. You can set up your guards, you can attach your seals, you can erect your barricades, but Jesus of Nazareth, the resurrected one, has broken seals before. Jesus has scattered guards. Jesus has leveled barricades. Jesus is the King of kings. What are you going to do when Jesus reveals himself in the blinding light to you and you hear the word: Saul, John, Mary, Albert, Rose, whatever your name may be, "Why are you persecuting me?"

Tell you what I would do. I'd lay down my seals. I'd put aside my guards. I'd abandon my sin. And I would fall down before him as Thomas did and confess in Thomas's words, "My Lord and my God."

Mark Daniels: You're listening to the Bible Study Hour featuring the teaching of Dr. James Boice. While most people would say that religion is a good thing, God doesn't view religion as the world does. In the book of Amos, he says that he detests religion. So what is the difference between religion and true faith? Find out in our free CD offer entitled "How God Views Religion". It's also by Dr. Boice. This free CD offer is our way of saying thanks for listening.

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I'm Mark Daniels. Thanks for joining me today. The soldiers assigned to guard the tomb of Jesus knocked on the door of the chief priests. They had failed in their duty to keep the tomb sealed and the body inside, and now they expected their just rewards. The response they received, however, left them in utter astonishment. Could it indeed be true? Join Dr. James Boice next time as he details the Jewish leaders' surprising response to the guards' failure to carry out their mission. That's next time on the Bible Study Hour, preparing you to think and act biblically.