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THE GUARDING OF THE SEPULCHRE
THE enmity of the human heart against God will never cease to operate, till the heart itself be changed by divine grace. One would have hoped that, when so many wonders had been wrought during the crucifixion of Christ, when the whole multitude that were spectators of it smote their breasts with grief, when the Centurion and others of the heathen soldiers were constrained to attest his innocence, and to proclaim him to be the Son of God, and, lastly, when they had seen some of their own body, even members of the supreme council, paying the most marked respect to his dead body, and committing it to the tomb with funeral honours; one would have hoped, I say, that the malice of the chief priests and Pharisees would have somewhat abated. But they were still restless: not content with having put him to death, and thereby destroyed, as they imagined, all his influence in the world, they pretended to fear that his Disciples would come and take him from the tomb, and spread abroad a report that he had risen from the dead. They certainly had no reasonable ground for such a fear: for, to what purpose could it be for the Disciples to carry on such a delusion, when they could not gain any thing by it but misery in this world, and destruction in the world to come? But the chief priests wanted to pluck up by the very roots this dangerous heresy, as they esteemed it; and to prove to all that Jesus was an impostor. For this purpose they determined to secure the tomb, till the time of his predicted resurrection should be passed; and accordingly made their application to Pilate, for such assistance as they judged necessary.
Let us consider,
I. The precautions they used to secure the tomb—
[They remembered that Jesus had repeatedly foretold his resurrection on the third day: and they well knew, that, if the report of such an event should be circulated and credited, it would confirm his influence to such a degree that they should never be able to subvert it. They conceived that they had been guilty of a great error in suffering Jesus to live so long: and, if now they should leave it in the power of his Disciples to practise a deceit by stealing away the body, and affirming that he was risen, their “last error would be worse than the first.” They therefore, notwithstanding it was the Sabbath, went in a body to Pilate, to request that measures might instantly be taken to defeat any such plot: Yes, though they had often been filled with indignation against Jesus for performing acts of mercy on the Sabbath, they themselves felt no hesitation in violating the sanctity of it, in order to accomplish their malignant purposes.
In their address to Pilate, they designate our adorable Lord as a “deceiver,” whose imposture they are determined to detect. They branded him with this ignominious name, well knowing the influence which such appellations have in influencing the decisions of timid or ungodly men.
Pilate acceded to their request, and gave orders that a guard of soldiers from the castle of Antonia should be at their disposal. These therefore they placed around the sepulchre: and, lest any collusion should exist between them also and the Disciples, they put a seal upon the stone that closed the sepulcher; and thus secured themselves equally against fraud and violence: the Disciples could not overcome an armed guard; nor could the guard connive at their taking away the body without being immediately discovered.]
Let us next consider,
II. The advantage derived from thence to the cause of Christ—
[Not all the Disciples together could have devised a plan that should render such benefit to their own cause as this did. It is true, that Christ’s frequent appearances after his resurrection might remove all doubt from the minds of the Disciples; but still, if no precautions had been used to secure the tomb, there would ever remain some plausibility in the assertion, that the Disciples had stolen away the body, and that some other man had personated him in his various appearances, and thereby deceived the multitude. But behold, the enemies of Christ themselves destroy all foundation for such a conceit: and the very means they used to subvert the religion of Christ, have established it on a basis that can never be shaken. By the placing of a guard, the Roman soldiers themselves became witnesses of his resurrection; they immediately declared the event to the chief priests and Pharisees, who gave them large sums of money to conceal the matter [Note: Mat_28:11-15.]; and thus the priests themselves, even the whole Sanhedrim, became witnesses of the same. They were forced to invent some story to justify their continued rejection of Christ; but the idea of the whole guard (it is thought of sixty soldiers) being asleep at once, when the penalty of death was annexed to that offence, and the Disciples being able to remove the large stone from the door of the sepulchre, and to take away the body without so much as waking one of the soldiers, is too ridiculous to obtain the smallest degree of credit. That this should be done, too, and no one of the soldiers be called to an account for it, when their neglect had, on this supposition, defeated the most ardent wishes of the Jewish rulers, is inconceivable, especially when we know what was the state of the rulers’ minds at that time.
Now we can easily conceive what would have been the effect, if Jesus had not risen, and the Jewish rulers had been able, at the expiration of the third day, to bring forth the body, and to shew it to the people: they would thus have proved indisputably that Jesus was an impostor, and would have destroyed in a moment all the influence of his name. But their defeat has established the truth of our religion beyond a possibility of contradiction: Yes, we desire no better evidences of its truth, than those which the Roman soldiers and the Jewish Sanhedrim have this unwittingly afforded us: so that we may well say, “Their last error was worse than the first:” for, if their forbearance gave Jesus an opportunity of propagating his religion, this device of theirs proved to demonstration the fact on which his religion rests; and has thereby precluded all excuse for their obstinate unbelief.]
We would now suggest,
III. Some general deductions from the subject—
Truly this is a triumphant subject to the Christian: for though we cannot but mourn at the idea that our blessed Lord should be treated with such indignities, we are constrained to triumph, when we see how all the efforts of his enemies were overruled for the manifestation of his glory. But there are two thoughts in particular which we would suggest as arising from this transaction:
1. How vain are the counsels of ungodly men!
[Doubtless the chief priests and Pharisees exulted in the hope that they had now attained complete success: but their devices were turned to their own confusion. It was thus throughout the whole history of our blessed Lord, and espepecially in the diversified events of his last hours: his enemies plotted together, and executed all their malignant purposes against him: but behold, in all that they did, they unwittingly “fulfilled the Scriptures [Note: Act_13:27.]” so that not one word of all the prophecies was left unaccomplished. In one sense they were Satan’s agents; for it was “he who put it into their hearts” to reject and crucify their Messiah: but in another sense, they were instruments in the hands of God, to execute the things which “his hand and his counsel had determined before to be done [Note: Act_4:25-28.].” Thus also it has been with all who have conspired against the Lord in every age: he has invariably “disappointed the devices of the crafty,” and “taken the wise in their own craftiness [Note: Job_5:12-13.].” Two objects his enemies always have in view; the one is, to injure his people, and the other is, to defeat his cause: but they are made, against their will, to advance the interests of both. In the history of Job we are informed, how Satan exerted himself in every possible way to ruin that holy man: but, after all his efforts, he only rendered Job the more exalted monument of grace, and augmented the happiness which he laboured to destroy [Note: Job_42:9-10. with Jam_5:11.]. In like manner, the enemies of the Church have been uniformly baffled in all their attempts against it. They put to death that eminent disciple, Stephen; and raised a persecution against the whole Church, so that none, except the Apostles, dared any longer to continue at Jerusalem: but the effect of their persecution was, to destroy one preacher, and to raise up a thousand in his stead [Note: Act_8:1; Act_8:4.]. At another time, having directed their hostility against the Apostle Paul, they prevailed so far as to get him confined in prison for two whole years. What a deadly blow must this, as we should think, have given to the Church! yet St. Paul himself tells us, that it “turned out rather to the furtherance of the Gospel;” since many in C æ sar’s palace, who would otherwise have never heard the word, were brought to the knowledge of it; and multitudes, when they saw his faith and patience, were stirred up to tread in his steps, and “to preach the word without fear [Note: Php_1:12-14.].” Thus it ever has been; and thus it ever shall be: for Solomon tells us, “There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord [Note: Pro_21:30.];” on the contrary, how “many soever devices there may be in the hearts of men, the counsel of the Lord, and that only, shall stand [Note: Pro_19:21.].” “The wrath of man shall praise him, and the remainder,” which would not subserve his purposes, “shall he restrain [Note: Psa_76:10.].”]
2. How happy are they who have God on their side!
[Whilst the Jewish rulers were plotting together for the utter subversion of Christianity, the Disciples were unconscious of their machinations, or overwhelmed with despair. But God is the friend of all his people, “an ever-present help in the time of trouble.” He is pleased to characterize himself by this very name, “The Saviour of them that trust in him [Note: Psa_17:7. Jer_14:8.].” He permits indeed his enemies to triumph for a season; but he warns them of the fearful issue of their conspiracies against him [Note: Isa_8:7-10.]. As far as they prevail, they ascribe all their success to their own wisdom and power: but he reproves their folly, and visits upon them those very iniquities, which he has rendered subservient to the accomplishment of his own eternal counsels [Note: Isa_10:5-7; Isa_10:12; Isa_10:17.]. As for his own people, he encourages them to put their trust in him, without suffering themselves to be alarmed at the menaces of their enemies, or harbouring any fears about their ultimate success [Note: Isa_8:12-14.]. What their happy state should be, we see in the actual experience of David. He contemplates God in the character of an Almighty Protector [Note: Psa_18:2.]; and, when urged by an alarmist to indulge desponding fears, he nobly replies, “The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven [Note: Psa_11:1-4. N. B. To the end of the third verse is the speech of the Alarmist.].” He even appeals to the whole world, what cause he can have for fear, whilst he has such an Almighty Friend for his support [Note: Psa_27:1.]. Such is the privilege of all his people: if “they believe in him, they shall not make haste through unbelieving fears [Note: Isa_28:16.]: on the contrary, “their very thoughts shall be established [Note: Pro_16:3.].” In a word, they shall, though beset with enemies on every side, be preserved as in a royal pavilion, and have such an inward sense of the Divine presence as shall comfort them under every trouble, or rather screen them from trouble, and fill them with joy unspeakable and glorified [Note: Psa_31:20.].]