Easter Wednesday – April 7th, 2021
Living in denial–is as old as they come…and telling ourselves untruths is commonplace.
People frequently say things like:
“I’ve smoked thirty to sixty cigarettes a day since I was a kid. Cigarettes won’t kill me.”
“What’s a couple extra pounds – during a pandemic, everyone has gained some weight.”
“Never mind the speed limit. I am a safe driver and in complete control at all speeds…
I don’t need to wear a mask or socially distance or wash my hands…its all a hoax, anyways. People aren’t really dying from this stuff.
Oh, the messages we tell ourselves…
The tomb was being guarded by the GOVERNOR’S SOLDIERS. They were STUNNED by an unexpected earthquake. And then again, by an angelic MESSENGER.
They shook VISIBLY with fear, and then COLLAPSED to the ground. You would have, too!
The MESSENGER (later) spoke to women at the tomb, and told them Jesus had RISEN from the dead, and SENT THEM off to tell his disciples.
And then, Matthew continues the story OF THE GUARDS, who had been at the tomb.
The STORY is ludicrous on several levels and that of course, is Matthew’s point of view…it is the reason he mentions it in HIS ACCOUNT…
In Christian Theology there is something known as “Apologetics.” It comes from the Greek word “apologia” and it is “a speech of defense.” They are to be “reasoned arguments” defending religious doctrine.
“The Stolen Body Hypothesis” was alive and well in the time of the early church.
What motive would THE DISCIPLES have had to “steal” the body of Jesus? Grave robbing was a SERIOUS CRIME and would result in an immediate death sentence.
If the guards were ASLEEP, are we really to believe that a group of men, WITHOUT MAKING SO MUCH AS A SOUND, could have rolled away a MASSIVE stone in front of the tomb and LIFTED OUT the lifeless body of Jesus UNDETECTED?
If the guards were ASLEEP, how could they have known WHO had stolen the body?
If the guards WERE ASLEEP why did they not suffer THE USUAL PENALTY for failure to protect the body entrusted to them, the penalty being immediately death?
If A guard DID IDENTIFY the disciples stealing the body, why did that guard not ALERT THE OTHERS and stop the theft?
If the authorities had ANY EVIDENCE AT ALL that the disciples had stolen the body, then surely they would have had them ARRESTED IMMEDIATELY and put them on TRIAL…and then, they would have tried to retrieve the body, AS PROOF.
Within weeks of the RESURRECTION the apostles were being PERSECUTED and put on trial for “preaching that Jesus was ALIVE.”
Why WOULD the disciples accept death if they knew all along that Jesus was NOT raised and in fact, THEY had STOLEN the body?
Matthew wants us to know that the disciples HAD NOT TAKEN the body.
The guards HAD NOT been asleep at their post.
INSTEAD, the stone had been rolled away and Jesus had EMERGED from the tomb ALIVE and TRIUMPHANT over death.
The chief priests tried to COVER UP what happened with “a convenient story” that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body.
First century intrigue, First century conspiracy theories, secret plots and schemes, devised, concocted, conceived and put out there…AS IF, they were true.
The chief priests and the Jerusalem elite despised Jesus. They saw him as a rabble rouser, a disturber of the peace, a radical who could upset THEIR social order.
FOR THEM Jesus was no more than a country boy come to the big city of Jerusalem with GRANDIOSE IDEAS and an ability to get some kind of a following.
They had NO REASON to think he was special. He would not be someone who would RISE FROM THE DEAD!
But their MAIN ISSUE was far more basic: how could anyone rise from the dead? People of ancient times were NOT stupid. Whether someone died of a FEVER or an INJURY or DEATH on a cross, they WERE dead. And then they were BURIED. Dead people DID NOT come back to life. When someone was dead, they STAYED dead.
So the high priests, scribes, and pharisees, GREASED some palms, paid out a little HUSH money, continued in their bribery, corruption and GRAFT and called it a day.
The soldiers were ALIVE and WELL and NOT CHARGED– that’s all they cared about.
But the story lived on/lives on…the disciples did it.
“They” stole the body.
And Matthew, wanted us to know HOW the STORY came about…
WHERE IT CAME FROM…WHAT were its origins…
As one of the 12, he wanted the world to know, they were not “body-snatchers,” Jesus ROSE from the DEAD…and HE (personally) SAW HIM in Galilee.
Amen.