Unlikely Witnesses
Notes
Transcript
1. The Jewish religious leaders, 27:62-66.
1. The Jewish religious leaders, 27:62-66.
27:62. This was the sabbath. The chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. They could do this as long as they did not travel more than a sabbath’s day journey (about 3,000 feet, as defined in the time of the NT) and did not enter Pilate’s house. But observe all their other activities in this day, which would have violated the Sabbath, something that they had hypocritically charged Jesus with doing.
27:63. They speak respectfully to a Gentile ruler but disparagingly of Jesus as “that deceiver.”
Jesus was in the tomb only about 36 hours, but because these hours included parts of three days the Jews viewed the period as three days long. The fact that these leaders had heard that Jesus predicted His resurrection reflects badly on the disciples’ lack of faith. They should have understood and believed that Jesus would arise since the knowledge of His prediction of this event was so widespread.
These specific leaders did not believe that Jesus would rise. What, in their mind, made Jesus a deceiver? From their viewpoint, Jesus’ first deception would be His messiahship, and His second deception would be His claim that He would rise from the dead. They would claim that they wanted to protect the people from deception; Matthew viewed their actions in the verses that follow as self-deception designed to deceive others.
27:64. Their request was made to Pilate because they needed his approval for any military action. They wanted to guard against any plot that His disciples might come up with to allege that Jesus arose. These disciples who scattered when Jesus was arrested are now thought to be brazen enough to rob the tomb of a body to carry on a worse deception?
27:65. Pilate refuses to assign Roman guards to guard the tomb, but he permits the Jewish leaders to use their own temple guards for this purpose. The response of Pilate was likely cynical. He is speaking to men who feared Jesus when alive, and now fear His disciples after His death. Pilate does not think the chance that Jesus’ disciples would steal His body are very great.
27:66. The chief priests and Pharisees left Pilate, went to the grave site and made sure it was secure. So, they knew where Jesus was buried. They secured it with their own guards posted at the site. putting an official wax seal on the stone door, where it would be evident if anyone tampered with the tomb. Because they were given permission by Pilate, it is likely that the tampering of this stone over the tomb would bring dire consequences to the one who did so.
In these verses (vs. 62-66) we see the corruptness of Israel’s rulers and their willful rejection of Jesus. Jesus was definitely dead, so isn’t it ironic that Jesus’ opponents took Jesus’ words about rising from the dead more seriously than His own disciples?
2. The women who followed Jesus, 28:1-10.
2. The women who followed Jesus, 28:1-10.
28:1. The next day ‘s dawning (our Sunday) after the Sabbath. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph came to look at the grave. They would not have known that there was a guard posted there, nor that the tomb’s rolling stone had been sealed either. Mark 16:1 indicates that they went there to remember Jesus and anoint His corpse.
28:2-4. A second earthquake had occurred, the first at Jesus’ death (Matthew 27:51). The earthquake, the descent of the angel, and the rolling away of the stone have supernatural connotations. Just as an angel announced the Incarnation, so here an angel announces the Resurrection.
Why was the stone rolled away? Not to let Jesus escape, but to allow witnesses to see that He was indeed risen.
Note that the angel did not leave until He testified of Jesus’ resurrection.
The earthquake, experienced by the guards and now the appearance and description of the angel terrified the guards so greatly that Matthew describes them as like dead men, possibly fainting dead away.
28:5. The first words of the angel to the women who came and discovered this sight was, “Do not be afraid,” or “Stop being afraid.” He knows why they are here, and this angel is about to give them wonderful news.
28:6-7. “He (Jesus) is not here.” The reason why the tomb is open and why they will be invited to see for themselves.
“He has risen just as He said.” Jesus fulfilled His word concerning Himself.
“Come see the place where He was lying.” An invitation to see for themselves the truthfulness of the angel’s testimony.
Instructions: Go quickly and tell the other disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead. They should go quickly because this was the greatest news. Later Jesus would confirm His resurrection with a personal appearance in Galilee shortly. Jesus would arrive in Galilee first and meet them there when they arrived.
28:8-10. The women went immediately to do what the angel said with fear and great rejoicing. And it got even better! Jesus Himself met them, greeting them. They responded in worship, which He did not reject. He then spoke to their need: to stop being afraid, to tell the brethren to leave for Galilee, and they would see Him there.
These women not only saw the empty tomb, but they were also witnesses to the resurrected Jesus as well.
Some skeptics laugh at this whole account yet this aspect of it speaks to the truthfulness of Jesus’ resurrection. In the 1st century, the testimony of a women among Jews in a court matter was considered worthless. You needed a man to make a story stick; therefore, Matthew should have made the witnesses men rather than women. Matthew allowed the true facts to speak for themselves. The fact that the gospel witnesses are women first instead men points to the truthfulness of the testimony.
3. The guards watching the tomb, 28:11-15.
3. The guards watching the tomb, 28:11-15.
28:11. While this group of witnesses went to carry on the tasks given to them by Jesus, another group of witnesses came to report all that had happened… to the chief priests! They spoke about the earthquake (which probably was felt in the vicinity, not just at the tomb; after all it was called a severe earthquake!), the angel, and the empty tomb.
28:12-14. The chief priests and the elders consulted together, then chose to reject the testimony of the events as described by these soldiers. They demonstrated that their promise to believe in Jesus if He would come down from the cross was just a sham. They continued to show more concern for their own reputations and what was expedient rather than for the truth.
The story they devised was a weak one if you consider the facts. Think about it: if the guards had fallen asleep, how would they know of the theft or who had done it? If one of the guards was awake, why didn’t he sound an alarm? Is it feasible that disciples who scattered, leaving Jesus out of fear for their own lives would have summoned enough courage to risk opening a guarded tomb, whose guard was placed by the chief priests and Pharisees and sanctioned by the Roman procurator? Then one more thing--if the Sanhedrin had any evidence against the disciples, they would have prosecuted them--but they did not!
In the ancient Near East, molesting graves was sometimes punishable with death. The large sum of money gathered and then given to the soldiers was a bribe to shut their mouths regarding the actual events of this morning. They even intimated that they would win the governor over to keep them out of trouble. Even though the guards were placed by the Jewish leaders, sanctioning the action made it a Roman interest.
28:15. The fact that this story was still going around at the time Matthew wrote his gospel shows that these events of this day were being heard about all over, not just in Jerusalem. To counter the claims of the followers of Jesus, the Jewish religious leaders lied, continuing to reject Jesus as the Christ who was promised, and compounding their own guilt.
The Jewish leaders just wanted the events surrounding Jesus to go away … but history proves that the resurrection would never go away!
The resurrection of Jesus as Messiah was the culmination of Matthew’s gospel as over and over again, he pointed to the OT scriptures as those which spoke of the coming Messiah, words that were fulfilled in Jesus in His birth, life, death, and resurrection.
What does the resurrection do?
First, the resurrection of Jesus authenticated His person. To the nation of Israel, His resurrection was the sign of the prophet Jonah (Matthew 12:38-39) attesting the fact that Jesus was the Messiah. The ascension account is not mentioned by Matthew because it is both unnecessary and self-evident to the Israelite if Jesus is Messiah. He would yet come in clouds of glory. What Matthew emphasized was Jesus is the promised Messiah of Israel and the resurrection proves this fact.
Second, the resurrection of Jesus validated His Own prophecies concerning His rising from the dead (Matthew 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:17-19).
Finally, the resurrection of Jesus verifies the truthfulness of all that Jesus Christ ever spoke, which includes the offer of salvation to any who would place their trust in Him alone for salvation.
Even after Paul laid out the basics of the gospel message, along with a list of those who had seen the risen Lord Jesus, he had to address some of the believers in Corinth who were saying that there is no resurrection. Paul responded:
Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised;
and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.
Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.
For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised;
and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.
Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
Christ is risen!