Jesus' body placed in a guarded tomb
Matthew 27:57-66 (New Living Translation)
57As evening approached, Joseph, a rich
man from Arimathea who had become a follower of Jesus, 58went to Pilate and
asked for Jesus’ body. And Pilate issued an order to release it to him. 59Joseph took the
body and wrapped it in a long sheet of clean linen cloth. 60He placed it in his
own new tomb, which had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a great
stone across the entrance and left. 61Both Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary were sitting across from the tomb and watching.
62The next day, on the Sabbath, the
leading priests and Pharisees went to see Pilate. 63They told him,
“Sir, we remember what that deceiver once said while he was still alive: ‘After
three days I will rise from the dead.’ 64So we request that you seal the tomb
until the third day. This will prevent his disciples from coming and stealing
his body and then telling everyone he was raised from the dead! If that
happens, we’ll be worse off than we were at first.”
65Pilate replied, “Take guards and
secure it the best you can.” 66So they sealed the tomb and posted
guards to protect it.
The religious leaders took Jesus' resurrection claims more seriously than the disciples did. The pharisees were so afraid of Jesus' predictions about his resurrection that they made sure the tomb was thoroughly sealed and guarded. Because the tomb was hewn out of rock in the side of a hill, there is only one entrance. The tomb was sealed by stringing a cord over the stone that was rolled across the entrance and sealing it at each end with clay. But the religious leaders took extra precaution, asking that guards be placed on the tomb's entrance. They took every precaution to see that His body would remain inside the tomb. If you had been one of the disciples, what would you have been thinking? How would you have felt knowing that Jesus' body was in a sealed and guarded tomb? How would you have explained Jesus' words about rising again?
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